Funerals in lane after lane in northeast of the capital

It was Gali No. 16 on Saturday, Gali No. 6 on Sunday and Gali No. 4 on Tuesday — northeast Delhi’s Mustafabad is witnessing the sordid aftermath of violence: funerals.

After the four days of violence in Delhi, lane after lane are watching the dead return home.

On Tuesday, the body of a 19-year-old, Aquib, was brought back to the lane where his family lives on rent.

Outside his home, wrapped in white, his body was kept on a charpoy. Women, including his mother and two sisters, held on to the bedstead and wailed, even as men prepared for a funeral.

Aquib was in the intensive care unit (ICU) of GTB Hospital since February 24, when the violence started. He was hit in the head in the midst of stone pelting near Bhajanpura when he was trying to rush home. He died late on Monday.

On February 23, an allegedly inflammatory speech by BJP leader Kapil Mishra at Maujpur Chowk had led to mob violence. By next afternoon, violence had spread to several parts of Mustafabad and neighbouring Shiv Vihar in northeast Delhi where the homes of Muslim families were specifically targeted.

“Aquib was out to buy clothes in Bhajanpura for his sister’s wedding in April,” his older brother Waseem said.

Their father, Ikramuddin, sells clothes on a pushcart while Waseem sells bangles in various localities.

After he saw his injured brother, Waseem took him to a hospital nearby but was immediately referred to GTB Hospital. The doctors told him that his brother was bleeding profusely.

Waseem claimed that despite his brother’s condition, they were harassed by the doctors and the hospital staff.

“They sent us to a different hospital to get a CT scan and no ambulance was provided. We had to call an ambulance of our own. And I had to bring him back on an e-rickshaw,” he said.