‘I Pretended to be Dead’: How Shiv Vihar’s Muslim Families Became Refugees Overnight in Delhi Riots

New Delhi: Even as life goes on – somewhat ashen and shaken – for those remaining in Shiv Vihar, former residents of the locality who had to flee over the course of last week to save their lives from the communal violence that broke out feel time has come to a standstill.

Cramped in Gali number 4 of Mustafabad, about 25-30 families that escaped Shiv Vihar have taken shelter among locals of the Muslim-dominated area just six kilometres away. “We ran away at 5 am on Tuesday after heavy stone-pelting and firing started on Monday at around 3 pm. They started torching shops on the ground floor,” Amna Khanum, 50, says. She and her family of seven barely managed to escape the rioters after they started hurling petrol bombs in houses and setting fire to gas cylinders.

Like Amna, many have made it out within inches of being attacked, leaving behind all their valuables and documents. None of them know when they can go back home.

“I pretended to be dead”

Imran, 35, earned his living as a daily wage worker, doing odd jobs for the Al-hind Hospital in New Mustafabad. On Monday, he was on his way to work from his residence in Shiv Vihar when violence broke out. His family including a six-year-old son, five-year-old daughter, and wife were at home. “Some men approached me and asked me my name. I told them it was Imran,” he said, swaying and reeking of medicines and alcohol with his head taped up. After finding out his name, Imran says the men hit him on the head with shovels and tried to asphyxiate him with a rope. “They threw me in the ditch after that because I pretended to be dead. I passed out in the naala.”

Imran regained consciousness a few hours later and managed to run home to find his family cowering inside. After spending a night in fear, they were rescued by security forces on Tuesday morning. They brought him to his workplace, Al-hind. The hospital’s resident doctor, Dr Meraj Ekram, confirms multiple injuries to Imran’s head as well as concussions. The doctor also confirms that several patients from Shiv Vihar had received care at the institute for free since Sunday. One of the first victims he treated from the areas was an elderly priest who had been admitted with acid burns on Monday.

“Thank God my neighbour was Hindu”

Mohd Rizwan bought a house in Shiv Vihar just a year ago after locals who had lived in the area for over three decades convinced him it was safe. When they decided to leave on Monday morning itself, some of his neighbours, even Muslim ones, assured him that it was nothing. “They said this is a minor issue, that there had been peace in the locality for ages. I’m lucky I did not listen to them,” the 42-year-old tells News18.

Rizwan’s two-storey house has been entirely ransacked. He had thought his family would be able to return once the tension subsided, but that did not happen. One of his neighbours, a Hindu, called him on Tuesday and told him that some men were robbing jewellery from his house. “I asked him to stop them, but he said the mob was threatening to beat him too. I believed him, so that was that.”

A metal trader by profession, Rizwan says that the rioters were initially planning to blow the house up with a gas cylinder but his neighbour convinced the mob not to as his house, which was adjacent to the structure, would also be wrecked. He believes all his money and savings have been looted but thanks God that his neighbour was Hindu so his house was saved from destruction.

“We kept calling the police but their phones were either busy or went unanswered,” Rizwan, who is close to tears by now, adds. The CCTV camera at the mouth of Gali No. 4 is broken.

A Mustafabad local who has given his house to these “migrant” families but doesn’t want to be named for fear of being targeted says that on Tuesday, the camera was broken by goons, some of whom wore what appeared to be police uniforms. At the ground floor of his house where some of the families have set up camp, women and children wail as they mourn their lost homes while men stand around outside exchanging news of friends who were killed or injured. A man walks in with medicines and causes a small stampede. A child looks around, lost.

“By the grace of God, I have enough to provide for these families for a few days, but we will need the government to step in and provide compensation,” the owner of the house says.

A Mustafabad local who has given his house to these “migrant” families. (Rakhi Bose, News 18.com)

“You can’t be here”

While the families in Mustafabad yearn to get a sight of their homes, back in Shiv Vihar, Muslim families that live on the outskirts of the locality are leaving en masse. On Friday, families with packed bags, women carrying little babies in blankets, men young and old, walk out in file towards the main road. Subdued and rendered homeless, they shy away from intrusive cameras and get into parked cars or passing buses that will take them away from the riot-torn neighbourhood.

“I was going to start class X next year; don’t know what will happen to my education now,” a young boy who refused to be named says as he walks with his mother and sister. They are heading back to their village. The boy refuses to say where. But what about the families who have nowhere to go? Most of those displaced who spoke to News18 from Mustafabad say that they want to go back. “It is my home. I was born there, grew up there, and married there. How can they scare me out?” Rehana, a mother of three, says.

While the families in Mustafabad yearn to get a sight of their homes, back in Shiv Vihar, Muslim families that live on the outskirts of the locality are leaving en masse. (Rakhi Bose, News18.com)

Fatima, 45, however, is not as optimistic. “When I went back to get my goats which were left behind at Shiv Vihar when we escaped, I was attacked,” she says. The incident occurred on Wednesday and the men in question tore Fatima’s dupatta. She was saved by a local family that told the mob she was their relative. “I could hear invisible voices screaming from rooftops, telling me to leave. ‘You can’t be here’, they screamed. I don’t think we can go back so easily,” a disconsolate Fatima concludes.

Her four-year-old son sniffles and sneezes. He caught a cold two nights ago when he and his family had to squat on the roof in fear of their lives as the mob burnt homes. Fatima leaves to procure medicine from the man who walked in with supplies. Media interviews can wait.