Tehran 14 March_The Indian police have openly confessed to the closure of a route in the country’s capital of New Delhi that turned into a scene of deadly brutal clashes last month between Hindu nationalist mobs and Muslim protesters, a fact that members of the Muslim community in India have been insisting on since the anti-government rallies started there.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club(YJC)_In the worst communal violence in decades in New Delhi on February 23, nearly 50 people were killed and over 100 wounded as groups chanting Hindu nationalist slogans torched mosques and dozens of Muslim houses after looting shops and businesses.
The deadly violence, taking place on the eve of a state visit by US President Donald Trump who is infamous for his anti-Muslim rhetoric and policies, followed widespread protests over a citizenship law that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government introduced in December last year.
The legislation offered a path to Indian citizenship for six religious groups from neighboring countries, specifically excluding Muslims.
During the February 23 incident, Muslim protesters were accused by the Indian police as well as radical Hindus of triggering clashes and the ensuing violence by blocking a major route that linked Shaheen Bagh district in New Delhi to Noida city in India’s northern state of Uttar Pradesh.
In a new report published in response to an Indian court inquiring about the incident, however, the Indian police revealed that Noida-Delhi route had been barricaded by Delhi Police and not the protesters.
Saket Gokhale, a political activist, shared in a Twitter thread the response to a Right to Information Act (RTI) query he had received from Delhi Police.
“In reply to my RTI about the Noida-Delhi road closure, the Delhi Police have admitted that what Shaheen Bagh protesters said all along was true -- that the Kalindi Kunj alternative road from Noida was blocked by the Delhi Police & NOT the protesters,” read the tweet.
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