A Fact-finding report by a Civil Rights group based on eyewitness accounts from riot-hit north-east Delhi on Friday said that, police personnel were missing when people needed them.
The report, 'Let Us Heal Our Dilli', was released after a four-member team including Farah Naqvi, Sarojini N, Navsharan Singh, Naveen Chander visited some of the violence-hit areas like Bhajanpura, Chand Bagh, Gokulpuri, Chaman Park, Shiv Vihar, Main Mustafabad, including Bhagirathi Vihar and Brijpuri.
According to the report, residents of the affected areas did not get any help from police during emergencies. They are also upset with the Delhi government for not standing with the victims and the Centre for delayed deployment of security forces.
In Mustafabad, people said the central government was busy with the visit of US President Donald Trump instead of ensuring early deployment of Army or police in the affected areas which would have saved lives and protected their properties. The four-member team's visit was intended to give a sense of the “man-made tragedy”, report added.
The visit also sought to understand what survivors need most urgently so that collective pressure can be put on the government and administration, and also civil society and citizens across all divides could be mobilised to reach out and help the affected people.
“The death toll is far less, but the targeting is truly frightening - where one shop is burnt, but the two adjacent shops on either side are not. Roadside mazars are burnt, masjids in the interiors are burnt,” it added.
A Delhi spokesperson said that the death toll in Delhi's communal violence rose to 42 on Friday as the situation showed some signs of returning to normalcy and clouds of smoke cleared to reveal the extent of the damage from the worst riots in the city in over three decades.
A total of 148 FIRs have been registered and 630 people have been either arrested or detained so far in connection with the communal violence.
