Damage assessment officials sift through wreckage, ashes

NEW DELHI: Mohammad Zakir sprinted from one lane to another, occasionally jumping over debris, to reach his house in a narrow lane in Shiv Vihar after he heard that government officials had arrived for a “damage assessment” survey.

Zakir lost a 25 square yard house he shared with his wife Imrana and four children aged between three and 12 years, and pretty much everything in it. The house was gutted when a mob set it on fire on Tuesday, when several districts in northeast Delhi witnessed communal violence that claimed at least 42 lives and injured over 350.

As many as 18 SDMS and their teams surveyed the riot-hit localities in north-east Delhi on Sunday. Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday said the assessment was aimed at bringing out a better picture of the scale of damage to property – both private and public.

The assessment was a challenge, as there were pockets where most residents had left their homes during the attacks.

Other than taking stock of the damage, the officers are also entrusted with informing riot victims about the government having set up temporary shelters for them.

“We have adequate strength to ensure that the exercise is finished at the earliest,” said Pradeep Tayal, SDM Civil Lines, who is currently in charge of the damage assessment exercise, rehabilitation relief exercise in Shiv Vihar — a locality that is believed to have suffered the most damage in terms of property during the riots.

Zakir, who is a scrap dealer, was in close proximity to his charred house when the SDM and his team arrived.

As he went inside with the team, a group of social workers and journalists followed. He pointed towards his gutted bicycle and clothes of his daughter and the youngest son.

“I had sent my wife and children to my in-laws’ residence in Mustafabad – located in a relatively safe pocket in the riot-hit assembly constituency. But I stayed back at a friend’s residence a few lanes away,” he said.

On Sunday, he carried a few documents – just in case the SDM asked for it. As the word spread about the SDM’S visit, more people hurried back to what remained of their homes. The violence in north-east Delhi began from a stretch connecting Jafrabad and Maujpur localities last Sunday and later spread to adjoining areas.

NEW DELHI: “Every time an incident like this takes place, I am immediately reminded of 1984,” said 50-year-old Charanjeet Singh, speaking of the communal riots in north-east Delhi last week. Stooped over his accounts register at a small tailoring shop in Trilokpuri, Singh at the same time recounted memories of mobs targeting Sikhs during the 1984 violence.

Back then, he and his mother hid at a neighbour’s home, while his father chopped his hair and took refuge inside a trunk for many days.

“We were scared something similar might happen [in Trilokpuri] again. But thankfully, things remained peaceful here,” he said.

Trilokpuri in east Delhi, where Singh lives, was one of the worst-hit neighbourhoods during the anti-sikh riots of 1984. Of the over 2,700 Sikh victims, around 350 were from there.

Since then, small squabbles in Trilokpuri have frequently turned violent and communal.

Days after Delhi witnessed its most violent instance of communal riots since 1984, Trilokpuri maintained a calm façade. Scenes of residents going about their daily life included people gathered at tea shops, working at their stores and locals prepping for a wedding. But there were discussions about the north-east Delhi riots, affected areas and relatives and friends who were stuck there. Residents, however, were emphatic in noting that peace has prevailed in Trilokpuri, and will continue to.

“People here have learnt their lessons from previous instances of riots,” said Harvinder Singh, 47, who has been a resident of the neighbourhood since 1976, when it was set up by the Congress government to resettle those who had been evicted from their homes during the slum demolition drive carried out during the Emergency.

The neighbourhood consists of about 2,000 houses scattered around 40 blocks and has mixed demography of Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs.

“Trilokpuri was established during the Emergency when a diverse set of people were forcibly relocated and given a tract of land without adequate facilities. In such poor areas with no long history, local political figures have a tendency to use their power in times that are communally surcharged,” said historian Mukul Kesavan.

In October 2014, a small fight near a makeshift temple had flared up into a communal riot, leaving over 50 people injured, after which a curfew had been imposed for more than a week. Incidents of communally charged violence had also taken place in 2016 and 2018.

“In the 2014 riots, people from both sides were affected. People could not celebrate their festival. Property and business were affected. Nobody wants it to be repeated,” said Harvinder

Singh.

Residents of the area are aware of the sensitive fabric of Trilokpuri and said they are now extremely cautious. “Even last Tuesday, when the police asked people to shut their shops as a precaution, people began panicking. Some rumours were floating around as well. But nothing happened,” said Farzan Ali, 48.

Emphasising the character of communal harmony that has been maintained in the area during the recent riots, Nawshan Bano, 60, said that “ever since news of the riots in Delhi reached my relatives in our native village, they have been asking me to go over and stay at their place. But I have no fear and will not budge.”

Manu Agarwal, 28, on the other hand, agreed that the neighbourhood has a history of small fights flaring up. “But nothing happened here this time because the police were more alert and took precautionary measures,” he added.

There are others though who also believe that the area has got an unnecessarily bad reputation since 1984, even when people want to live in peace. “Every small fight here is shown as a communal riot. That is not true. We are poor, hardworking people who will not gain anything from a fight,” said Syed Naeem, 36.

“Even those people did not want to fight. They were just protesting against an unfair law,” he added about the northeast Delhi violence.