Displaying items by tag: religious riots

As the Hindu mob descended, Delhi market stalls were reduced to ashes, just 100 metres away from two police stations. The mobs came three times; desperate stallholders repeatedly ran to the police stations crying out for help, but the gates were locked from the inside. No help came. ‘How could they set fire to our market in such a horrific way, while it is so close to two police stations, and not be stopped?’ said a shopkeeper. ‘If I complain against the police I will face very serious trouble.’ The worst religious conflict to engulf Delhi in decades raises questions about the role that the police played. 75% of the 51 dead were Muslim, and many Muslims are still missing. The catalyst for the riots is widely acknowledged to be a BJP leader declaring that if the police did not clear the streets of objectors to the new citizenship law, his supporters would be ‘forced to hit the streets’.

NEW DELHI: Tensions remained high in India's capital on Thursday (Feb 27), as thousands of riot police and paramilitaries patrolled streets littered with the debris from days of sectarian riots that have killed 38 people.

An uneasy calm has descended over the affected northeast fringes of the Indian capital, punctuated by sporadic outbreaks of violence overnight.

The unrest was the latest bout of violence over Prime Minister Narendra Modi's citizenship law, which triggered months of demonstrations that turned deadly in December.

India's parliament has passed a bill which offers amnesty to non-Muslim illegal immigrants from three neighbouring countries.  The bill provides citizenship to religious minorities from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

The government, led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), says this will give sanctuary to people fleeing religious persecution.  Critics say the bill is part of a BJP agenda to marginalise Muslims.

The Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) passed the upper house of parliament, where the BJP lacks a majority, by 125 votes to 105 on 11 December. It had cleared the lower house two days earlier.

The bill has already prompted widespread protests in the north-east of the country which borders Bangladesh, as many people there say they will be "overrun" by immigrants from across the border.

Sunil Kumar, director of the Guru Teg Bahadur (GTB) Hospital, said on Thursday it had registered 34 deaths, adding that "all of them had gunshot injuries".

Many of India's 200 million Muslims fear the citizenship law - combined with a mooted citizens' register - will leave them stateless or even sent to detention camps.  They and critics see Modi's right-wing ruling party, which is linked to once-banned militaristic Hindu group RSS, as wanting to turn officially secular India into a Hindu nation.

His party has denied the allegations but in recent weeks BJP politicians, including in an ugly recent campaign for Delhi elections, have called the demonstrators "anti-nationals" and "jihadists".

The Evangelical Fellowship of India in a statement said:  'The Christian community in India, and especially in the Delhi region, is deeply shocked and pained at the bloodshed, carnage and mayhem let loose on the streets, homes and mosques of the national capital.  The Evangelical Fellowship of India condemns this reprehensible violence that has so far resulted in 23 deaths, as the work of vested political interests and forces of hate.

'We appeal to the people of Delhi to maintain peace, and not to give in to vicious vitriolic fed by rumors and spread through social media. We must not let hate win.

'EFI calls the Church at large to uphold the people of Delhi in our prayers. This Ash Wednesday, as we begin the season of Lent, let us pray for peace and harmony to prevail in our land, and for violence to cease.

More at: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asia/tensions-high-in-new-delhi-as-death-toll-from-sectarian-riots-12478078  More at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-50670393 
More at: http://efionline.org/articles/350/20200226/efi-statement-on-the-violence-in-delhi.htm