A 10-member fact-finding committee has said in a report released on Thursday that the riots in north-east Delhi in February this year were planned. The committee, appointed by the Delhi Minorities Commission, concluded that the attacks had not been spontaneous, and had targeted Muslims. It also found that there was “deliberate inaction over several days” on the part of the police, who had also supported the attacks. The violence took place between February 23rd and 27th 2020. At least 55 people were killed in the riots in north-east Delhi.

Established in March, the committee encouraged victims to tell their stories. Individual victim testimonies were documented at various sites in the city. Physical surveys of the damage to religious sites were also undertaken.

Gulf News reports that the violence had begun immediately after BJP leader Kapil Mishra openly called for the forceful removal of demonstrators protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act, at Jafrabad. The commission found that police failed to take the “immediate preventive step” by arresting Mishra. Following his speech, mobs carrying petrol bombs, iron rods, gas cylinders, stones and firearms quickly fanned out. The committee reported that despite the open display of weapons, action was not taken by the police to protect lives, nor property. The committee found that police were also complicit in and abetted the attacks. It’s report reads that where police acted, they were stopped by their colleagues, and in some cases stood on as onlookers to the violence.

Delhi Police have not responded.

According to Gulf News, there were a number of speeches by BJP leaders, from December through to February, inciting people to violence against anti-CAA protesters.

While 11 mosques, five madrassahs, one shrine and one graveyard were attacked and damaged in the violence, and copies of the Holy Qur’an desecrated, non-Muslim places of worship in Muslim majority areas remained untouched.

Umm Muhammed Umar