Moonga Nagar is a Hindu-populated area in the largely Muslim-dominated New Mustafabad. Across the road - called Karawal Nagar road- is Muslim-populated Chand Bagh, where the body of an Intelligence Bureau (IB) staffer Ankit Sharma was found in a drain.

Sharma lived in Hindu-populated Khazoori Khas, which is adjoining Chand Bagh. Hussain’s building stands between Sharma’s lane in Khazoori Khas and the drain In Chand Bagh.

Shobharam says that on Monday noon, he pulled down the shutter of the workshop and went upstairs in his house. The chaos was making it impossible to work. His employer, Somnath, did not come to the workshop that day at all.

Shortly later, the attackers began to enter the lane.

Once inside, the mob made the terrace of his neighbour Bijendra Verma as their attack launchpad. The temple stands between Shobharam‘s and Bijendra’s house.

“The attackers had brought a ladder. They tried to climb onto the temple but, given the height of the wall, they couldn’t. So they shifted the ladder to my house and climbed on the first floor,” says Bijendra.

“They ordered all of us to go inside our rooms, and threatened us against coming out. Then they climbed on the terrace and bolted it. We could not access it anymore,” he says.

Residents say the attackers had brought sackfuls of broken bricks and heavy stones. They now began to throw them at the temple and other houses.

Scared of the stones constantly landing at his house, Shobharam picked up his grandchild and scurried downstairs, he says. He took shelter in a neighbouring house. Others in the family followed him.

A few men entered the lane and set the ground floor of his workshop on fire. The residents began to frantically call up the police and the fire brigade, but no one took the multiple calls made.

Just then, a petrol bomb from across the street landed on the top floor. The entire building was now on fire. Shobharam could do nothing but watch the destruction, silently and helplessly.

“The fire subsided when there was nothing left to burn,” he says.

When the mob left in the evening, Shobharam tried to go inside the building but all he could see was charred wood and twisted metal. His rickshaw is also burnt, he says.

He emerged out and instead went to the terrace of the temple, to see if anything in his house was spared. He could see nothing.

Since then, Shobharam and his won Kuldeep have been living in a room provided by neighbours. His daughter-in-law and grandchild have been sent off to a relative’s family in northwest Delhi. “Someone sent us these clothes. I have no other clothes left,” says Kuldeep.

This correspondent asked for his bank account details for possible help. “All those documents have been burnt. All papers are burnt. My caste certificate is also burnt,” he says.

“Wo kaagaz kaagaz kar rahe hain. Mere kaagaz kyun jalaaye [They are all talking about papers. Why did they burn my papers?” ]he says.

The workshop owner, Somnath, visited the place only on Wednesday. “Maalik [employer] came here with his wife. He burst into tears,” says Shobharam.

Bijendra says his terrace looks like a war-site. The wash-basin is broken, the walls and the floor destroyed.