Religious riots between Hindus and Muslims in New Delhi, India have left about 38 people dead, and 200 injured since Sunday.
The protests are centered around a new citizenship law, the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) which was passed in December 2019 by the Parliament of India.
The CAA grants an easier path to citizenship for Hindus, Christians, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jain, and Parsi, who are illegally in the country “if they can show they were persecuted because of their religion in Muslim-majority Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan”, NBC reports.
According to reports, Muslims were specifically excluded from the CAA causing hundreds of Indian Muslims to protest in the streets.
Recently, protestors from Mustafabad have been met by violence initiated by Hindu mobs. Muslim resident Fakhruddin Ahmed shared with CBS News, that a sit-in protest was broken up by a Hindu mob shouting “Hindu religious slogans”, which led to retaliation.
While police are present at the protest-turned-riot, they are accused of not stopping the violence.
According to CBS News, on Wednesday, India’s Supreme Court criticized polices’ lack of timeliness, noting that had police responded to riot situations in a timely manner, lives could have been saved.
According to Rouf Khan, the Hindu mobs “wielded iron rods, bricks and bamboo sticks and attacked the homes of Muslims amid chants of “Jai Shri Ram,” or “Victory to Lord Ram,” the popular Hindu god of the religious epic “Ramayana.”
Muslim residents fled from their homes to a nearby mosque for refuge. Furthermore, Khan overheard the Hindu mobs requesting that kerosene be poured out and “burn everything down”. Additional areas such as Chand Bagh, Bhajanpura, Gokulpuri, Maujpur, Kardampuri and Jaffrabad were televised with “streets littered with mangled remains of vehicles, rocks and burned tires.”
The ongoing riots in New Delhi are considered to be “the deadliest in decades.”
Sunday’s conflict began just before President Trump made his first visit to India.
Photo courtesy: Pixabay/Photos Pixels
Milton is a freelance writer. Visit his blog Blessed Are The Forgiven.
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