The toll of inter-community violence in New Delhi worsened Tuesday to thirteen dead, announced to AFP a local hospital, several districts of the Indian capital being since Sunday the scene of scenes of urban guerrillas.
Rioters armed with stones, sabers and sometimes even pistols, sow chaos and terror in peripheral Muslim-majority peripheral areas in the northeast of the megalopolis, some ten kilometers from the center. 150 people were injured, of which ten are in critical condition, according to the latest report.
Burned buildings and vehicles
"Most of the deaths were caused by firearms," said Dr. Rajesh Kalra of GTB hospital in the northwest of the megalopolis, adding that eight of the deaths occurred on Tuesday. Clashes between supporters and opponents of a controversial citizenship law deemed discriminatory to Muslims by its detractors have degenerated into community clashes between Hindus and Muslims.
Buildings, businesses and vehicles were burned. Several journalists were attacked. Stones littered the streets. In the evening, an AFP reporter could not access the affected areas: the security forces had erected roadblocks several hundred meters away and prohibited any entry.
Police in riot gear were deployed in large numbers. The residents barricaded themselves in their house, lights off. “I call on everyone to stop the violence. This madness must stop, "said Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, according to comments reported by the Press Trust of India.
In an hour Tuesday evening at the GTB hospital, AFP journalists saw several injured brought to the emergency room, some of whom were unconscious. “Since yesterday, we have been calling on the police to put in place a curfew, to send in reinforcements. But no one came, "Saurabh Sharma, a student in a neighborhood affected by the violence, who brought an affected friend, told AFP.
"Two days ago stones were thrown in my street and people were injured," he added. The outbreak of violence comes during President Donald Trump's state visit to India, which ended with talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday in New Delhi.
The Hindu nationalist leader has been confronted since December with a vast movement of protest against new legislation which facilitates the granting of Indian citizenship to refugees, provided that they are not Muslims. This text crystallized the fears of the Muslim minority to be relegated to the rank of second class citizens, in this nation where Hindus represent 80% of the population. The law has sparked the biggest protests in the South Asian country since Narendra Modi came to power in 2014.
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