New Delhi, July 18, 2020: A committee deputed by the Delhi Minority Commission to probe the recent Delhi riots has blamed the “divisive and communal speeches” of certain leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party for the violence that killed at least 53 people.
The nine-member committee headed by M R Shamshad, a Supreme Court lawyer, released its report on July 16, revealing the origin, spread and aftermath of the Delhi riots.
In its foreword, Shamshad states that the violence began on February 23 and “continued unabated for the next few days,” as an aftereffect “directed to teach a lesson to a certain community which dared to protest against a discriminatory law.”
The report says although the violence reportedly killed 53 people there has been “continuing bias against Muslims in the registration of FIRs and investigation of cases,” with “attempts made ever since to shield the planners, instigators, leaders and perpetrators of that violence and turn the victims into culprits.”
The report says several hundreds were hospitalized and an unknown number has been missing since the violence.
The riots were “targeted and systematic” against Muslims in localities of Shiv Vihar, Khajuri Khas, Chand Bagh, Gokulpuri, Maujpur, Karawal Nagar, Jafrabad, Mustafabad, Ashok Nagar, Bhagirah Vihar, Bhajanpura, and Kardam Puri.
These incidents included an “organized” and “planned looting and arson of Muslim residences, shops, businesses, vehicles and other properties.” Significantly, the report notes that rioting occurred in places with “the highest concentration of Purvanchalis, Muslims, and migrants from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar” living in “unorganized colonies,” and “often without basic civic amenities.”
Other committee members were Haseena Hashia, Tehmina Arora, Gurminder Singh Matharu, Saleem Baig, Aditi Dutta, Tanvir Kazi, Abu Bakr Sabbaq and Devika Prasad.
The reports notes that the buildup for violence had begun from anti-CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act) protests in January that gathered momentum during campaigning by political parties in the run-up to the elections to the Delhi Legislative Assembly on February 8.
It says the instigation of violence against Muslims came in the form of “openly communal statements” by the BJP politicians with reference anti-CAA protesters. The BJP leaders encouraged “pro-CAA” rallies to counter the anti-CAA protests.
Somasekhara Reddy, a BJP member in the Legislative Assembly of Karnataka, was the first to “caution Muslims against participating in anti-CAA protests” as early as in January when the anti-CAA protests had received a nationwide uproar starting from Shaheen Bagh women protest site.
Reddy had warned Muslims of “serious repercussions” if they didn’t stop protesting against CAA. Others BJP leaders Anurag Thakur, Parvesh Verma, Tejasvi Surya, Ajay Bisht and Kapil Mishra also made “blatantly divisive and dangerous” speeches, the minority commission reports.
The report mentions that the Election Commission initiated some steps to acknowledge and penalize the “harmful content of the speeches,” However, the initial decisive actions of the “Delhi High Court did not materialize into the initiation of prosecution against the BJP leaders for inciting violence through their speeches.”
Concerning media coverage and legal action, the report notes that “due to the non-cooperation of Delhi Police, the fact-finding committee could not present a more comprehensive and incisive report,” even though the incidents, reports and testimonies have been detailed in a “fairly comprehensive and even-handed” manner. Where media should represent facts, “a web of deceit is being woven by certain quarters in a section of media,” instead of encouraging victims to come forward and seek justice, describes the DMC report.
The report then provides a detailed account of the circumstances before and during the rioting through a large number of testimonies, and those received through primary and secondary sources by the fact-finding committee.
The report states the pattern of violence was “gender-based” and “religious identity based” where women victims have recounted how the mob used “vulgar language” and threatened them saying that if they wanted “Azadi” (freedom) then they were ready to give them Azadi, using the word as a metaphor for sexual assault.
The rioters also damaged mosques, graveyard), dargahs and madrassas and attached Muslim clerics. A total of 17 such places have been torched through petrol bombs, vandalized and looted by people with the faces covered, eye witnesses told the committee. The rioters were armed with metal rods, petrol bombs, knives, swords, hammers and cylinders.
The fact finding committee has also accused Delhi Police of “not registering many complaints of Muslim victims,” mentioning the most shocking example of the Mohan Nursing Home shooting. Such complicity on the side of the police, the report says, has led to “no investigation on several such grave issues and incidents.”
The report also outlines that while Hindu neighbors of Muslims “remained untouched,” Muslim tenant shops owned by Muslims were looted and burnt down. Where they were shops owned by non-Muslims but rented to Muslims, the mob took out all the articles from the shops, looted stuff and burnt the remaining.
“In response to the targeted attacks,” some Muslim youth threw stones at the mobs in some areas as an act of defense,” the committee notes.
The committee says it had written to the Delhi Police thrice but received no response or support into the investigation. The first time, it had requested for a list of detainees since February 23, a police station-wise copies of FIRs and complaints that were not converted into FIRs. The second letter raised concerns over the arbitrary arrests by Delhi Police.
The report discloses that until the final day of submission of the report there was no response from the Delhi Police regarding the queries.
The report says in June, the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) released a statement by United Nations experts on human rights calling on India to immediately release human rights defenders. The official statement demands that students arrested for protesting against changes to the nation’s citizenship laws must be immediately released.
Source: twocircles.net