Clarion India
NEW DELHI — Popular Front of India (PFI) Chairman O M A Salam has said that the fact-finding report of the Delhi Minority Commission (DMC) showed that communal instigation provoked by Hindutva groups was responsible for the violence in North-East Delhi, and that the police had implicated innocent people to save Hindutva culprits.
“The report prepared by the Committee after collecting evidence and interviewing the victims of violence is an important document. It proves that the claims of Delhi police and central government were false and their actions were highly discriminatory against Muslim victims”, said Salam in a statement on Friday.
The protests that erupted in Delhi after the passage of CAA had the participation of people from all walks of life and had remained peaceful in Shaheen Bagh and North-East Delhi.
Salam, citing the findings of the DMC team, said, “In the wake of the Delhi assembly election campaign during December 2019- February 2020, there were a number of speeches by BJP leaders openly inciting people for violence against anti-CAA protesters. This was followed by visible attempts by Sangh-backed right-wing groups and supporters to intimidate and harm anti-CAA protesters in Delhi.”
The PFI chief recalled the shootings that took place at the protest sites in Shaheen Bagh and Jamia and reminded the incapability of the Delhi Police in preventing the incidents. “BJP leader Mr. Kapil Mishra made a call for violence in the presence of Deputy Commissioner of Police, Mr.Ved Prakash Surya”, he recalls quoting the DMC report.
He further said, “Findings also reinforce the suspicion that the violence was pre-planned. Large numbers of outsiders were involved along with the locals. The report documents 11 mosques, five Madrasas, one shrine and one graveyard that were attacked and damaged in the violence.”
“Police were reluctant to intervene or help people even while the violence was happening in front of them. In many instances, police were complicit and they even encouraged the attackers”, he quoted from the report.
In some cases, as per the report, victims themselves have been arrested just because they came forward to file cases against the named individuals. “The report rejects unfounded police accusations against Muslim organizations, leaders and individuals, including Popular Front, linking them with the violence”, he pointed out.
The PFI finds the report supportive and welcomes it and at the same time, urges the Central and state governments, the judiciary in particular, to act on the recommendations in the interest of justice to the victims and preventing such violence in future.