Begin typing your search above and press return to search.

Delhi violence toll goes up to 38

By The Assam Tribune

NEW DELHI, Feb 27 - The death toll in Delhi�s worst riots in more than three decades climbed to 38 on Thursday as the violence ebbed but did not subside completely and thousands of people began picking up the pieces of their shattered lives and livelihoods.

Four days after communal clashes that began in northeast Delhi over the amended citizenship law and spiralled into bloodshed, arson and looting, the body of a man was found in a drain in Johri Enclave and there were scattered incidents of vehicles and shops being set on fire in Maujpur, Bhajanpura and other areas.

While there was no precise figure for the number of arrests, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the Delhi High Court that 48 FIRs were lodged in relation to the violence.

Delhi Police transferred the riots probe to the Crime Branch and formed two Special Investigation Teams.

The GTB Hospital in Dilshad Garden, where many of the 200 injured in the riots that broke out on Monday are being treated and where scores of people lined up outside the mortuary to claim the bodies of their loved ones, recorded five more deaths.

�Besides, there was one more death at the LNJP Hospital and another in Jag Pravesh Chandra Hospital, taking the total death toll to 38, eleven more than the 27 reported on Wednesday,� a senior Delhi Health Department official told PTI.

The opposition Congress took the issue to the Rashtrapati Bhavan. Accusing Home Minister Amit Shah of �abdication of duty�, a Congress delegation led by party chief Sonia Gandhi urged President Ram Nath Kovind to call for his resignation and remind the Centre of its �raj dharma�.

�The situation is returning to normal. We are here to reassure people that we are with them,� newly appointed Special Commissioner S N Shrivastava, who visited the affected areas, told reporters.

Battle scarred and desolate with scorched, blackened walls, the ashen remains of vehicles, glass shards and bricks, several fires still burnt in the mostly mixed neighbourhoods of the national capital�s northeastern edge. � PTI

Next Story