The “border” is being fortified with gates on either side of a sewer that cuts through northeast Delhi where riots killed as many as 52 people a fortnight ago.

Hindus and Muslims both feel they need more security. Steel fabrication, the residents say, is the only business that is booming since the riots singed this periphery of the capital.

Nine bodies have been fished out of four interconnected sewers that drain into the Yamuna. Hindu-majority Brijpuri and Muslim-dominated New Mustafabad are divided by one such sewer with garbage strewn on both banks.

“On February 25, it was like the India-Pakistan border,” said Ankit Rajput from Brijpuri on the southern bank.

Rajput, an AIIMS employee, and his Hindu neighbours at Brijpuri’s Lane 3 have contributed Rs 2,500 to Rs 3,000 each to erect four iron gates — two each at either end of the lane that is barely wide enough to let a car through. The gates will cost a little over Rs 2 lakh.

Brijpuri residents say a mob of around 300 people from across the sewer hurled stones and fired towards their lane during the riots last month, injuring Class IX student Vinesh Kumar who was struck on his right palm when he peeped out of a window.

Vinesh told this newspaper that he would appear for his exams, scheduled to begin on Thursday, with the help of a writer. The bullet broke his hand, which has now almost healed but is still bandaged, making it impossible for him to write.

“The gates may not stop a mob, but they will slow them down. They will at least give us enough time to bolt ourselves in our homes. We’re not waiting for the government grant to erect the gates. The money had been promised to us by a local Aam Aadmi Party leader. It’s a question of life and death,” said Manoj Singh, who owns a printing shop.

Heaps of rotting garbage in the area and foul fumes from the sewer pose a more immediate threat to health. However, the fear of more riots and suspicions about neighbours are agonising the locals more every day.