Popular Front of India has demanded a judicial inquiry by a committee headed by sitting High Court judge into the anti-Muslim violence that rocked several localities of north-east Delhi in the last week of February.
The party has also urged the Delhi Police to start immediately the much-delayed arrests of the Sangh Parivar leaders who fanned the flames of violence and to stop the witchhunt of innocent Muslims and release them from jail after withdrawing the false cases on them.
On Friday, the Delhi police crime branch has sealed a private school that was torched by a Hindu mob in the violence and arrested its owner Faisal Farooq in connection with the ‘riot’.
There are many reports from the ground that the Delhi police is making the Muslim victims, who were harmed and lost their properties, as accused in the violence. “We were the victims of hatred and violence and now we are being targeted by policemen too,” a Muslim youth lives in violence-affected area told Maktoob.
“Muslim youngsters were arbitrarily picked up by police in Delhi. Many families don’t know where they were taken,” journalist Aditya Menon tweeted on Wednesday.
In the resolution passed by the meeting of the National Executive Council, the PFI has stated that the violence that rocked North East Delhi for four days starting from 23 February was not a standalone incident of conflict between two sides but a communal pogrom against Muslim community planned and perpetrated by right-wing Hindutva leaders and their follower mobs.
“Delhi State Government should give Rs 1 crore compensation to the families of those who were killed as they have done in the case of the killed police constable,” they added.
Today, DMK leader and Member of Parliament T.R. Balu also demanded a judicial inquiry by a committee headed by a retired judge of the Supreme Court into the Delhi violence.
Speaking in the Lok Sabha during a discussion on Delhi riots, Balu said the February 24 violence in north-east Delhi was triggered by BJP leader Kapil Mishra’s statements.
Earlier Congress also demanded an independent judicial inquiry into Delhi anti-Muslim violence.
“We do not believe that the two SITs that have been set up will unearth much about the perpetrators of the Delhi violence. As a result, we want an independent judicial inquiry led by a sitting judge of the high court or the Supreme Court,” two days ago Congress general secretary Mukul Wasnik told media.
