After the recent violence in Delhi, there has been a concerted attempt to brand the unfortunate events as an “anti-Muslim pogrom” orchestrated by the “Hindutva goons”.

However, the peddlers of this narrative forget that the anti-CAA protests had been full of hate speeches and violence since the very beginning, and the anti-CAA leaders had been blatantly lying to whip up a frenzy.

Also read: Delhi Riots: Here’s A List Of Hate Speeches That Were Barely Reported In The Run Up To The Violence

The recent violence has occurred in northeast Delhi.

Nearly 7,000 Central Paramilitary Forces have been deployed in the affected areas of northeast district. Besides, Delhi Police has also deployed personnel.

A look at the Jaffrabad and Seelampur areas in northeast Delhi, which have been the locus of violence, indicate that the riots had long been in the making.

Seelampur in Delhi is dominated by the Muslim community and is the constituency of AAP MLA Haji Ishraq.

Anti-CAA protests were violent since the beginning

The Seelampur area saw violence, arson, stone-pelting and attack on common citizens in the very first wave of the anti-CAA protests.

On 17 December, angry anti-CAA protesters were flooding the streets and pelting stones at the police force in the Seelampur-Jaffrabad area.

The miscreants vandalised Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) buses along with private vehicles. They were also caught throwing bricks at school buses, amidst chants of “Allahu Akbar”.

Citizens had raised concerns at the time that in the buildings near the narrow lanes of Seelampur and Jaffrabad, stones had been gathered on the rooftops to attack the police.

Seven metro stations in northeast Delhi had to be closed in the face of violent anti-CAA protests.

On 20 December, Delhi Police conducted a flag march in Seelampur.

Reportedly, 10 companies of paramilitary forces had to be deployed, and 1,500 other security personnel were stationed in the sensitive areas. Drones were also being used to monitor the situation.

The police at the time said that the situation had been brought under control, but as soon as the drone surveillance in the Seelampur area was relaxed, the violence re-surfaced, a News 18 special correspondent stated.

On 27 December things again escalated in Seelampur. Outlook reported that the region had “turned into a fortress with heavy police force deployment”.

“In Seelampur and Jaffrabad, which have been the epicentres of riots since December, only one community was doing the attacking ...when Jamia blew up on 17 December, Seelampur was used as an “east of the Urals” safe zone, to use a sovietism,” Abhijit Iyer-Mitra says in a thread on Twitter.