The Missing Son

When the mob left the Durga temple lane, it took away a minor boy who has still not been recovered, as per locals. What’s worse, the police did not take the family’s complaint on the night of 30 June and made it wait till late evening even on the next day, they say.

Mona Saxena, mother of the missing boy named Keshav, showed Swarajya a copy of the FIR that was registered around 9 pm on 1 July. Her statement says that some unknown Muslim men took away her son from home around 11:30 pm. The men entered the colony vandalising the temple and shouting “Allahu Akbar”, and began thrashing the residents. Her son was sleeping inside the house but the men barged in and took him away. The statement further says that she is very worried for her son and the police should act against this “terrorism”.

The police booked the alleged kidnappers under IPC sections 363 (kidnapping), 452 (house-trespass) and 34.

Mona told Swarajya, “My son had intervened when Gupta and that Muslim man were fighting. The Muslim man had even slapped him. My son had come home, changed his clothes and gone off to sleep."

Two nights and a day later, a wailing Mona and her distressed husband Devendra have no clue of their son’s whereabouts. The colony is left shaken and is fearing the worst. The boy, who quit school to financially support the family, is the elder of the couple's two sons.

The Talk Of Migrating From The Area

Residents of Durga temple lane say that local Muslims want even the 50-odd Hindu families living among a thousand Muslim families in Lal Kuan to leave so they can “take over” the entire area. They say that the area used to have a lot of Hindus till the 1980s when constant curfews and violence triggered their migration.

The latest clash could further drive them away.

“If they shout Allahu Akbar and break our temples, or abuse our community for no reason, then naturally Hindus will migrate out. There are many families that are seriously considering the option now,” one resident said.

His wife said there was no recent history of any clashes between the two communities in the area. “We exchange sweets on festivals. Some of their men come to our colony to burst crackers on Diwali. I don’t know what’s got into them,” she said.

The 30 June incident may be a tipping point in their decision to migrate but Hindu families complain that even right now, they don’t enjoy religious freedom at par with the Muslim majority which is degrading to them as a community.

“We haven’t organised a jagran in many years. Police don’t give us permission. We can’t get even half of the road for our religious functions while Muslims occupy the entire streets on their festivals. We have to be careful with our crackers on Diwali and water colours on Holi while they roam with swords on Muharram without any fear,” a resident said. “A few years ago, our youth tried to organise a Sandhya on the road. Police made us wrap up by 10 pm,” he complained.

The Road To Normalcy In Hauz Qazi

Some sections of the media and opinion-makers are not only playing down the violence but also prematurely claiming that the area has already returned to normalcy. This is highly misleading. On Tuesday, when Swarajya visited Lal Kuan, it resembled a militarised zone due to heavy security. More than 1,000 Delhi Police and paramilitary personnel armed with anti-riot gear were deployed throughout the day. On the main road, Police had put on barricades separating Muslim and Hindu crowds numbering in hundreds, chanting “Allahu Akbar” and “Jai Shri Ram” at each other in a game of competitive sloganeering. The market was shut.

Swarajya spoke to several men from the Muslim crowd. Surprisingly, many expressed ignorance of the temple desecration. Shakeel Ahmed, a local, said that all he knew was that two men fought over parking and some people gathered outside the police station. He said he had not heard of the temple vandalism.