Residents Seek Peace After Violence

Just like Syed, many residents of the Naya Nagar locality are shocked with the events that have taken place in the past few days, an area which has been peaceful in the past.

A Muslim-majority locality in terms of its residency, it also has several commercial establishments.

Locals said that on the night of 21 January, a procession led by members of the Hindu community allegedly came outside the Taini Villa mosque and Mohammed mosque on Lodha Road and raised religious slogans. The procession reportedly had bikes and cars with saffron flags.

Videos of the clashes on Sunday, including that of a woman being attacked, went viral on social media.

“Another mistake by some boys of the Muslim community was that some of them recorded videos of the incident where the bikers can be seen retreating. These videos were posted by them on social media sites and also taking credit for scaring them away. This was wrong. This again added fuel to the problem,” he said.

Locals, however, claim that tensions had started simmering in the locality days before the Pran Pratishtha event in Ayodhya temple that took place on 22 January.

According to the police, several videos had surfaced on social media a day prior to the clashes. One Abu Shaikh has also been arrested by the Mira road police for allegedly instigating violence through social media after he posted a video addressing Hindus asking them to “back off or bear the consequences.”