The Ex-Congress municipal councillor and leader Ishrat Jahan has been detained for allegedly attempting to provoke people with her inflammatory remarks during the Delhi anti-Hindu riots. She has been sent to 14-day police custody.
A Delhi court on Friday dismissed the bail plea of a former municipal councillor from the Congress Ishrat Jahan, accused of attempt to murder in a case related to violence and rioting in northeast Delhi over the amended citizenship law. The court observed that she did not deserve bail at the present stage of the investigation “despite being a woman”.
Pronouncing the order, the Additional Sessions Judge Naveen Gupta said, “The nature of the case slapped against Jahan is very serious. When the law enforcement personnel are attacked in the manner as reflected in FIR and that too, in full public view, such deeds erodes the public confidence in the ability of police officers to do their duty… The accused (Jahan), despite being a woman, does not deserve bail at this stage.”
Jahan was detained on February 26 for the charges under sections 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 149 (unlawful assembly), 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions), 353 (assault on public servant), 332 (voluntarily causes hurt to public servant), 307 (attempt to murder), 109 (abetment), and 34 (common intention) of the IPC and relevant sections of the Arms Act.
Besides accused of inciting people for violence, Jahan is also held responsible for blocking Khureji Khas road along with other anti-CAA protesters on February 23 (Sunday). She has been demonstrating against the Citizenship Amendment Act for the last 50 days in Khureji Khas area.
During the hearing, the additional public prosecutor, appearing for the police, told the court that Jahan was arrested from the spot of the incident.
“Jahan has been specifically named in the FIR. She has claimed herself to be an advocate, hence, she must have instigated the public against the police officials who were discharging their public duty. Moreover, she has criminal antecedent as she was previously involved in obstructing and assault on a public servant in 2014,” the counsel claimed.
He further informed the court that seven people have been arrested in the case and one countrymade pistol and one live cartridge recovered from the one of the accused.
“Three empty cartridge cases, three sticks and two iron rods, along with 10-12 pieces of bricks and stones, have also been recovered from the spot. Two empty cartridge cases, which have been shot by the police officials in the air to disperse the crowd, have also been recovered. Statements of two public witnesses have also been recorded, which have also corroborated the version of FIR on material particulars,” he alleged.
The police have named Jahan, Sabu Ansari and Khalid as accused in the FIR lodged in the case.
The FIR said that in view of protests against the CAA going on for several days at Jagat Puri, section 144 (prohibition of assembly of five or more persons) of the Code of Criminal Procedure had been imposed in the area of Khureji. On February 26, a flag march was carried out by the police, it said. When the police reached Khureji Khas, they heard a shot and found that a large crowd had gathered there, the FIR stated. It further said that the police asked the crowd, which included Jahan, to disperse and vacate the road.
The crowd was instigated to sit down there and the accused persons did not allow the crowd to remove themselves, the FIR said. According to the FIR, Jahan instigated the crowd by saying that they would not remove themselves no matter what and that they wanted freedom (azaadi). Khalid asked the crowd to pelt stones at the police and someone from the crowd fired at a police officer but he narrowly escaped, it claimed. The FIR said when the crowd did not disperse, the personnel used tear gas shells and fired in the air.
Some persons from the crowd started manhandling the police staff and due to stone pelting, constable Vinod received injuries, it said.
Last few days saw extensive violence in the National Capital, especially in Northeast Delhi where anti-CAA protesters ran riot, ravaging properties belonging to Hindus and attacking Hindu residents. A frenzied Muslim mob atop an AAP corporator Tahir Hussain’s house ferociously hurled petrol bombs and stones on the Hindu locality, desecrating a Shiv Temple.
Eyewitnesses claim that 3 people, including IB sleuth Ankit Sharma, were violently dragged inside Hussain’s house. Later, Sharma’s battered body was found abandoned in a ditch in Chand Bagh. He was reportedly stabbed more than 400 times and his intestines were torn apart.
The Delhi Police have so far made 23 arrests while hundreds have been held under preventive detention. About 148 FIRs have been filed in cases related to violence in Delhi.
Ultra Left-Wing activist Amulya Leona Noronha, who was arrested on the Charges of Sedition after raising slogans of Pakistan Zindabad in a rally of AIMIM Chief Assadudin Owaisi, has now revealed that she is a paid protestor. Leona has told the police that the Anti-CAA protest organisers have been carrying her expenses ever since the agitation against the Citizenship Amendment Act erupted in December last year.
Amulya is being questioned by the special police team of Karnataka police. She was sent to Fourteen-day judicial custody right after she was arrested. Police claimed that Rupees 2 lacs have been spent by Amulya on herself and other activists to participate and organize protests since the enactment of CAA in December.
Amulya told the police that the anti-CAA protest organisers booked her tickets and sponsored her tour, moreover, it was the organisers who used to prepare her speeches. Police stated, “She flew to Mangaluru to take part in protests there and her tickets were booked by the organizers. Similarly, different organizers sponsored her tour across the states. According to Amulya, she would spend the money and organizers would reimburse the amount. Amulya claims a major part of her speeches were prepared by organizers and that she would add a few lines. However, raising Pro-Pakistan slogans was her own idea.”
Amulya Leona was spotted being interviewed by a Youtube channel a month prior to her arrest in which she was explaining the Modus Operandi of the Left to endorse the seditious Anti-India agenda.
She revealed that there is a content writer team who writes detailed scripts for people like her who are then just assigned the task to go and speak what is written for them. She had stated in the interview, “I have become the face of this because of media, but behind is an advisory committee, there is a content team, senior activists, my parents and a very big student protest group which is working. I am just the face of it but they are the ones who are working really hard, They are the real heroes.”
Amulya Leona was sent to 14-day judicial custody under the Section 124A (Offence of sedition) of the Indian Penal Code was registered against her shortly after she raised the Pakistan Zindabad slogan at Asaduddin Owaisi’s rally.
In the last few days, the National Capital was rocked with a brutal anti-Hindu pogrom, engineered by Muslim anti-CAA protesters. The city saw widespread violence, with Hindus and their properties-shops and homes specifically targeted by the rampaging Muslim mob. A concerted attempt was being made by an unruly Muslim mob sheltered at the house of AAP corporator Tahir Hussain, to attack Hindus in the region and desecrate a renowned Shiva temple.
To this end, the rioters hurled petrol bombs and stones at the temple building, rendering the adjacent building to temple ramshackle and shaky.
Now, another horrific tale of the Muslim brutality inflicted upon the Hindus from Tahir Hussain’s bungalow has come to the fore. Muslims who lived for years intertwined with Hindu families in Moonga Nagar suddenly started baying for their blood. In one such incident, Muslim residents of the region did not even spare the wedding house whose Hindu women used to address neighbourhood Muslim men as “Bhaijaan” and greet them with a “salam”.
Preparations for the girl’s wedding were underway. There was a gathering of relatives. A feast was being arranged to welcome the guests. The house was on the second floor of the building adjacent to Tahir Hussain’s bungalow. According to the eyewitnesses, Muslim mob from the terrace of Hussain’s bungalow wantonly attacked the wedding house.
As per eyewitnesses, Pradeep and his companions, “A raft of Muslims stood on the bridge above the drain in Chand Bagh to register their protest against the CAA. As soon as a media house’s Innova car approached the bridge to cover the protests, the angry mob started pelting stones at it. The frenzied mob then moved towards Karaval Nagar. The parking shutter was fully open. There were loud noises from the main road outside. When we saw stone-pelting had started and the shops were being attacked, we instantly dropped the shutter of the parking. However, even after the shutters were dropped, the angry mob pried open the shutter with the help of rods and stones.”
The rioters emerging from the house of Tahir Hussain, who entered the parking lot first beat up Pradeep and his companions. Pradeep was severely injured in the attack. The rioters then set the parking lot on fire. Watching the parking lot burn, Pradeep and his companions ran up the stairs towards the roof. However, the building was under attack from the roof as well. Rioters from Tahir’s bungalow were casting stones and petrol bombs at the building. Caught between two stools, Pradeep and his partner decided to jump off to the second floor to save their lives.
On the second floor, preparations were going on for the wedding of a Hindu girl. Sweets were being prepared on the occasion of marriage. However, at the same time, angry mob of Muslim rioters from the house of Tahir Hussain started hurling bricks, stones and tiles, at the people on the second floor. Soon after they realised that they are under attack from Muslim rioters from both above as well as below, all the people scampered towards the far end of the house and started jumping off the wall to save themselves from the Muslim onslaught.
The rioters didn’t stop there. They then tried to blow up the floor by setting fire to a cylinder kept there. Fortunately, they could not succeed so they hurled petrol bombs on the floor before fleeing away.
The conflagration was so intense that all the cars parked in the parking lot were burnt to ashes and all the wedding paraphernalia were destroyed. All the preparations of the wedding had gone down the drain. The fire was so fierce and comprehensive that the entire plaster of the building came crumbling down on the ground.
In a video that has now gone viral on Twitter, a Hindu man by the name of Vikas could be seen sharing his ordeal with an online news portal, Know the Nation, in the aftermath of the Delhi Anti-Hindu riots.
“Our muslim neighbors attacked us with guns and stones. We pleaded that we have lived together all life and will have to live together in future too. But they didn’t listen and attacked us. They also tried to demolish our Shiva temple” pic.twitter.com/V65uiQ65lM
Vikas who lives in Gonda Vidhan Sabha constituency had gone out to distribute invitation cards for his brother’s wedding that is to be held on March 2. His elder brother was shot by a Muslim mob. When Vikas stepped out of his house, he saw close to 500 rioters, masked in helmets, hurling stones and firing several rounds towards him.
Vikas in a futile attempt pleaded to the mob that he belongs to the same neighbourhood as the rioters and that they have always lived in peace together. But, the mob did not listen and continued to pelt stones at Vikas and his family.
He also alleged being selectively profiled by the rioters. Vikas narrated how the Muslim mob also attacked a Shiv Temple in the neighbourhood. The family were taken hostage at their own houses. Only when the mob dispersed, the Hindu family went to the hospital to seek medical attention.
This is not an isolated case that has emerged during the Delhi riots. A Hindu shopkeeper, Shyam Sahni, narrated how a Muslim mob burnt down his shop and caused damages to the tune of ₹5,00,000. His family so scared that they spent the rest of the day and night holed up in a corner, hungry and thirsty. Dilwar Singh, a resident of Thalisain Block located in Pauri district of Uttarakhand, was brutally chopped and burnt alive on the evening of 23 February in the wake of Delhi Anti-Hindu riots.
The senior leader of Samajwadi Party and Member of Parliament Azam Khan who is currently lodged in Sitapur jail was on his way to Rampur today for a hearing in the fake affidavit case for which he was arrested on Wednesday.
Speaking to reporters from inside a police van while he was being taken to Rampur, the senior SP leader alleged that he was being treated like a terrorist by the jail authorities.
“They are treating me like a terrorist,” said the senior SP leader Azam Khan.
Senior SP leader Azam Khan being taken from Sitapur jail to Rampur for hearing in forgery case. He says ‘they are treating me just like a terrorist’ pic.twitter.com/Io9swjQmTZ
The Khan family was taken out of Rampur jail at 4.30 a.m on February 27 (Thursday) amid tight security and brought by road to Sitapur jail. According to official sources, the decision to shift had been taken in view of the reported protests being planned by his supporters in Rampur.
Ever since Azam Khan’s family has been shifted to Sitapur Jail, the jail authorities have been keeping a close watch on the entire jail through 30 CCTV cameras. Who is coming to meet Azam Khan? How many people meet him and how long the meeting lasted, everything is being monitored by the authorities.
Azam Khan was sent to seven days of judicial custody along with his wife Tanzeen Fatima and son Abdullah Azam after they surrendered in the District Court on February 26 (Wednesday). They were sent to custody in the fake affidavit case.
As per reports, Azam Khan and his family had been ignoring summons by the courts in various cases lodged against them after which warrants had been issued. The next hearing will be on March 2.
On February 25 (Tuesday), The local MP-MLA court in Rampur had ordered attachment of the properties of Azam Khan, his wife Tanzeen Fatima and Abdullah Azam after non-bailable warrants were issued against them in one of the cases but they still refused to appear in court. The family has been ignoring court summon for months.
MP Azam Khan made several attempts earlier to get anticipatory bail but was denied by the court. The MP and his family have several non-bailable warrants issued against them.
Several cases are lodged against Rampur MP Azam Khan. In September last year, Rampur Police in Uttar Pradesh had booked Azam Khan on allegations of ‘stealing goats’ following the complaint which was filed in October 2016.
It was first land-grabbing, then lion statues, followed by books and valuable manuscripts. He has also been booked for ‘stealing buffaloes’ and later the Rampur MP was also booked for electricity theft. The power supply to Azam Khan’s resort ‘Humsafar’ in Uttar Pradesh was cut after raids were conducted in the resort by the Uttar Pradesh electricity department.
Khan had landed in a major land grabbing case after irregularities and allegations against his family’s Mohammad Ali Jauhar University surfaced last year. The University was raided by Rampur police following a complaint by the principal of Madrasa Aliya, wherein he stated that 9000 books and rare manuscripts from the Madrasa have been stolen.
His son Abdullah Azam was booked for forgery in birth date documents. Suar MLA Abdullah Azam Khan had to lose his membership of the state assembly after he was found guilty of forgery.
The government has revoked the visa of Jakob Lindenthal, the German exchange student at IIT-Madras who was asked to leave the country two months ago after he had participated in protests against the new citizenship law, reports Indian Express.
Speaking to the media, German student Jakob Lindenthal confirmed that the Indian Embassy in Germany informed him on February 8 that his visa has been cancelled. “I wasn’t given any reason for the decision,” he said.
In a clampdown against the foreigners who joined the anti-CAA protests without any reason and fueled anarchy in the country, the Indian government authorities in December last year had sent back German student Jakob Lindenthal to his native country for undermining the law and order by participating in the anti-CAA protests.
Jakob Lindenthal was asked to leave the country in the last week of December after he was spotted at multiple rallies in Chennai against the CAA. On December 23, he was called to the Immigration Department to discuss his Residence Permit.
Jakob Lindenthal is a student of Technical University-Dresden (TUD), had been studying in the Physics department of IIT-Madras as part of a collaboration between the two institutions. He was seen holding a placard equating the CAA Bill with the persecution of Jews during 1933-1945 in Germany. Following his act, the Indian authorities had initiated his deportation back to his country.
Confirming the cancellation of Jakob’s visa, Kim Magister, Head of Press Office and Public Relations at TUD, said in an email, “Mr Lindenthal’s visa has indeed now been officially cancelled, meaning that he is no longer able to travel to India to continue his student exchange. However, he was able to successfully complete one semester at the IIT Madras. For this period, he will receive a Transcript of Records from our partner university.”
In a similar incident, a Bangladeshi national residing in India has been asked to leave the country after she was caught participating in anti-CAA protests and posting anti-CAA messages and posters on social media. 20-year-old student Afsara Meem, who is a first-year student of Visva-Bharati University was asked to leave India withnin 15 days.
Afsara, the undergraduate student had uploaded pictures of the Anti-CAA protests on her Facebook handle. The Bangladeshi student who had come to India in 2018 from Bangladesh’s Kustia is pursuing a Bachelor of Design degree at the department of fine arts.
The Foreigners’ Regional Registration Office of Kolkata had reportedly issued a ‘leave-India’ letter to the Bangladeshi woman on 14 February. Meanwhile, Afsara had claimed that she did not participate in the protests but merely uploaded pictures related Anti-CAA protests on the Social media ‘out of curiosity’.
Thousands of Muslims took a march from the main mosque in Bangladesh capital Dhaka on Friday to protest against the Indian government for the riots in Delhi which have left at least 42 dead and hundreds injured.
According to reports, following the Friday prayers, thousands of Muslims in Dhaka left the Baitul Mokarram Mosque, joined the rally and shouted slogans against Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Similar protests were also organised in other cities across Bangladesh on Friday.
The protesters went on to demand that Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina drop her plan to invite Prime Minister Modi to a commemoration next month on the 100th birth anniversary of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the first president of the nation who is called the father of Bangladesh. Rahman, Hasina’s father, led a political movement that created the separate nation of Bangladesh after a nine-month war between India and Pakistan in 1971.
The protesters claimed that invitation to PM Modi was an insult to the 1971 liberation war of Bangladesh and disrespect to the noncommunal freedom icon of the nation.
The march was organized by six Muslim political groups at the initiative of Jamiat Ulema-e Islam General Secretary Nur Hossain Qasmi. There was massive police deployment around the protest area. “I ask the prime minister to immediately cancel Narendra Modi’s invitation,” Nur Hossain Kasemi, general secretary of the influential Islamist group Hefazat-e-Islam said during the protests.
Kasemi added, “If she fails to do so, the people of the country will be forced to take action and surround the airport. They will build resistance.”
“I remind the Muslims of our country that we believe in harmony. We don’t believe in violence. We shall not harm any non-Muslims in this country,” he said as he asked Bangladeshi Muslims not to harm Hindus.
Reportedly, students of the Dhaka University also held a rally protesting the deaths in Delhi violence. The university’s students union leader Nurul Haq Nur said that students would not welcome Indian prime minister as the event speaker.
However, the general secretary of ruling Awami League party Obaidul Quader said that the government will receive PM Modi to participate in the event as a gesture of gratefulness to India, who helped Bangladesh during the liberation war. He further added that the communal clashes in the Indian capital Delhi were an “internal issue” of India.
The anti-CAA riots turned communal in Delhi resulting in severe violence on the streets of Delhi. The anti-Hindu riots that engulfed the streets of Delhi have resulted in deaths of around 40 persons and more than 220 people sustained injuries in the violence that started on Sunday.
The injured include around 70 persons from the security forces. 48 FIRs had been filed and 514 suspects had also been rounded up by the police. The cops have set up 2 SITs for investigating serious cases of offence that took place during the riots.
The fire that was lit by Sharjeel Imam and other students of Jamia Milia Islamia such as Ladeeda Sakhaloon, who called for Jihad after the passage of the Citizenship Amendment Act, has grown to consume the entirety of North East Delhi. Numerous lives have been lost in the anti-Hindu Delhi riots, properties worth crores have been turned into ashes and the terrible blow communal harmony has suffered in the national capital will take a great deal of time to heal. Needless to say, this is precisely what the Radical Islamists wanted from the very beginning.
Of the radical Islamists who have contributed greatly to the violence, Sharjeel Imam was the most prominent ideologue. The Jamia Hijabis were, at the end of the day, showpieces who served the cause of Ummah well in the surrounding propaganda but it was Sharjeel Imam who provided a clear pathway for the others to tread. He masterminded the Shaheen Bagh protests and harassing the ordinary public by enforcing a blockade of roads for the victory of the Ummah was his brainchild.
Sharjeel Imam’s Radical Islamic Ideology
Sharjeel Imam idolized Mohammed Ali Jinnah and interpreted the latter’s Jihad through the lens of post-partition independent India. From his rhetoric, it is evident that he considers a Civil War with the Indian State as a necessary recourse to secure and further strengthen the Ummah within the existing geographical boundaries of India. Eventually, he was arrested after a video of his went viral on social where he could be heard urging Muslims to cut off North East India from the rest of the country by blocking Chicken’s Neck.
There was another video of his that went viral on social media but the implications of it were largely ignored. During that particular speech, Sharjeel Imam says that an ‘intellectual cell’ has been created which he asks the students gathered to join. He says that as many as a hundred, or maybe even two hundred or three, have already joined the ranks to form a team that would work along these lines. He concludes his speech by saying that ‘We have the strength to bring Hindustan to a halt’.
Sharjeel had said, “Wherever I go in Delhi, I meet a shopkeeper and tell him I am from JNU and a Musalmaan, then one person sits, then two, then fifteen and soon enough, thirty people will gather around me, only to listen to me. If you are a scholar, then your duty is on the streets, not here. You have studied, now it is your duty to educate the ‘Awaam’.” He continued, “We are scholars, we have the energy, we can run, we can tolerate two-four lathis, we can take a couple of teargas, we can create pamphlets, edit videos,” he says before continuing, “We can go door to door and argue with people, the common man cannot do it. The common man does not even know what he has to say.” He says that one of the main things that scholars must do is create a ‘plan of action’.
The identity of the ‘intellectual cell’ that was supposedly established by Sharjeel Imam has not yet come out into the public domain. But there are certain ‘intellectuals’ who have made a great deal of effort in Delhi since Sharjeel was arrested in January. The ‘intellectuals’ we are referring to here belong to the Jamia Coordination of Committee (JCC) which shot to fame after releasing a misleading video on social media regarding Delhi Police’s crackdown on the campus on the 15th of December 2019 and it is their role in the anti-Hindu riots in Delhi that we shall focus on in this report henceforth.
Jamia Coordination Committee
The JCC has a Facebook page to its name where it provides regular updates to its audience on the events related to the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act. In one such post, on the 20th of February, three days before violence erupted in the national capital, the JCC announced that it was about to complete two months of its ‘awareness campaign’ against the CAA and NRC. The post came with the hashtag ‘#Glorious_50_days’, so we are assuming here that the post was published on the day 50 days of its campaign was completed.
A portion of the JCC’s Facebook Post
In the said Facebook post, the JCC wrote, “Apart from door to door Campaign, we also organized more than 10 large public talks, conducted multiple workshops with NGOs, Coaching institutes to educate students, Housewives, about the NRC CAA and NPR, so that they can further work in their locality. Our female volunteers addressed a
Hundreds of female gathering across the Delhi in different locality to make them aware of this divisive bill.” They also said that the “Role of awareness Campaign team remains highly instrumental in sensitizing common masses about the drastic consequences of NRC CAA and NPR , which finally culminated into multiple protest sites across the Delhi.”
Public awareness campaigns, of any manner, is the right of every citizen guaranteed by the Indian Constitution. However, the names of the localities mentioned in the post stuck out because these are the very same places where anti-Hindu riots had erupted in Delhi. They covered Okhla which included areas such as Zakir Nagar, Batla house, ‘Johri Farm’, Abul Fazal etc. and the Nizamuddin locality. They also campaigned extensively in Old Delhi and also covered areas such as ‘Lal Quan’ (which we assumed to be La Quan Bazaar), Turkman Gate, Chawri Bazar and Chitli Qabar among others. However, the places that stuck out were Jafrabad, Mustafabad and Hauz Rani because these were areas of intense riots in Delhi.
JCC and the Anti-Hindu Riots in Delhi
When we marked the areas JCC campaigned in with the places where intense riots had broken out, we realized that all the violence had broken out in the vicinity of the areas where JCC had campaigned and in some instances, in the same area where JCC had campaigned. As we have mentioned above, Jafrabad and Mustafabad had suffered intense riots and communal tensions had erupted in Hauz Rani.
In the map, green marks the spot where JCC campaigned, orange marks the spot where intense violence was observed between Sunday and Tuesday and blue marks the spot where both these cases apply. A similar colour pattern has been maintained in all the maps in this report. We can see from the map that all the riot pinpoints are in the same region of Delhi.
Places of consequence
From the map, it can be seen that Jafrabad and Mustafabad, two places JCC had campaigned in was witness to extremely violent anti-Hindu riots. Another such place was Hauz Rani, which is at a significant distance from Jafrabad. Old Delhi, which lies in Central Delhi, did not witness such violence. Jaitpur, which is again at a great distance from Jafrabad, did not face such violence. Hauz Rani stands out as it is isolated from the rest of the areas but it did not escalate into violence but the Police was forced to lathi charge the anti-CAA ‘protesters’. There was an attempt to target local establishments there.
Okhla is the site of the Shaheen Bagh protests and there was great involvement of JCC here. A “dedicated team of 25 members worked continuously for 1 week in this locality.” Shaheen Bagh is the southernmost colony of Okhla. Okhla is also the Assembly Constituency AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan was elected from. Jamia Nagar also lies in Okhla. Okhla is in South Delhi district and, as such, did not witness violence but did contribute to it. Karawal Nagar is also separated from the cluster points of violent areas in the map by a short distance. However, it did witness significant violence. Karawal Nagar lies in North East Delhi.
Delhi Riots: Jaffrabad and Mustafabad
Jaffrabad and Mustafabad are two places where JCC had campaigned and which suffered major violence. In fact, the events of Jaffrabad played a major role in the most recent escalation of violence in Delhi. On Saturday, the 22nd of February, a group of over 500 Muslim women gathered near the Jafrabad Metro Station and blocked road No. 66, which connects Seelampur to Maujpur and Yamuna Vihar. Certain ‘concerned’ citizens who oppose the CAA claim that the women were incited into blocking the roads by activists associated with the Far-Left women rights group Pinjra Tod. They also claimed that violence was incited by the Pinjra Tod activists.
Jaffrabad was the epicenter of the communal violence
While Pinjra Tod activists are alleged to have incited the road blockade, it cannot be ignored that achieving an ideological objective by bringing cities to a halt was Sharjeel Imam’s idea. And it was the act of blocking the road at Jaffrabad that pushed Delhi over the edge. A day later, BJP leader Kapil Mishra demanded the removal of Anti-CAA protestors and clearance of the road within 3 days.
He emphasized that they would not listen to anyone if the Anti-CAA rioters do not shift and clear the roads within the given time. A clash also broke out between Pro-CAA and Anti-CAA groups in Maujpur near Jafrabad that day, leading to heavy stone-pelting and vandalism of public property.
Delhi Riots: A Larger Conspiracy?
One intriguing aspect of the communal tensions that we learnt while reporting from Malviya Nagar, which is near Hauz Rani, is that most of the Muslims who had entered the area were outsiders. Locals told us that all those people had come from outside and were not local Muslims in the vicinity. “There were many unrecognizable faces in the crowd,” said an employee of the temple in front of which anti-CAA ‘protesters’ had sat down. While some felt it was because the temple was near the Gol Chakkar or the roundabout, others felt that it was to send a message.
One explanation is that the ‘protesters’ came from Hauz Rani as it is nearby but it is equally likely that they came from places which were a bit farther off such Nizamuddin or Okhla, places where the JCC had campaigned. Now, we cannot say this with certainty but we can speculate on the basis of the remarks made by the residents of Malviya Nagar that reinforcements might have arrived at Malviya Nagar from these areas.
Malviya Nagar marked in Black
Furthermore, in drone footage released by Delhi Police, it could be seen that heaps of stones were stored on the terrace of a mosque in the riot-hit area. Not only mosques but large heaps of stones were stored on the terraces of various residences, which was indicative of the strategic effort that was put into organizing these riots. We pinpointed the locations of Masjids on the map and we discovered the presence of quite a few of them in the areas most significantly riot-hit parts of Delhi.
Apart from storing ammunition, Masjids could also have served as focal points for crowds to gather. We spotted 18 Masjids in the cluster of Jaffarabad and Mustafabad, the places where riots were the most intense and where the JCC had campaigned in.
We, at OpIndia, have constantly pointed out that there was a grand conspiracy underway ever since the passage of the Citizenship Amendment Act to unleash a great evil upon the country on the backdrop of the said act. A vast network of Radical Islamic Organizations have spent a great deal of time and resource to manufacture a giant crisis in the backdrop of CAA and NRC. A student organization that is the ‘blood brother’ of the banned terrorist outfit SIMI has been involved in these violent protests.
The link between the Islamic Youth Federation that does not believe India is sovereign and Sharjeel Imam is also being investigated by the agencies. The PFI is also suspected of being involved in manufacturing the anti-CAA riots and numerous ‘activists’ associated with the PFI have been arrested across the country. Under these circumstances, and given the fact that Sharjeel Imam declared that an ‘intellectual cell’ had been established to further the goals he envisioned, there is every reason to suspect that certain ‘intellectuals’ were involved in creating the circumstances that led to the massive anti-Hindu riots in Delhi.
As we have said before, only 22 years after the Khilafat Movement had ended, Mohammed Ali Jinnah had given the call for Direct Action Day. A repeat of the Moplah Massacre might have been averted a century later but it also means that Direct Action Day is looming around the corner. And in order to prevent such a catastrophe, it is of paramount importance that members of the ‘intellectual cell’ established by Sharjeel Imam are arrested right away. Simultaneously, it is also important that the role of the JCC, if there was any, be investigated by the competent authorities.
In a major breakthrough, the National Investigation Agency on Friday arrested a Pakistan-sponsored Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorist for his involvement in the Pulwama terror attack last year, that killed more than 40 CRPF soldiers.
According to reports, 22-year-old Shakir Bashir Magrey, resident of Hajibal, Kakapora in Pulwama, had provided shelter and other logistical assistance to Islamic terrorists and suicide-bomber Adil Ahmad Dar. Magrey was introduced to terrorist Dar in mid-2018 by Pakistani terrorist Mohammad Umar Farooq and he became a full-time overground worker (OGW) of the JeM.
Adil Ahmad Dar is the Jaish terrorist and the Pulwama’s suicide bomber who led a deadly attack leading to the killing of 40 CRPF men by ramming his car loaded with 100 kg of explosives into a CRPF bus on 14 February 2019.
During his initial interrogation, Magrey disclosed that on several occasions he collected and delivered arms, ammunition, cash and explosive materials to JeM terrorists, including those involved in the Pulwama attack.
The NIA further said that Magrey revealed that he had given shelter to Dar and Pakistani terrorist Mohammad Umar Farooq in his house from late 2018 till the attack in February 2019, and assisted them in the preparation of the improvised explosive device (IED).
His shop is located near Lethpora bridge, and as advised by Mohammad Umar Farooq, he started conducting reconnaissance of the movement of CRPF convoy on Jammu-Srinagar Highway in January 2019 and informed Mohammad Umar and Dar about it, the NIA officials said.
Magrey was also involved in modifying the Maruti Eeco car and fitting IED to it in early February 2019, the NIA said.
The NIA revealed that the make, model and number of the car used in the attack were quickly ascertained to be a Maruti Eeco car through forensic tests of the tiny remnants of the vehicle, which were seized from the spot during extensive searches, which was corroborated by Magrey.
The explosives used in the attack were found to be Ammonium Nitrate, Nitro-Glycerin and RDX through forensic investigation. The investigation also established the identity of the suicide bomber to be Adil Ahmad Dar through DNA matching with that of his father.
Other terrorists involved in the Pulwama attack were Muddasir Ahmad Khan, Pakistani terrorists Muhammad Umar Farooq and IED expert Kamran. The two terrorists were killed in March 2019. The owner of the car Sajjad Ahmad Bhat, other Jaish terrorists Qari Yassir and a JeM Commander were also involved in the terror attack.
On 14 February 2019, a convoy of vehicles carrying security personnel on the Jammu Srinagar National Highway was attacked by a vehicle-borne suicide bomber at Lethpora in the Pulwama district, Jammu and Kashmir, India. The terrorist attack sponsored by Pakistan resulted in the deaths of 40 Central Reserve Police Force personnel and the terrorist Adil Ahmad Dar.
Riots have raged on in Delhi since Monday. That started off as an opposition to the Citizenship Amendment Act, an Act which expedites citizenship for the religiously persecuted minorities of neighbouring Islamic nations, soon turned into a coordinated attack against Hindus by the Islamist mobs. While sections of the media are trying to portray these as an attack on the Muslims of India by the majoritarian regime and its followers, the truth is far from it. OpIndia covered several ground reports that showed Islamist aggression against Hindus. One such report has emerged from Shiv Vihar, located in Karavar Nagar in North East Delhi, which saw widespread riots by Muslims against Hindus.
There are two schools in Shiv Vihar. One is Rajdhani Public School and the other is called DRP Public School. While the Rajdhani school belongs to a Muslim, DRP is owned by one Mr Sharma. During the anti-Hindu Delhi riots, one of these schools were gutted and the other was made a den to perpetrate violence. It does not really take a lot to guess which school met what fate.
Rajdhani school, which is owned by a Muslim was turned into a fortress from where the Islamists launched attacks in the area. Rioters were given protection and shelter in that school. It is from this school that stones were pelted, guns were fired and petrol bombs were hurled. On the rooftop of this school, our reporter found several slingshots that were used to hurl heavy stones and petrol bombs.
Rajdhani School in Shiv Vihar, which became the den of terror
When OpIndia reporters reached the rooftop of the Rajdhani school, it was evident that the preparation for riots that was stockpiled could not have been collected in a day or two. The level of preparation on the rooftop of Rajdhani school needed several days to be put together. A local man, who was at the time feeding and providing water to security forces had the same sense. He said that the number of petrol bombs and stones used would be impossible to collect and stock in a single day. On the rooftop of the school, we found several massive containers that were filled with bricks and were used to store them.
ये है वो डीआरपी स्कूल, जिसे जला डाला गया। जहाँ मुस्लिम भीड़ का कहर बरपा। यहाँ बगल के राजधानी स्कूल से रस्सी के सहारे दंगाई उतरे और उन्होंने सब कुछ राख कर दिया।
Next to Rajdhani school, there is a marriage hall where several vehicles were parked. There, a group of locals were assembled who complained that the media had turned away from Shiv Vihar and reached there very late. The locals alleged that the very Muslim mob that had turned Rajdhani school into an attack base had gutted the marriage hall as well. They also alleged that the Muslim mob that had turned Rajdhani school into an attack base had also gutted DRP school.
As we spoke to the locals, the picture kept becoming clearer. In Shiv Vihar a school was used as the base for launching attacks against Hindus, much like in Chandbagh, Tahir Hussain’s house was used as an attack base to inflict maximum damage against Hindus.
DRP school gutted in fire and ransacked by Muslim rioters
According to locals, first, a massive Muslim mob reached the Rajdhani school. Locals allege that since the Rajdhani school is owned by a Muslim, the school was chosen by the mob per a well-thought strategy.
Petrol bombs, stones and other weapons had already been arranged at the rooftop of the school. Interestingly, the locals also say that a building which was opposite the Rajdhani school was also made a terror base by the Muslim mobs. This gave him high altitude on both sides and thus, made it easier for them to target Hindus. Locals say that the Muslim mob consisted of over 1000 people.
The roof of Rajdhani schoolThe roof of Rajdhani school
Rajdhani school building is relatively higher than the rest of the buildings in the area. The surrounding areas had several Hindu establishments and homes which were targeted by the Islamist mobs. In fact, there was not one Hindu house that could be seen that had not been pelted with stones by the Islamists. Guns were also fired from the Rajdhani school and in the process, a Hindu man named Dinesh Kumar had also lost his life. Several other Hindus are injured and undergoing treatment.
Suresh, the brother of the Hindu man Dinesh who died from bullet injury inflicted by the Muslim mob has been contacted by OpIndia and the report will follow soon. He says that the bullet was lodged right in the middle of Dinesh’s head.
Seeing the strength and preparation of the Muslim mob and to contain them in that space to they don’t proceed further to the Chowk and harm other Hindus, the Hindus of the area too retaliated and got down on the streets. However, due to the massive preparation of the Muslim mobs, the loss of property and life in the Hindu side was far greater.
To stop the Muslim mob from harming other Hindus, the Hindus who had congregated in front of Rajdhani school had to bear stones being pelted on them and petrol bombs being hurled apart from guns being fired. When we asked an elderly man sitting in a shop closeby, as to why Hindus braved the Jihadi mob and congregated at Rajdhani school, he said:
“In a conflict, the one who attains higher ground always has the advantage. It is always easier to attack the ones below from higher ground and the ones who are below, suffer great loss. It was the Hindu’s compulsion and helplessness that we have to beave the stones being pelted on us, the petrol bombs being thrown to injure us and the guns being fired at us. If Hindus had not done that, then the honour of our daughters would not be intact today. If the Hindus had even moved an inch from below the Rajdhani school, the Muslim mob would have entered our homes and we all know what would have happened with our daughters then. Hindus decided to fight and struggle because that was the only way to stop the Muslim mob. Even if we got hurt or killed, we decided to stay on”.
The media focused on the breakage at Rajdhani school extensively, probably because the school is owned by a Muslim, but they did not reveal that the breakage was actually just a drama by the Islamists. The fact is that Rajdhani school had mild vandalism while DRT school was completely gutted. Why this discrepancy? What we found was rather shocking.
In the classrooms of Rajdhani school, the desks and chairs were mostly lined up properly, however, just a few desks were strewn about just to show that violence had taken place in that school as well. There were some things artificially strewn on the lowest floor of the school and the locals have alleged that was done only to project as if there was violence there, but in fact, that was not true.
ये भयावह नज़ारा है राजधानी स्कूल का, जिसके ओनर एक मुस्लिम हैं। जो काम चाँदबाग़ में ताहिर हुसैन की इमारत ने किया, वही रोल शिव विहार में इस बिल्डिंग को दिया गया। पत्थर, पेट्रोल, बम, बम बमाने की सामग्रियाँ- सब अभी तक पड़ी हुई हैं।#DelhiAntiHinduRiots2020@Ravibhu09@OpIndia_inpic.twitter.com/53ayPaQQpR
Some things were burnt there and kept in a place, which seemed to have been burnt. However, the walls of the school were not damaged at all. The school, with the door written on it – “No CAA, No NPR”. We checked every floor of the Rajdhani school, however, we could not find any major sign of vandalism or sabotage. However, on the roof, we found war-like preparation, including material for bomb-making.
It is now pertinent to note that the condition of DRP school which was gutted and many parents along with their children had gathered there. We found a chain hanging in the middle of the school, with the help of which, Islamists had entered the DRP school from the nearby Rajdhani school. Other than this, around 300 Islamists entered the DRP school from outside and burnt the school down.
DRP school which was gutted by Islamists, even the furniture was thrown and burnt
The air in DRP school was filled with the odour of burnt furniture, metal and wood. A woman who had come there along with her niece told us that the Islamists had done this to their school.
A local man there, Umesh said, “This is the handiwork of the Mohammedans”. Several other people too repeated the same but did not want to be quoted or captured in the camera. They said that they still have to live in the same locality and don’t want to be painted as a target for the Muslim mobs.
DRP school gutted by Islamists
The crux of the matter is this – A strong Muslim mob bombed, pelted stones and shot at the Hindus from the Rajdhani school and over 300 Muslims barged into DRP school and gutted it. Locals say that there are several Hindus still missing from their homes and the drains might throw up corpses that are being ignored so far.
While the media has tried to paint the Delhi riots as a pogrom against Muslims, the fact is that Muslim mobs had run amuck specifically targeting Hindus and their properties.
In the various videos and photos attached in this article of our ground report from Shiv Vihar during Delhi riots, you can see the devastation and also hear the opinion of the local people. The aggrieved Hindus say that the media is not bothered to show their sorrow and pain. They are angry and demoralized. They are also victims and a large section of the media is engaged in showing them as rioters.
This tale of two schools in Shiv Vihar, one owned by a Muslim and the other by a Hindu is at the heart of this riot and shows the stark difference between the actual aggressors and the victims.
