ALMOST EVERY PART OF NORTH EAST DELHI that was ravaged by targeted violence reported its own Babri Masjid. Every other kilometre or so, at least one mosque was either completely burnt down to the accompaniment of “Jai Shri Ram” slogans or damaged by trishul- and iron rod-wielding attackers. Announcing the triumph of belligerent Hindutva, saffron flags were planted atop the main minarets of mosques. Copies of the Quran were desecrated; in some cases, entire shelves of the holy book were burnt. Often, the attackers reminded the faithful: “Har masjid Babri banegi [Every mosque will be reduced to Babri Masjid].”
At all places, the pleas of imams and muezzins went unheeded, as did their desperate calls to the police. The imams either fled or were badly mauled. In one case, acid was thrown at a cleric in Shiv Vihar. Delhi Police personnel stood accused of inaction or, worse, colluded with the attackers.
Take, for instance, the case of Fatima Masjid in Khajuri Khas Extension, the colony where the house of Mohammed Anees, a Border Security Force jawan, was gutted by the mob. The faithful had just completed their Fajr (dawn) prayers on February 25. Young men wearing saffron scarves and sporting tilak on their foreheads gathered in the lane early in the day and raised slogans of “Desh ke gaddaro ko, goli maaro saalo ko [shoot the traitors]”. Visibly shaken, Muslim families in the vicinity took refuge inside the mosque, confident that it would not be touched in case of violence. The young men dispersed but were back outside the mosque a few hours later. This time they were wearing helmets or had covered their faces with black cloth and were carrying gas cylinders and petrol bombs. Some had even worn shields in anticipation of retaliatory violence. This helped them because as soon as the men tried to break open the mosque’s front door, there was stone pelting by the Muslims inside.
This story is from the March 27, 2020 edition of FRONTLINE.
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This story is from the March 27, 2020 edition of FRONTLINE.
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