2020 Delhi riots

2020 Delhi riots
(top) Muslim homes and businesses were set on fire during the rioting in Shiv Vihar, Delhi.[a]
(bottom) A relief camp at Eidgah in Mustafabad, Delhi set up by the Government of Delhi[b] and the Muslim Waqf board, with beds for 800 women and 700 men, and with doctors from St Stephens Hospital and Holy Family Hospital volunteering.[c]
Date23 February 2020 – 29 February 2020 (6 days)
Location
North East Delhi, India

28°40′55″N 77°16′26″E / 28.682°N 77.274°E / 28.682; 77.274
Caused by
Goals
Methods
Casualties
Death(s)53[10]
Injuries200+[11]
Arrested2200 (including detained)[12]
Map
Part of a series on
Violence against Muslims
in independent India
Major incidents

The 2020 Delhi riots, or North East Delhi riots, were multiple waves of bloodshed, property destruction, and rioting in North East Delhi, beginning on 23 February 2020 and brought about chiefly by Hindu mobs attacking Muslims.[13][14] Of the 53 people killed, two-thirds were Muslims who were shot, slashed with repeated blows, or set on fire.[15][16][17] The dead also included over a dozen Hindus, who were shot or assaulted.[16][18] More than a week after the violence had ended, hundreds of wounded were languishing in inadequately staffed medical facilities and corpses were being found in open drains.[19] By mid-March many Muslims had remained missing.[13]

Muslims were marked as targets for violence.[20][21][22] In order to have their religion ascertained, Muslim males—who unlike Hindus are commonly circumcised—were at times forced to remove their lower garments before being brutalised.[23][24][25] Among the injuries recorded in one hospital were lacerated genitals.[26][27] The properties destroyed were disproportionately Muslim-owned and included four mosques, which were set ablaze by rioters.[28] By the end of February, many Muslims had left these neighbourhoods.[14] Even in areas of Delhi untouched by the violence, some Muslims had left for their ancestral villages, fearful for their personal safety in India's capital.[24]

The riots had their origin in Jaffrabad, in North East Delhi, where a sit-in by women against India's Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 had been in progress on a stretch of the Seelampur–Jaffrabad–Maujpur road, blocking it.[29][30] On 23 February 2020, a leader of the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, Kapil Mishra, called for Delhi Police to clear the roads, failing which he threatened to "hit the streets".[31][32] After Mishra's ultimatum, violence erupted.[33] Initially, Hindu and Muslim attacks were equally lethal.[34] Most deaths were attributed to gunfire.[35] By 25 February 2020, the balance had shifted.[34] Rioters wearing helmets and carrying sticks, stones, swords or pistols, and the saffron flags of Hindu nationalism entered Muslim neighbourhoods, as the police stood by.[36][37] Chants were heard of "Jai Shri Ram" ("Victory to Lord Rama"), a religious slogan favoured by prime minister Narendra Modi's party.[17] In the neighbourhood of Shiv Vihar, Hindu rioters attacked Muslim houses and businesses for three days, often firebombing them with cooking gas cylinders and gutting them without resistance from the police.[38] In some instances, Muslims countered perceived threats by returning the violence; on the 25th a Muslim mob approached a Hindu neighbourhood throwing stones and Molotov cocktails and firing guns.[39] During this time, stories were also told of Sikh and Hindu families coming to the aid of besieged Muslims;[40] in some neighbourhoods, the religious communities cooperated in protecting themselves from violence.[41]

The Indian government swiftly characterised the violence as spontaneous.[14] The Delhi Police, which is directly overseen by India's central government, moved into the area in strength on 26 February after the Delhi High Court had ordered it to help remove injured victims to hospitals.[35][42] India's national security advisor, Ajit Doval, visited the area; the prime minister, Narendra Modi, made an appeal for peace on Twitter.[35] The Delhi police were accused by the affected citizens, eyewitnesses, human rights organizations and Muslim leaders around the world of falling short in protecting Muslims.[19] Videos showed police acting in a coordinated manner against Muslims, on occasion purposefully helping Hindu gangs.[43] Witnesses said some police officers joined the attacks on Muslims.[44]

After the violence had abated in the thickly-settled mixed Hindu-Muslim neighbourhoods of North East Delhi, some Hindu organisations continued to parade alleged Hindu victims of Muslim violence in an attempt to reshape the accounting of events and to further inflame hostility towards Muslims.[45] About 1,000 Muslims sought shelter in a relief camp on the fringes of Delhi.[46] Gangs of Hindus appeared in several Muslim neighbourhoods in the days preceding the Hindu festival of Holi, celebrated in 2020 on 9 March, to scare Muslims into abandoning their homes.[47] In the midst of prevailing anti-Muslim attitudes, senior lawyers in Delhi were not accepting cases on behalf of the riot victims.[48] Among Hindus and Muslims who continued to live in their neighbourhoods, the violence created potentially long-living divisions.[49] For at least two weeks after the rioting, they avoided each other during the day and at night blocked their lanes with barriers.[49]

  1. ^ Ameen, Furquan (28 February 2020). "Shiv Vihar: Home for 15 years, but not any more". The Telegraph. Retrieved 10 March 2020.
  2. ^ Vincent, Pheroze L. (4 March 2020), "After riots, volunteers offer healing touch at Delhi relief camp", The Telegraph (Kolkata), New Delhi, retrieved 12 March 2020
  3. ^ a b "Delhi violence: Four video clips that court made cops watch". India Today. 26 February 2020. Retrieved 26 February 2020.
  4. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference Mishra DNA 2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Trivedi, Saurabh; Bhandari, Hemani (24 February 2020). "Policeman among 5 killed in Delhi violence over CAA". The Hindu. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
  6. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference NDTV1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference Mosque burnt was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ "4 Burnt Mosques in 48 Hours Show Delhi Riots Are About Religion, Not CAA". HuffPost India. 27 February 2020.
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ a b c d Seemi Pasha (12 March 2020). "Ground Report: As Amit Shah Praises Delhi Police, Riot Victims Tell a Different Story". The Wire. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
  11. ^ "It's Official: Police Says 53 Dead, 200+ Injured, 2200 Arrests in Delhi Riots". The Wire. 8 March 2020. Retrieved 9 March 2020.
  12. ^ "Delhi riots: 690 cases registered, violence victims find shelter in relief camps". India Today. 7 March 2020. Retrieved 9 March 2020.
  13. ^ a b Ellis-Peterson, Hannah; Azizur Rahman, Shaikh (16 March 2020), "Delhi's Muslims despair of justice after police implicated in riots", The Guardian, Delhi, retrieved 17 March 2020, As the mob attacks came once, then twice and then a third time in this north-east Delhi neighbourhood, desperate stallholders repeatedly ran to Gokalpuri and Dayalpur police stations crying out for help. But each time they found the gates locked from the inside. For three days, no help came. ... Since the riots broke out in Delhi at the end of February, the worst religious conflict to engulf the capital in decades, questions have persisted about the role that the Delhi police played in enabling the violence, which was predominately Hindu mobs attacking Muslims. Of the 51 people who died, at least three-quarters were Muslim, and many Muslims are still missing.
  14. ^ a b c Gettleman, Jeffrey; Abi-Habib, Maria (1 March 2020), "In India, Modi's Policies Have Lit a Fuse", The New York Times, retrieved 1 March 2020, This past week, as neighborhoods in India's capital burned and religiously driven bloodletting consumed more than 40 lives, most of them Muslim, India's government was quick to say that the violence was spontaneous... Many Muslims are now leaving, hoisting their unburned things on their heads and trudging away from streets that still smell of smoke.
  15. ^ Gettleman, Jeffrey; Yasir, Sameer; Raj, Suhasini; Kumar, Hari (12 March 2020), "'If We Kill You, Nothing Will Happen': How Delhi's Police Turned Against Muslims", The New York Times, Photographs by Loke, Atul, retrieved 13 March 2020, Two-thirds of the more than 50 people who were killed and have been identified were Muslim.
  16. ^ a b Slater, Joanna; Masih, Niha (6 March 2020), "In Delhi's worst violence in decades, a man watched his brother burn", The Washington Post, retrieved 6 March 2020, At least 53 people were killed or suffered deadly injuries in violence that persisted for two days. The majority of those killed were Muslims, many shot, hacked or burned to death. A police officer and an intelligence officer were also killed. So too were more than a dozen Hindus, most of them shot or assaulted.
  17. ^ a b Slater, Joanna; Masih, Niha (2 March 2020), "What Delhi's worst communal violence in decades means for Modi's India", The Washington Post, retrieved 15 March 2020, Zaitoon, 40, who goes by one name, half-cried as she rummaged through the items. She said mobs entered her lane shouting "Jai Shri Ram," or "Victory to Lord Ram," a slogan favored by Modi's party, and demanded to know which houses were occupied by Muslims. She said she saw a neighbor set on fire in front of her, an account repeated by other witnesses.
  18. ^ "Delhi Riots Death Toll at 53, Here Are the Names of the Victims". The Wire (India). 10 March 2020. Retrieved 23 August 2023.
  19. ^ a b Frayer, Lauren (7 March 2020), Delhi Riots Aftermath: 'How Do You Explain Such Violence?', NPR, retrieved 7 March 2020, But hundreds of wounded are languishing in understaffed medical facilities. Corpses are still being discovered in drainage ditches. Victims are still dying in hospitals. The death toll has reached 53... Police are facing accusations from victims, witnesses, human rights groups, opposition politicians and Muslim leaders worldwide that they failed to protect Muslim citizens, and in some cases, even incited attacks themselves.
  20. ^ Withnall, Adam (27 February 2020), "Targeted for being Muslim", The Independent, archived from the original on 27 February 2020, retrieved 4 March 2020, His was one of around eight homes belonging to Muslims targeted by a rampaging mob in this Delhi neighbourhood on Tuesday afternoon, picked for destruction because they sat next to a mosque in this otherwise mostly Hindu-populated neighbourhood, vandalised, looted and then gutted with fire.
  21. ^ Wamsley, Laurel; Frayer, Lauren (26 February 2020), In New Delhi, Days Of Deadly Violence And Riots, NPR, retrieved 25 March 2020, Hindu mobs appear to have targeted Muslims primarily – not people protesting the citizenship law.
  22. ^ Abi-Habib, Maria (5 March 2020), "Violence in India Threatens Its Global Ambitions", The New York Times, retrieved 6 March 2020, But as the leaders celebrated each other in India's capital, Hindu mobs began going after Muslim protesters in neighborhoods just a few miles away while the police looked on or joined in.
  23. ^ Landrin, Sophie (4 March 2020), "Attaques contre les musulmans à New Delhi : " J'ai pensé que j'allais mourir " Trois jours d'attaques meurtrières perpétrées par les nationalistes hindous dans le nord de la capitale indienne laissent des vies dévastées.", Le Monde, retrieved 25 March 2020, D'autres musulmans ont été déshabillés pour vérifier s'ils étaient circoncis, battus à mort et jetés dans les égouts à ciel ouvert de ce quartier pauvre et poussiéreux. (Other Muslims were stripped naked to check if they were circumcised, beaten to death and thrown into the open sewers of this poor and dusty neighbourhood.)
  24. ^ a b Ellis-Peterson, Hannah; Azizur Rahman, Shaikh (6 March 2020), "'I cannot find my father's body': Delhi's fearful Muslims mourn riot dead", The Guardian, Delhi, retrieved 7 March 2020, According to a witness, Arshad kept quiet, so the mob forced down his trousers. On seeing he was circumcised, as is common among Muslims in India, the mob instantly beat him to death. His bloodied body was later found in a gutter, his pants still around his ankles... In the aftermath, even in unaffected areas of Delhi, an exodus of Muslim families began this week, with swathes packing up their bags and returning for good to their home villages, fearing for their safety in the capital.
  25. ^ Wamsley, Laurel; Frayer, Lauren (26 February 2020), In New Delhi, Days Of Deadly Violence And Riots, NPR, retrieved 25 March 2020, Mobs have stopped people and demanded to know their religion. 'At least one photojournalist said he was asked to remove his pants to prove his religious identity,' the BBC adds. (Circumcision is common among male adherents of Islam.)
  26. ^ Saaliq, Sheikh; Schmall, Emily (28 February 2020), "Prayers at fire-bombed mosques as India's riot toll grows", Associated Press News, retrieved 25 March 2020, Al-Hind hospital, a small clinic with two doctors, was the nearest medical facility for many of the victims. When the riots broke out, it turned into a chaotic emergency ward, its doctors dealing for the first time with injuries such as gunshot wounds, crushed skulls, stabbings and torn genitals.
  27. ^ Landrin, Sophie (4 March 2020), "Attaques contre les musulmans à New Delhi : " J'ai pensé que j'allais mourir " Trois jours d'attaques meurtrières perpétrées par les nationalistes hindous dans le nord de la capitale indienne laissent des vies dévastées.", Le Monde, retrieved 25 March 2020, A l'entrée de l'hôpital, un homme qui officie à l'accueil a tout consigné sur son registre et son téléphone portable. Quelque 800 personnes, explique-t-il, ont été amenées entre le 23 et 25 février, certaines dans un état épouvantable. Des corps écartelés, carbonisés, des blessures par balles, des visages défigurés par de l'acide, des hommes atteints aux parties génitales. " Nous n'avons que de faibles moyens. Nous avons juste posé des garrots, des pansements et tenté de stopper le saignement des blessés ", confie-t-il. (At the entrance to the hospital, a man who works at the reception desk wrote everything down in his register and his mobile phone. Some 800 people, he says, were brought in between February 23 and 25, some in appalling condition. Torn, charred bodies, gunshot wounds, acid-disfigured faces, men with damage to the genitals. 'We have only weak means. We just put tourniquets, bandages and tried to stop the bleeding of the injured,' he said.
  28. ^ Yasir, Sameer; Raj, Suhasini (28 February 2020), "Indian Police Sweep Through Riot Zone, Making More Arrests", The New York Times, retrieved 4 March 2020, The property destruction has also been lopsidedly anti-Muslim, with many Muslim-owned motorcycles, cars, houses, shops and factories reduced to ashes. At least four mosques were set on fire during 48 hours of rioting.
  29. ^ Basu, Soma, "Delhi: The Anatomy of a Riot", Diplomat, retrieved 6 March 2020, BJP leader Kapil Mishra issued a 'three-day ultimatum' to police to clear a protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) by women at the Jaffrabad Metro Station.
  30. ^ "Protests at Jaffarabad against CAA; security beefed up, 2 metro stations closed". United News of India. 23 February 2020. Retrieved 2 March 2020. Demanding revocation of Citizenship (Amendment) Act, protesters—mostly women—on Sunday took to streets and blocked the road below Jaffrabad metro station.
  31. ^ "BJP leader Kapil Mishra's 3-day ultimatum to Delhi Police". India Today. 23 February 2020. Retrieved 26 February 2020.
  32. ^ ""We'll Be Peaceful Till Trump Leaves," BJP Leader Kapil Mishra Warns Delhi Police". NDTV.com. Retrieved 26 February 2020.
  33. ^ Kuchay, Bilal (24 February 2020). "Fresh violence erupts in Indian capital during anti-CAA protests". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 25 May 2020.
  34. ^ a b Gettleman, Jeffrey; Yasir, Sameer; Raj, Suhasini; Kumar, Hari (12 March 2020), "'If We Kill You, Nothing Will Happen': How Delhi's Police Turned Against Muslims", The New York Times, Photographs by Loke, Atul, retrieved 13 March 2020, When the violence started on Feb. 23 – as Hindu men gathered to forcibly eject a peaceful Muslim protest near their neighborhood – much of it became two-sided. By day's end, both Muslims and Hindus had been attacked, and dozens had been shot, apparently with small-bore homemade guns. But by Feb. 25 the direction had changed.
  35. ^ a b c "Donald Trump and Narendra Modi hug as Delhi burns". The Economist. 26 February 2020. Both sides soon resorted to shooting; most of the fatalities, which included two policemen, were caused by gunfire... The police, which in Delhi are controlled by the central government, only deployed in strength on February 26th. On the orders of a court, they also began registering complaints of incitement. Mr Modi's national-security adviser toured affected districts, giving his 'word of honour' that residents could feel safe. The prime minister himself, after three days of silence, belatedly tweeted a plea for calm.
  36. ^ Landrin, Sophie (26 February 2020). "Inde : New Delhi en proie à de violents conflits intercommunautaires" [India: New Delhi plagued by violent inter-community conflicts]. Le Monde (in French). Retrieved 4 March 2020. Des hordes d'émeutiers casqués, armés de bâtons, de pierres, de sabres ou de pistolets, portant des drapeaux safran – la couleur des nationalistes hindous – ont pris d'assaut cette zone. Des véhicules, des échoppes, ainsi que des maisons appartenant à des musulmans, ont été incendiés sous les yeux d'une police totalement passive. (Hordes of helmeted rioters, armed with sticks, stones, sabers or pistols, carrying saffron flags – the color of Hindu nationalists – stormed this area. Vehicles, stalls, as well as houses belonging to Muslims, were set on fire in front of a totally passive police force.)
  37. ^ Gettleman, Jeffrey; Yasir, Sameer; Raj, Suhasini; Kumar, Hari (12 March 2020), "'If We Kill You, Nothing Will Happen': How Delhi's Police Turned Against Muslims", The New York Times, Photographs by Loke, Atul, retrieved 13 March 2020, Hindu mobs fanned out and targeted Muslim families. Violence crackled in the air. Police officers watched as mobs of Hindus, their foreheads marked by saffron stripes, prowled the streets with baseball bats and rusty bars, looking for Muslims to kill. The sky was filled with smoke. Muslim homes, shops and mosques were burned down.
  38. ^ Ellis-Peterson, Hannah; Azizur Rahman, Shaikh (6 March 2020), "'I cannot find my father's body': Delhi's fearful Muslims mourn riot dead", The Guardian, Delhi, retrieved 7 March 2020, In Shiv Vihar, from where they and many others had escaped, almost every Muslim home lay in blackened ruins, and two mosques looked like bomb sites. For three days, Hindu rioters attacked Shiv Vihar's Muslim localities and ran mayhem without any resistance from police. The mobs repeatedly used gas canisters as weapons, setting them alight and exploding them in Muslim properties so that the walls crumbled entirely.
  39. ^ Slater, Joanna; Masih, Niha (2 March 2020), "What Delhi's worst communal violence in decades means for Modi's India", The Washington Post, retrieved 15 March 2020, In the riots that swept northeastern Delhi, Muslims mobilized to counter perceived threats and clashed with Hindus. A two-lane road separates Muslim-dominated Mustafabad from Hindu-dominated Bhagirathi Vihar. Hindus say a large mob approached from the Muslim side Tuesday night, throwing stones and Molotov cocktails and firing guns. 'It became difficult to save our lives,' said Yogesh Kumar, 24, an accountant. 'When the fire spreads, everything gets torched,' Sanjay Kumar, 40, said bitterly as he looked around at the destroyed storefronts and burned facades along a lane leading from the main road. He blamed Kapil Mishra, the BJP leader who issued the original threat to protesters who mounted a sit-in.
  40. ^ Ellis-Peterson, Hannah (1 March 2020), "Inside Delhi: beaten, lynched and burnt alive", The Guardian, Delhi, retrieved 27 March 2020, But for all the tales of discord, dozens of accounts were also given to the Observer of how Sikh and Hindu families helped save their Muslim neighbours, sheltering them in their homes as the violence broke out or helping them escape as the mobs descended.
  41. ^ Cite error: The named reference Barton2020 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  42. ^ "First the mob, then the law", The Economist, 12 March 2020, retrieved 15 March 2020, During the riots in Delhi, it was only after the high court ordered police to help evacuate wounded people to hospital that the city's 80,000-person police force began to intervene, after 48 hours of arson and murder.
  43. ^ Gettleman, Jeffrey; Yasir, Sameer; Raj, Suhasini; Kumar, Hari (12 March 2020), "'If We Kill You, Nothing Will Happen': How Delhi's Police Turned Against Muslims", The New York Times, Photographs by Loke, Atul, retrieved 13 March 2020, Now, more evidence is emerging that the Delhi police, who are under the direct command of Mr. Modi's government and have very few Muslim officers, concertedly moved against Muslims and at times actively helped the Hindu mobs that rampaged in New Delhi in late February, burning down Muslim homes and targeting Muslim families.
  44. ^ Slater, Joanna; Masih, Niha (6 March 2020), "In Delhi's worst violence in decades, a man watched his brother burn", The Washington Post, retrieved 6 March 2020, The police force – which is directly overseen by the central government – has come under criticism for failing to stop the violence. Witnesses say some officers joined the attacks on Muslims.
  45. ^ Gettleman, Jeffrey; Yasir, Sameer; Raj, Suhasini; Kumar, Hari (12 March 2020), "'If We Kill You, Nothing Will Happen': How Delhi's Police Turned Against Muslims", The New York Times, Photographs by Loke, Atul, retrieved 13 March 2020, The religiously mixed and extremely crowded neighborhoods in northeastern Delhi that were on fire in late February have cooled. But some Hindu politicians continue to lead so-called peace marches, trotting out casualties of the violence with their heads wrapped in white medical tape, trying to upend the narrative and make Hindus seem like the victims, which is stoking more anti-Muslim hatred.
  46. ^ Gettleman, Jeffrey; Yasir, Sameer; Raj, Suhasini; Kumar, Hari (12 March 2020), "'If We Kill You, Nothing Will Happen': How Delhi's Police Turned Against Muslims", The New York Times, Photographs by Loke, Atul, retrieved 13 March 2020, Some Muslims are leaving their neighborhoods, having lost all faith in the police. More than 1,000 have piled into a camp for internally displaced people that is rising on Delhi's outskirts.
  47. ^ Gettleman, Jeffrey; Yasir, Sameer; Raj, Suhasini; Kumar, Hari (12 March 2020), "'If We Kill You, Nothing Will Happen': How Delhi's Police Turned Against Muslims", The New York Times, Photographs by Loke, Atul, retrieved 13 March 2020, India's population is about 80 percent Hindu, and gangs of Hindus threatened Muslims in several Delhi neighborhoods to leave before the Hindu holiday Holi that was celebrated this week.
  48. ^ Wallen, Joe (13 March 2020), "Lawyers representing Delhi riot victims 'attacked by police'", The Telegraph, archived from the original on 12 January 2022, retrieved 15 March 2020, Many senior lawyers are refusing to take up cases on behalf of the victims of the riots amidst wider anti-Muslim sentiment, stoked by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Instead, volunteer lawyers – who are typically young and Muslim and from organisations like the Indian Civil Liberties Union – are taking on cases for free.
  49. ^ a b Jain, Rupam; Ahmed, Aftab (16 March 2020), "In Indian capital, riots deepen a Hindu-Muslim divide", Reuters, retrieved 26 March 2020, But the riots that raged through the district last month appear to have cleaved lasting divisions in the community ...During the day, Hindus and Muslims shun each other in the alleys of the Delhi districts that were hardest hit by the unrest in February. At night, when the threat of violence is greater, they are physically divided by barricades that are removed in the morning.


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