This is the last article you can read this month
You can read more article this month
You can read more articles this month
Sorry your limit is up for this month
Reset on:
Please help support the Morning Star by subscribing here
THE death toll amid India’s violent rioting rose to 24 today, with the figure expecting to increase as hospitals continue to take in the wounded.
Since Sunday, clashes in New Delhi between Hindu mobs and Muslim protesters against the citizenship law have left nearly 190 injured.
Some of the dead had bullet wounds while others were stabbed or received head injuries, according to a hospital medical director.
Today, the troubled areas saw an uneasy calm after the government banned public assembly in certain regions.
Large police reinforcements patrolled the areas and schools remained closed.
A female student complained to national security adviser Ajit Doval that police were not protecting them properly, and mobs had vandalised the area and set shops and vehicles on fire.
As the streets of New Delhi were wrecked, Prime Minister Narendra Modi hosted a lavish reception for US President Donald Trump.
Mr Modi finally broke his silence on the riots today, tweeting that “peace and harmony are central to [India’s] ethos.”
“I appeal to my sisters and brothers of Delhi to maintain peace and brotherhood at all times,” he said.
India’s main opposition leader Sonia Gandhi accused Mr Modi’s Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of creating an environment of hatred and its leaders of inciting violence through provocative speeches.
She said the speeches painted protesters against the citizenship law as anti-nationalist, Pakistan-funded Muslims.
New Delhi’s High Court has ordered the police to review videos of hate speeches allegedly made by three leaders of the BJP and decide on prosecuting them, according to a local news agency.
Resident Rouf Khan said mobs with iron rods, bricks and bamboo sticks attacked the homes of Muslims on Tuesday.
“After forcing their way inside the homes, they went on a rampage and started beating people and breaking household items,” Mr Khan said, adding that he and his family had to run and take shelter inside a mosque that he said was guarded by thousands of Muslim men.
“I don’t know if our house was burned or not, but when we were running away we heard them asking people to pour kerosene and burn everything down,” he added.
