Clarion News
NEW DELHI – Muslim woman Mushtari Khatoon, doing stitching jobs to supplement her husband’s income, got past the rioters and rescued 40 people trapped due to the anti-Muslim violence in Delhi’s Khajuri Khas, reported Times of India.
Delhi witnessed one of the worst anti-Muslim violence for three days last week after the clash between pro-CAA and anti-CAA protesters on 23 February.
According the report, 42-year-old Khatoon mostly stays at home doesn’t often venture out. On Tuesday (February 25), when her family members needed help, Mushtari walked a kilometre through roads that had encountered the rioters, managed to dodge stones and petrol bombs, and got past rioting mobs to get to trapped her relatives in Khajuri Khas.
Mushtari managed to get all 40 people out safely with great presence of mind to move through terraces of houses till they reached a police team that gave them safe passage.
In Chandu Nagar, where she and her husband, Hakeem, live, Mushtari has since become “hero” for her neighbors.
“I knew if someone didn’t go to them, they would lose their lives,” Mushatri told the English daily on Saturday, back home, relieved that her young nieces and nephews are unhurt.
“I waited for the whole of Monday. On Tuesday, I left early in the morning,” said Mushtari. Khajuri Khas is on the main Karawal road — where mobs had gathered — from Chandu Nagar. When she reached the house where her relatives were, Mushtari realized there was no way out through the streets. The mobs were everywhere, attacking the people and setting cars, bikes and houses on fire.
“We were trapped. The next four hours were tense because mobs were going berserk around us,” Mushtari said. While they waited, the family members coordinated to ensure everyone gathered at one place.
“When the mob grew closer, I asked them to jump from the terrace of one building to the other. The possibility of the mob seeing us was less if we moved along the terraces (the houses here are cheek by jowl and the terraces sometimes continuous). I had called people from our neighbourhood for help to get us out. The women who were with me were scared and someone had to guide them,” said Mushtari, who managed to hold her nerve through the escape till they met a police team, which gave them a passage across the main road so that they could reach Chandu Nagar.
Along with police were over 100 people from Chandu Nagar who escorted Mushtari and the others back. Mushtari saved eight families, all related, that day.
Mushtari said she wasn’t scared; all she was focused on getting her family members out. “We were getting no help despite our pleas. There were men with lathis and petrol bombs and police were nowhere to be seen for over a day. If I hadn’t take the decision, many lives would have been lost,” she said. “There are so many children in our family, and most of them are girls. My wife insisted she wants to go and help them out. It is something to be proud of,” said Hakeem, who works as a labourer.
