Days after clashes broke out in parts of Delhi, situation continues to remain tense in areas affected by violence over contentious citizenship law, which killed more than 30 people and injured over 300. Restrictions, however, are likely to ease from today.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah, after facing severe criticism over spiralling violence in the national capital, held a review meet on Thursday to take a stock of the situation. "No major incident has been reported in the last 36 hours in any affected Police Station of District North-East," an official statement read.
On Thursday, the ruling Aam Aadmi Party, which was recently elected for a third consecutive term in Delhi, suspended its party leader Tahir Hussain after his name emerged in the killing of an employee of Intelligence Bureau, Ankit Sharma.
Ankit Sharma, 26, was allegedly attacked by a mob when he was on his way to home on Tuesday. His body was found the next day in a drain in Jaffrabad, one of the worst hit areas of the city.
Clashes broke out in northeast Delhi on Sunday between pro and anti-citizenship law protesters. BJP leader Kapil Mishra's pro-citizenship rally in northeast Delhi's Maujpur on Sunday afternoon has been accused of inciting violence.
Violence intensified the next day as mobs attacked shops, schools, homes.
Here are updates on Delhi violence.
Friday prayers at mosques in the riot-hit areas of northeast Delhi passed off peacefully and no untoward incident was reported, local peace committee members said. Local mosques had earlier in the day appealed for maintaining peace and harmony in the areas affected by communal clashes earlier this week. After the Friday prayers, a delegation of peace committee members met senior police officers, including special commissioner (law and order) SN Shrivastava, at the office of the DCP (Northeast) in Seelampur. "We have apprised the officers that the prayers were held without any trouble and no untoward incident has been reported from anywhere in the region," Parvez Mian, a peace committee member and president of the All India Milli Council Delhi state, said.
Union Minister Ramdas Athawale on Friday alleged that the provocative speeches given by Congress leaders were responsible for the violence in Delhi, which has so far claimed 42 lives. He was talking to reporters at the press room of Mumbai Vidhan Bhavan. "Provocative speeches given by Congress leaders are responsible for the violence in the national capital," the Social Justice Minister said. He also alleged that the AAP, which is in power in Delhi, was involved in the riots. He also accused the Congress of provoking Muslims to protest against the CAA. "The Congress has been provoking people for several days. It is wrong to mislead Muslims over the CAA. It has to be probed whether the Congress and AAP has a hand in the Delhi violence," he said. "The CAA is meant to provide citizenship to the oppressed people from neighbouring countries and not to take away the citizenship of Indians," the minister said, reported PTI.
A Delhi court on Friday rejected the bail plea of former Congress municipal councillor Ishrat Jahan, who was arrested in connection with the violence in northeast Delhi over the amended citizenship law. Additional Sessions Judge Naveen Gupta rejected Ishrat Jahan's bail plea who was arrested on Wednesday. Ishrat Jahan was protesting at Delhi's Khureji Khas against the Citizenship Amendment Act since January 13, reported PTI.
The Delhi Police PRO MS Randhawa addressed the media and said, "We used drones. I want to say, we have controlled the situation. We are headed towards normalcy. Restrictions will be relaxed further. But deployment will remain. Senior officers will remain on the field. Aman Meetings are happening. 123 FIRs have been registered, 630 have been arrested and detained. Evidences, footage are coming to us. We have collected and reviewed. Want to make an appeal: Fake news and videos are being circulated on social media. Don't share videos that can instigate communal tensions. Appealing to and warning everyone if such videos are shared, legal action will be taken. If these videos reach you, please report them to us through our phone numbers and on social media. Very soon we will have more details as the investigation moves forward. Very soon we will have breakthrough in Ankit Sharma Case."
Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal: There are 4 subdivisions there. Normally there would have been 4 SDMs, but now we've appointed 18 SDMs there. They're going among the public and talking to them. We're distributing food on a large scale. #NortheastDelhi pic.twitter.com/1WD8Sh3ae5
- ANI (@ANI) February 28, 2020
Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal visited riot-affected areas in northeast Delhi to take stock of the situation and interacted with locals. He visited Maujpur, Jaffrabad and Gokulpuri, an official said. He was accompanied by senior police officers. This is his first visit to the riot-hit areas after violence broke out on Monday.
Police officers are meeting clerics of different mosques in the Kardam Puri and Kabir Nagar areas of northeast Delhi as part of the confidence-building measure, reported ANI.
Delhi Police Special Commissioner (Law and Order), SN Srivastava on Friday said that the police is trying to bring every culprit to justice in the cases related to violence in the north-east Delhi.
Asked about municipal councillor Tahir Hussain, Mr Srivastava said, "I will not talk of one particular case, but our effort is to give lawful punishment to anyone who is a culprit or participated in these riots. So the lawful process is underway."
"We are trying to bring every culprit to justice and we are working on it. It was a very gruesome murder of a young officer. We are giving equal weightage to all other cases especially the heinous ones," he said.
"In the last 60 hours, no incident has taken place. We have made arrangements as there are Friday prayers today. Through the extensive outreach programme done by us and the interaction with the people, we get to know that everybody wants peace. We are moving fast towards normalcy. In the Aman Committee meetings, everybody has said that they will work for maintaining peace," the Special Commissioner said.
"We have registered more than 100 cases of riots and murders. We have made two SITs under crime branch and investigation is done by district police officers," he further informed, reported news agency ANI.
Rumours of stone pelting at a religious place by a mob chanting religious slogans in Dwarka are completely false.
- DCP/Dwarka, Delhi (@DCPDwarka) February 28, 2020
Public is advised not to pay attention to or spread rumours/ fake news on social media.@DelhiPolice@CPDelhi
42 people killed in Delhi amid clashes since Sunday. Situation is under control, says Home Ministry,
Watch | "By the same process dozens of judges have been transferred": BJP on transfer of Delhi High Court #JudgeMuralidhar pic.twitter.com/BqKr05T32g
- NDTV (@ndtv) February 28, 2020
Watch | "Sonia Gandhi, please don't preach us 'Raj dharma'": Law Minister RS Prasad attacks Congress on #DelhiViolence. pic.twitter.com/NmI1QiK5W4
- NDTV (@ndtv) February 28, 2020
After Congress attacked the ruling BJP over violence in the national capital, which has killed over 30 people and injured over 300 this week, Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad attacked the Congress over its Rajdharma remark
Watch | Days after clashes broke out in parts of Delhi, restrictions in the northeast districts of the national capital eased for a few hours.#DelhiViolence #Delhi #CAAProtests
- NDTV (@ndtv) February 28, 2020
More here: https://t.co/Y2Bj9Ps4Bm pic.twitter.com/faliXVxqMW
Indian Police Service (IPS) officer SN Shrivastava has been given additional charge as the chief of Delhi Police from March 1 until further orders, days after he was made Special Commissioner (Law and Order) by the Home Ministry after bringing him from the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) to end the violence over the controversial citizenship law in Delhi. Mr Shrivastava will replace Amulya Patnaik, who retires tomorrow. Read here
As mobs went on the rampage in northeast Delhi earlier this week, a school in the Shiv Vihar locality became one of the targets as they vandalised it, burnt down furniture and books and then used it as a base to launch attacks in the locality for nearly 24 hours. Read here.
Watch | Testimonies of brotherhood from Delhi neighbourhoods marred by clashes. https://t.co/IhbqzWyH0D#DelhiViolence #CitizenshipAct pic.twitter.com/z4bTlfjdQ5
- NDTV (@ndtv) February 28, 2020
Delhi: Security personnel remain deployed in Khajoori Khaas and Dayalpur areas of violence-affected North East district pic.twitter.com/TJpIeWrQk8
- ANI (@ANI) February 28, 2020
