Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
India’s turmoil
Muslims say Hindu mobs attacking homes; Modi urges calm
A scene of destruction is left Wednesday in New Delhi after three days of clashes between Hindu mobs and Muslims protesting a new citizenship law. Officials said at least 24 people were killed and 189 injured, with the number expected to rise. Shops, Muslim shrines and public vehicles were demolished in the worst communal riots in the Indian capital in decades.
NEW DELHI — At least 24 people were killed and 189 injured in three days of clashes in New Delhi, with the death toll expected to rise as hospitals continue to take in the wounded, authorities said Wednesday.
Shops, Muslim shrines and public vehicles were left smoldering from violence between Hindu mobs and Muslims protesting a new citizenship law that fast-tracks naturalization for foreign-born religious minorities of all major faiths in South Asia except Islam.
Twenty-four deaths were reported at two hospitals in New Delhi, officials said.
The clashes were the worst communal riots in the Indian capital in decades. The law’s passage in December earlier spurred large protests across India that left 23 dead, many of them killed by police.
The dead in this week’s violence included a policeman and an intelligence bureau officer, and the government has banned public assembly in the affected areas.
Police spokesman M.S. Randhawa said 106 people were arrested in the rioting.
Officials reported no new violence Wednesday as large police reinforcements patrolled the areas, where an uneasy calm prevailed.
National security adviser Ajit Doval toured the northeastern neighborhoods of New Delhi where the rioting occurred, seeking to assure residents who complained that police had not protected them from mobs that vandalized the area and set shops and vehicles on fire.
While clashes over the citizenship law occurred in parts of the capital, Prime Minister Narendra Modi hosted a reception for President Donald Trump’s first state visit to India, including a rally in his home state of Gujarat attended by more than 100,000 people and the signing of an agreement to purchase more than $3 billion of American military hardware.
On Wednesday, Modi broke his silence on the violence, tweeting that “peace and harmony are central to [India’s] ethos. I appeal to my sisters and brothers of Delhi to maintain peace and brotherhood at all times.”
New Delhi’s top elected official, Chief Minister Arvind Kerjiwal, called for Modi’s home minister, Amit Shah, to send the army to ensure peace. Police characterized the situation as tense but under control. Schools remained closed.
Sonia Gandhi, a leader of the Congress Party, India’s main opposition group, called for Shah to resign. She accused Modi’s Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party of creating an environment of hatred and its leaders of inciting violence with provocative speeches that sought to paint Muslim protesters against the citizenship law as anti-nationalists funded by Pakistan.
New Delhi’s High Court ordered the police to review videos of hate speeches allegedly made by three leaders of Modi’s party and decide whether to prosecute them, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.
The clashes escalated Tuesday, according to Rouf Khan, a resident of Mustafabad, an area in the capital’s northeast.
Khan said mobs with iron rods, bricks and bamboo sticks attacked the homes of Muslims while chanting “Jai Shri Ram,” or “Victory to Lord Ram,” the popular Hindu god.
“After forcing their way inside the homes, they went on a rampage and started beating people and breaking household items,” Khan said of the mobs, adding that he and his family ran and took shelter inside a mosque that he said was guarded by thousands of Muslim men.
In Kardampura, a Muslim-majority area where a young person was shot and killed on Monday, hundreds of police in riot gear patrolled the area and asked people to stay indoors, while residents said they were living in fear.
“We are scared and don’t know where to go,” said one resident, Dr. Jeevan Ali Khan. “If the government wanted, they could have stopped these riots.”
Close by, black smoke still rose on Wednesday afternoon from a market in Gokalpuri that sold tires and secondhand car parts as firefighters tried to douse the blaze.
The violence drew sharp reactions from U.S. lawmakers, with Rep. Rashida Talib, D-Mich., tweeting, “This week, Trump visited India but the real story should be the communal violence targeting Muslims in Delhi right now.”
Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan condemned the killing of Muslims, saying: “Now 200 million Muslims in India are being targeted. The world community must act now.”
India has been rocked by violence since Parliament approved the citizenship law in December. Opponents have said the country is moving toward a religious citizenship test.
Information for this article was contributed by Ashok Sharma, Shonal Ganguly and Munir Ahmed of The Associated Press.