New Delhi: Despite the Indian government's assurance on Friday that there were no major incidents of violence in the previous 36 hours, a ragpicker was killed in the riot-hit area of northeast Delhi.
The violence that unfolded in Jaffrabad, Maujpur, Babarpur, Chand Bagh, Shiv Vihar, Bhajan Pura, Yamuna Vihar areas of northeast Delhi have claimed at least 42 lives and left over 200 injured while also unleashing large scale mob-led destruction of properties.
Frenzied mobs torched houses, shops, vehicles, a petrol pump and pelted stones at locals and police personnel in the past one week.
The latest killing has come after the Delhi Police claimed that peace prevailed in the national capital.
17-year-old Salman along with his father Ayub Ansari, worked as a rag picker in Shiv Vihar area. Thinking that no more riots were happening in the capital, 60-year-old Ansari left for work early on Friday morning but a mob assaulted him mercilessly.
According to Salman, his head was smashed with a heavy object and his leg was also injured.
"I was sleeping with my father on the road in Loni today. My father left for work around 5 in the morning. I tried to stop him from going anywhere as I was scared due to the violence, but he said 'what will we eat if we don't earn' and left," Salman, a differently abled by birth said, according to a report by news agency IANS. "We did not eat any thing for two-three days," he added.
"Two people brought my father in a very bad condition. His head was bleeding. He asked me to take him to any hospital," Salman said.
"I kept him in a cart and took him to at least three hospitals, but no one admitted him. The hospital demanded Rs 3,000 for his treatment. I brought him to GTB Hospital today with the help of a few people, who even helped me with some money but by the time he was dead."
Salman belongs to Bijnor in Uttar Pradesh and had only his father as his family.
He said, "I will have to live all by myself as my mother is separated from my father and I have no other family member."
A few people at GTB Hospital who voluntarily helped Salman to follow up the postmortem procedure and even planned to arrange for the last rites of Ansari.
Families of deceased encounter more woes at GTB hospital
Police apathy, lack of coordination and delay in getting the bodies of their loved ones were the woes narrated by the families of the deceased outside the GTB Hospital mortuary on Friday.
Grieving relatives, who lost their loved ones in a communal riot in northeast Delhi, said the least the authorities could do is be "sympathetic" to them.
The family of Ashfaq Hussain had been waiting at the hospital since Wednesday to get his body. Hussain, who had got married on February 14, was killed during the violence that erupted in northeast Delhi earlier this week.
"They (the hospital authorities) have not even kept the bodies in a freezer. The bodies have started decomposing and smell is emanating from them," said Hussain's brother.
Another relative of Hussain said,"The authorities are not doing anything. If the GTB Hospital doesn't have facilities for conducting autopsy of many bodies in a day, they should have sent the bodies to other hospitals."
The family of Dilbar Singh Negi had come from Uttarakhand to claim his body and said they were made to run for paperwork in a city which they are not familiar with.
Many other families said the Delhi Police could have set up a help desk for families.
"There are many families who come here everyday and go back dejected. Many of them are uneducated and do not even have relevant documents and face trouble in paperwork. We are trying to assist them," said Mumtaz, a lawyer from Krishna Nagar, who has been helping families outside the hospital's mortuary.
Nasir, brother of Aamir and Hashim, who were killed during the riots, said the family is waiting for the bodies for burial.
"The autopsy has not been conducted yet. I have learnt that the autopsy will be conducted tomorrow," he said.
A family member of a deceased, requesting anonymity, said, "We have heard from other persons too and even experienced ourselves that when we call up the investigating officer of our case for some paperwork, he says he was unwell. Even other families experienced similar things where the IO in case says he was either in the court or posted in the riot-hit area."
(With inputs from IANS and PTI.)
