Death toll in New Delhi’s worst communal violence in decades hits 33

The initial violence erupted late Sunday after Hindu groups objected to Muslims holding a demonstration over a citizenship law

Armed mobs set fire to shops and cars. Locals complained that police did nothing to stop the violence

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Family members of a man, who was killed in mob violence, weep outside a mortuary in New Delhi. Photo: AP

Published: 3:24pm, 27 Feb 2020Updated: 11:42pm, 27 Feb 2020

Some sobbed quietly in the corner. Others angrily railed against India’s government. And still more – Hindus and Muslims alike – just sat catatonic with grief as bodies wrapped in white shrouds were wheeled in and out of a hospital mortuary in northeast Delhi.

The scenes captured the grim aftermath of the worst communal violence to hit India’s capital in nearly three decades, triggered by Hindu groups who attacked mostly Muslim protesters demonstrating against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s new citizenship law.

At least 33 people died and more than 200 were injured over three days of rioting. Sunil Kumar, director of the Guru Teg Bahadur (GTB) Hospital, said on Thursday the hospital registered 30 deaths while the chief doctor at Lok Nayak Hospital said that three people had died there.

“All of them (at the GTB) had gunshot injuries,” Kumar said.

Family members of the deceased said the violence began spiralling on Sunday soon after Kapil Mishra, a member of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) threatened to take action if police did not clear the protesters before the end of US President Donald Trump’s two-day state visit. By the time the American leader showed up on Monday, the violence had already spun out of control.

Delhi has been a hotspot in deadly protests that swept across India after the parliament passed the Citizenship Amendment Act in December. The measure, which fast-tracks citizenship for religious minorities from neighbouring countries but excludes Muslims, became a lightning rod in the city’s local elections this month. Some BJP members even exhorted mobs to violence against those protesting the law.