Some 80 percent of Indians identify as Hindus. But we know that someone helped them to identify our homes and shops." "The attackers wore masks, we don't know who they were. "Everything else is intact," the 26-year-old told AFP. We never ever imagined that something like this will ever happen," Mohammad Saleem told AFP.Ĭontract labourer Faisal said only the local mosque and the homes and shops of the five to six Muslim families in the neighbourhood were attacked. But at times like this, our faith gets shaken. "Our (Hindu) neighbours really tried to help us a lot. Muslim residents of Ashok Nagar - a poor, working-class neighbourhood crisscrossed by narrow alleys and open sewers - said they had always felt welcomed.īut overwhelmed by grief over losing their homes and livelihoods, and believing they were targeted by mobs, some said they didn't know if they could trust their neighbours again. They also offered us tea," said Bilkis, who uses only one name. "They (Hindu neighbours) gave us buckets of water to douse the fire. "They gave us refuge and protected us even after some of the attackers banged on their door to check if they were hiding us," he said.īilkis, a mother-of-seven whose house in Ashok Nagar was also destroyed during the rampage, said her Hindu neighbours took in her family as she blamed outsiders for the mayhem. Waiting outside the morgue to collect his body, Mohammad Chotu said he managed to stay alive after fleeing to his Hindu neighbour's home with his wife and five children. Goat farmer Anwar Chotu, 58, was dragged out of his home in Shiv Vihar, shot dead and his body thrown into a fire by rioters, his brother Mohammad Chotu told AFP. In the wake of the violence, stories emerged of people beaten, stabbed or shot to death by mobs, but also of Hindu neighbours who offered refuge to their Muslim friends. The violence, the worst in Delhi in recent years, broke out after protests against a citizenship law that critics say is anti-Muslim descended into battles between Hindus and Muslims on Monday and Tuesday. How can we trust anyone now after what has happened to us?" Khan told AFP. "We only survived because we were away for a wedding in the village.
Nearby, Mohammad Rashid Khan looked blankly at the charred remains of his three-storey home once filled with laughter and festivities. "I was here since my childhood, I worked very hard (to set up the business) but now I have lost everything." "I had two shops here for the last 10 years and they burnt them down," Mohammad told AFP in a quivering voice as he broke down in tears.
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