India says US, others politicizing religious violence; death toll 35
In the areas of north-eastern Delhi that saw violent clashes and arson, an uneasy calm prevailed as police and paramilitary officers carried out patrols and senior officials appealed for peace. The violence began on Sunday and peaked on Tuesday.
A Delhi Police spokesman said on Thursday that the situation was normal and there were no fresh incidents, but the death toll kept rising as more of the around 200 hurt in the violence succumbed to injuries.
A total of 35 people have died, according to spokespeople from two state-run hospitals. Two more bodies had been found by local police in drains in the area, the India Today news channel reported, but this could not be independently confirmed.
Most of the injuries were due to assaults with rods, bricks, knives and guns, Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital superintendent Sunil Kumar Gautam said. Some of the injured are still in critical condition.
Confrontations between supporters and opponents of the controversial new citizenship law soon degenerated into violent attacks and arson by sparring Hindu and Muslim communities.
The law fast-tracks Indian nationality for certain religious groups but excludes Muslims. There have been continuing protests in India since the law was passed by parliament in December.
Police said around 130 people have been detained so far in connection with the violence in Delhi.
Civic workers were helped by local communities as they cleared broken bricks and stones from the streets and towed away burnt vehicles.
"We can't sleep at night, we are afraid our young people go out," a woman in the Chand Bagh area told the NDTV news channel. A Muslim shrine dedicated to a Sufi saint in the area where Hindus and Muslims gathered to pray was vandalized and set on fire.
Chand Bagh has a majority Muslim population. Adjoining Bhajanpura, which is predominantly Hindu, also saw destruction of property and arson.
Residents said that groups of masked men came in vans and dispersed into groups that carried out attacks in both areas, India Today reported.
"We are looking into all these complaints," Delhi Police spokesman Anil Mittal said.
Local people also complained that the police did not respond to their complaints as mobs attacked their shops and houses. The Delhi Police is overseen by the federal government, run by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
India rebutted comments by a US government religious panel and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) accusing it of failing to protect its citizens.
Comments by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), sections of the media and some individuals were irresponsible and appeared to be aimed at politicizing the sectarian violence at a "sensitive time," India's Ministry of External Affairs spokesman Raveesh Kumar said.
USCIRF on Wednesday said it found the violence and attacks on Muslims "deeply disturbing" and cited reports of police inaction. The riots peaked during US President Donald Trump's visit to India.
Kumar said the OIC's statement was insensitive and inaccurate and India was taking all measures to contain the violence.
