Modi calls for calm as Delhi riots toll rises to 27

AFP / Sajjad HUSSAIN
A security personnel stands guard on a street near burnt-out premises on February 26 following clashes in New Delhi

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for calm Wednesday after Delhi's worst sectarian violence in decades left at least 27 people dead and prompted demands for a military curfew.

This week's battles between Hindus and Muslims have seen mobs armed with swords, guns and acid raze parts of a northeastern district of the Indian capital.

The clashes, which also left more than 200 injured, were triggered by protests against a citizenship law seen by many critics as anti-Muslim and part of Modi's Hindu nationalist agenda.

They exploded into brutal violence on Monday and Tuesday, with residents forced to flee their homes after seeing dwellings destroyed, a mosque attacked and a tyre market and two schools set ablaze.

"I appeal to my sisters and brothers of Delhi to maintain peace and brotherhood at all times. It is important... calm and normalcy is restored at the earliest," Modi tweeted on Wednesday.
AFP / Prakash SINGH
Firefighters douse burnt-out tyre market premises on February 26 following clashes in New Delhi


Delhi's chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal, a political opponent, called for the army to be deployed and for a curfew to be imposed.

Delhi Police spokesman Mandeep Singh Randhawa told reporters 106 people had been arrested.

The US embassy issued a travel warning advising citizens to exercise caution.

- Mourners bury father -

Sunil Kumar, the director of Guru Teg Bahadur (GTB) Hospital where many of the wounded were taken, told AFP on Wednesday almost 60 had gunshot injuries.

Twenty-five people died at GTB, while another two passed away at Lok Nayak Hospital Wednesday.

In one of the first funerals, the body of Furkaan, 30, was buried as hundreds watched on and helped throw sand into his grave.

Furkaan, who is survived by his wife and two children, was killed when he was hit by a stray bullet while going out to buy groceries, his friends said.

On Wednesday morning residents cleaned out the blackened interior of a trashed mosque, including a charred Koran, burned out during the violence in the Ashok Nagar area.

A video circulated on social media and verified by AFP showed men ripping off the muezzin's loudspeaker on top of the mosque's minaret and installing a Hindu religious flag.

Locals accused the police of doing nothing to help -- or worse.

"We tried to make many calls to the police... that people are entering our neighbourhoods chanting 'Jai Shree Ram'," said Naeem Malik, referring to a popular Hindu chant.
AFP / Sajjad HUSSAIN
A man looks at the burned premises and shops on February 26 following clashes in New Delhi

"But police did not help us at all. We tried to save the women at the protest site but instead policemen started beating us up," he said, showing wounds on his leg and hands.

Elsewhere a firetruck tried to put out blazes from the previous night, the air thick with smoke from still-smouldering cars, motorbikes, shops and homes.

"They say we are not Indians, but we are Indians by blood," Farhat, 22, a student in Islamic studies, said in her father's shop as police looked on.

The area is home to mostly poorer economic migrants from elsewhere in India living in shanty neighbourhoods.

- 'Politics of hate' -

The unrest comes amid growing concerns at home and abroad about India's direction and the future of its 200 million Muslims since Modi's Hindu nationalist BJP swept to a second term last year.

Sonia Gandhi, president of the opposition Congress party, on Wednesday accused BJP figures of giving "inflammatory speeches spreading an atmosphere of hatred and fear", including in Delhi city elections this month.
AFP /
India protests


Since winning a second term, Modi's government has revoked the partial autonomy of Kashmir, India's only Muslim-majority state, and said it wants to conduct a nationwide citizens' register to weed out "infiltrators".

These measures plus the citizenship law, which fast-tracks claims for persecuted non-Muslim religious immigrants, have stoked fears that Modi's master plan is to remould India as a Hindu nation, something he denies.

Modi, 69, was accused of doing nothing to stop religious riots in 2002 as chief minister of Gujarat when around 1,000 people died, mostly Muslims.

The citizenship law has sparked months of nationwide protests as well as clashes that killed more than 25 people in December.

The latest flare-up in violence occurred as US President Donald Trump held talks with Modi in Delhi on Tuesday. The visit was not visibly interrupted.

AFP