Ten days after the communal violence in the Indian capital, the Delhi Police Commissioner has revealed that the situation in the northeastern portion of the city is under control and normalcy has returned.
The statement comes after the Delhi Police chief met Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday.
“Our security force is deployed in the area to give confidence to the people that nothing of this sort will happen again. We are on top of the situation and everything is back to normal in the area", said Delhi Police Commissioner S. N. Srivastava.
Residents of some of the riot-hit areas in Delhi still fear that situation is tense and attacks could happen again.
“I run a small confectionary shop but have not opened it yet. The situation here is still tense and many people have not stepped out of their houses. I have been living here since 1981 but had not seen something brutal as this. Many outsiders came and destroyed our houses, shops, religious places, schools and all of this happened when police were present here", said Sharanjeet Singh, a Sikh resident in one of the most affected areas, Chandbagh in Delhi.
According to official data, 79 houses were burnt, 52 shops were set ablaze, 2 schools were set on fire, 3 factories were gutted, and 4 mosques were charred during the violence.
India's capital city witnessed an unprecedented scale of violence not seen in decades in just three days starting 23 February. The violence saw rioters setting ablaze and ransacking a number of properties, pelting stones, firing, and thrashing people.
Clashes erupted over the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), legislation enacted in December 2019 in order to facilitate citizenship for illegal immigrants from six religious minorities: Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, and Christians, who had fled from neighbouring Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan before 31 December 2014.
Since the legislation does not extend to Muslim immigrants, it has sparked a strong backlash among members of the community, who alleged that it is discriminatory, leading to month-long protests.
