5 dead in street battle at protest site in Delhi
Former top cops said they were disappointed at the response of the Delhi Police; among the dead — four civilians, a head constable; heavy force deployed on the ground
NEW DELHI: : For several hours on Monday, the Delhi Police did little to prevent the violence in northeast Delhi’s Jafrabad and Maujpur, where groups of people for and against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) clashed and pelted stones, according to eye witnesses on the road connecting the two Metro stations that became the epicentre of the clashes that left four people -three civilians and a policeman -dead.
At several places in Jafrabad and Maujpur, people passing by in auto-rickshaws and twowheelers were stopped, dragged out on the roads, and beaten. Some protesters carried swords, threw petrol bombs, and set houses on fire. Most of these cases had police nearby. On social media, a video clip of a man in a red t-shirt, brandishing a pistol and pointing it at a policeman before firing on the side, was circulated widely. Journalists on the ground said that phones were snatched and photographs on their cameras forcibly deleted.
Former Uttar Pradesh director general of police (DGP) Vikram Singh said the violence could have been prevented if the police had acted more swiftly and firmly.
“The reports are disturbing. I think we are seeing something like this in Delhi after 1984 antisikh riots. There were groups protesting against each other so why did not the police not take action? The police allowed the trouble mongers to gather and gave them time to do what they did,” Singh said.
Most part of the violence was reported in north east police district of Delhi police. During the day, the special commissioner of police, who heads the north zone, was not seen anywhere in the area.
The Delhi Police did not give details on how many personnel were deployed in north-east Delhi. A drone was deployed in Bhajanpura.
Kumar told reporters at the spot in the evening that the area was tense since Sunday afternoon. “There was heavy deployment at strategic locations. Stray incidents of violence were being reported from many places. We have our officials at important stretches in the area. One of our officers, DCP (Shahdra) Amit Sharma was also injured in stone pelting. We are conducting flag marches.”
Monday’s violence was two days in the making. The trouble begun on Saturday, when several people protesting against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, or CAA, blocked a carriage way on the main road near Jafrabad Metro station. On Sunday, there were reports of stone-pelting as people for and against CAA faced off. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Kapil Mishra warned the police to clear the blocked road within three days else “we will not listen to you (police)”.
“The area was tense since Sunday afternoon. So why did the police not anticipate trouble and take preventive measures?” asked Singh. “There is nothing that would have stopped them from detaining identified trouble makers and sending them away from Delhi. The police are responsible for what happened today. Also, what about intelligence gathering? On a day when the US President is in the city and when the situation is tense, the intelligence gathering should be of a high standard,” he said.