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| Delhi rocked by deadly protests during Donald Trump's India visit | Delhi rocked by deadly protests during Donald Trump's India visit |
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| Protestors clash ahead of US president’s visit, with further conflict over controversial citizenship laws | Protestors clash ahead of US president’s visit, with further conflict over controversial citizenship laws |
| Donald Trump’s visit to Delhi has been overshadowed by deadly protests that have continued to engulf India’s capital, as Muslim and Hindu groups clashed violently and the death toll rose to seven. | |
| The bloody violence, which has left the streets of northeast Delhi in flames and continued to escalate on Tuesday, has so far left one policeman and eight civilians dead, and over 150 injured. | |
| It began on Sunday in Khajuri, northeast Delhi, when a Hindu mob violently descended on a group of Muslim protesters. The group had been peacefully blocking a local road for several days in protest against a controversial new citizenship law which many believe discriminates against Muslims. | |
| The Hindu group reportedly threw stones and began beating the Muslim demonstrators, who then responded with violence. Stones were thrown and shops, cars and petrol stations in areas of Khajuri and Bhajanpura were set alight, as were Hindu temples and Muslim prayer grounds. The police responded with tear gas and grenades and were reportedly firing molotov cocktails at the clashing groups. | |
| Sachin Kumar, 35, an autorickshaw driver, had witnessed the riots on the streets of Khajuri over the past two days and said it was the first time he had seen Muslim and Hindus in such violent conflict. | |
| “It is a religious riot that began when the Hindus tried to move Muslim protesters using violence,” said Kumar. “It has got completely out of hand. I saw Hindu temples burning, Muslims’ shops and prayer areas attacked and both sides were throwing stones. Cars were on fire and even the schools have been burned. Police were using tear gas and lathi sticks [a martial arts weapon] to try and stop the mobs and people were so scared, everyone was hiding inside their houses. This is the first time in my life I have ever seen anything like this.” | |
| Kumar said the mobs – made up of hundreds of people – had been armed with “revolvers, stones, sticks, even swords” and on the Hindu side he had heard the mobs shouting “Jai Sri Ram”, a well known Hindu-nationalist slogan. | |
| As the violence continued on Tuesday, Delhi’s chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal urged people to keep the peace as he held a meeting with the home minister, Amit Shah, local politicians and officials from the violence-hit areas. | |
| “I am very worried about the prevailing situation in certain parts of Delhi,” Kejriwal tweeted. “All of us together should make all efforts to restore peace in our city. I again urge everyone to shun violence.” | |
| A section 144 order, which prevents gatherings of more than four people, was imposed on various areas in the north-east of Delhi where the violence was concentrated and schools in the area have been closed. However, on Tuesday, the clashing religious mobs were once again out on the streets in northeast Delhi. | |
| Trump met the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, on Tuesday afternoon, as the streets of Delhi continued to burn. While US officials have said that Trump will raise issue of religious freedom in his private discussion with Modi in Delhi, in his speech to a rally in Ahmedabad on Monday, Trump lavished praise on Modi for his democratic and tolerant leadership of India. | Trump met the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, on Tuesday afternoon, as the streets of Delhi continued to burn. While US officials have said that Trump will raise issue of religious freedom in his private discussion with Modi in Delhi, in his speech to a rally in Ahmedabad on Monday, Trump lavished praise on Modi for his democratic and tolerant leadership of India. |
| At a joint press conference between Trump and Modi on Tuesday afternoon, no mention was made of religious freedom, authoritarianism or the continued unrest in India. Instead the pair focused on their efforts to make a trade deal, though they said discussions were in their infancy. “I am optimistic we can reach a deal of great importance to both countries,” said Trump. | |
| Modi has been grappling with continuing domestic unrest since his Hindu nationalist BJP government passed the citizenship amendment act (CAA) in December, which grants citizenship for refugees of every major South Asian religion except Muslims. In conjunction with a planned national register of citizens (NRC) it is feared the law will make India’s Muslim community aliens in their own country and undermine the secular foundations of India by making religion the basis of citizenship. | |
| The anti-CAA demonstrations, which have taken place in almost every major Indian city over the past three months and show no sign of abating, have been met with increasingly authoritarian measures, including incidents of mass arrests and harassment of the Muslim community and reports of torture of activists, protestors and innocent Muslim bystanders. | |