Several men received gunshot injuries in fresh clashes over CAA in New Delhi, three killed

Lt Governor Anil Baijal tweeted soon after that he had instructed Delhi Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik to restore the law and order situation. Later in the evening, home secretary Ajay Bhalla told reporters that the situation had been brought under control.

NEW DELHI: Two people including a Delhi Police head constable were killed and many injured in clashes in pockets of north-east Delhi that broke out on Monday over the amended citizenship law. There have been appeals for peace from political leaders including Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal who tweeted the first SOS message to the Centre. BJP’s Manoj Tiwari followed up with his own appeal urging people to hold peace.

Lt Governor Anil Baijal tweeted soon after that he had instructed Delhi Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik to restore the law and order situation. Later in the evening, home secretary Ajay Bhalla told reporters that the situation had been brought under control.

By then, two people had died.

Head constable Ratan Lal’s death was the first one to be confirmed. Kejriwal condoled his death, reminding people that “he was one of us too”.

“Please give up violence. Nobody benefits from this,” he said. It wasn’t his first appeal of the day after clashes were reported in parts of Jaffrabad, Maujpur and Gokulpuri of the district.

A few hours later, a young man who was taken to the Guru Tegh Bahadur hospital died of gunshot injuries sustained in Monday’s violence.

Doctors at GTB hospital said 17 people had been brought in so far from east Delhi, around 7 of them with a bullet injury.

There is no firm number of the protesters injured in the clashes. A protester told Hindustan Times that many of them were being treated by local doctors rather than go to a hospital for fear that they would be the first ones to be arrested when the police gets down to identifying the miscreants

The Union Home Ministry hasn’t formally shared its assessment of the clashes but one senior official did indicate that the government believed the timing of the violence could be linked to US President Donald Trump’s visit.

Trump, who landed in Gujarat for a roadshow and a joint address with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a newly-constructed cricket stadium, the world’s largest, has reached national capital Delhi. It is being apprehended, according to this version, that the violence was aimed at drawing international attention.

But people who have been protesting the citizenship law at Shaheen Bagh in south Delhi and northeast Delhi allege the violence was designed to malign the peaceful protests that had been continuing against the citizenship law.

Monday’s violence is the second round of clashes. On Sunday also, a group supporting CAA had protested the blockade by those demonstrating against the law a kilometre away, setting off stone throwing.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Kapil Mishra, who lost the Model Town seat in the assembly elections, had issued a call to gather pro-CAA protesters on Sunday afternoon. Later he posted a video, a senior police officer stood next to him, giving the police an “ultimatum” to clear the anti-CAA protesters within three days.

“They want the situation in Delhi to remain volatile. That’s why they [anti-CAA protesters] are blocking roads and creating a riot-like atmosphere. We have not picked up a single stone till now. We will wait till [US President Donald] Trump is here [in Delhi]. But after that, we won’t even listen to you [the police] if the roads aren’t cleared. We are appealing to you to clear Jafrabad and Chand Bagh…. If not, we’ll have to take to the streets,” Mishra said in the video.

On Monday evening after the violence broke out, he blamed anti-CAA protesters for the violence and even went to the extent of claiming that religious places were being targeted by rioters. Eventually in an appeal aimed at anti and pro-CAA groups, he tweeted an appeal for peace.

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