Akhtar’s Hindu landlord, whose house is right above his eatery, told his tenant that he will not rent his place again to him for fear of another attack on Muslims. Indeed, if Akhtar’s shop escaped getting burnt, it was only because his and the adjoining properties were Hindu-owned.

Where Muslim stores were self-owned and stood alone, they were plundered and set ablaze. So accurately marked were the Muslim retailers that few, if any, from the community bought the theory that the violence was instigated and fanned by “outsiders” from UP who accepted blood money and the locals had no role.

Stories of Hindus and Muslims mutually saving one another from the goons invariably interspersed a grim narrative but bolstered the “outsiders” theory that in hindsight romanticised and falsified a backdrop in which the two communities just about established a working relationship through the years but shared little or no bonhomie.

In the absence of an abiding reciprocal trust even in the areas with a mixed demography, both Hindus and Muslims were susceptible to internalising the stereotypes about one another that was engendered in a tense ambience.

It is easy to understand why the RSS-BJP propaganda, emanating from a false picture of the Muslims that questioned the community’s “loyalty” to India, found takers. Post the 1947 Partition and the transfer of population, the North and West of India became fertile soil to foster the RSS’s fanciful accounts of Muslims, based on myths and quasi-myths.

Victim after victim confirmed that the scale of destruction was inconceivable without local help and connivance. Indeed, after prodding, the owner of a provision store, a Baniya and a BJP votary by his admission, conceded that the area’s Hindus played a big part in the violence. But he also added that the response was “retaliatory”.

“If we didn’t answer them (the Muslims) back with stones and firearms, we might have been massacred. Hindus saved themselves because we are inspired by (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi and (UP chief minister) Yogi Adityanath,” said Keshav Gupta.

The trail of evidence speaks contrariwise: no temple, shops and homes of Hindus in Gokalpuri were touched. On the other hand, the Jamati mosque was gutted down while a tentative estimate had it that nearly 70 Muslim homes were ransacked and those that were owned by members of the community, incinerated.

Akhtar paid two months’ rent and a security deposit to his landlord as surety. Most Hindu shopkeepers in the market were ambiguous about returning the advance payment. Having lost their documents in the melee, Muslims said they had no “proof” to reclaim their money.

Akhtar says if and when he got the advance back, by a “stroke of luck”, he might think of starting a micro trade like selling vegetables and fruits on a cart. “No Hindu landlord will lease his property to a Muslim again,” he says resignedly. February 25 shattered his dreams of building a life in Delhi, getting married and with “Allah’s blessings”, eventually possessing his own shop and home.

The violence broke the economic spine of Muslims who used the limited spaces that were available to them to live a life of relative calm and independence. Not far from the DDA shops stands a tyre market that was originally located near the Jama Masjid on Chandni Chowk.

Eighteen years ago, the Muslims, who vended tyres and auto parts, were relocated to Gokalpuri that entailed hardship because their homes were in Old Delhi around the mosque. The shift meant a long commute but Naseeruddin, who owns four shops in the market, said they were reconciled to the inevitability.

On the night of February 24, after the market was closed and locked, the lone guard who stood vigil informed Muslims that a mob of about 60 men set the shops afire. “We heard rumours that mischief was afoot. The attackers would be paid Rs 5000 each to carry out the operation but what could we do except down the shutters and leave?” said Naseeruddin.

The area’s police station is a hop, skip and jump away from the tyre market but not a single cop stepped out when the fire blazed. Nothing remained of the market, except clumps of molten rubber, shards of metal and the acrid odour of sulphur and carbon black. No Muslim insured his business so the prospect of starting afresh remained bleak.