In a shocking turn of events, an 85-year-old woman was choked to death in the brutal violence that has engulfed northeast Delhi over citizenship law protests since Sunday.
As per media reports, the woman identified as Akbari was trapped inside her home in the neighbourhood of Gamri Extension after a mob set it on fire on Tuesday morning.
The woman’s son, Saeed Salmani, was quoted as saying to NDTV, “At around 11 am, the children said there’s no milk at home. So I went out to buy milk. While returning, my son called up to say that about 150 to 22 men have reached home. I don’t know if they were Hindus or Muslims. The children had locked the gate from inside.”
His four children, all between 15 to 20 years, too were inside the home. Among the four children were two girls.
“My mother was on the upper floor and got trapped. I could not go inside as people said they will kill me too,” Mr Salmani said. “The children kept calling asking saying ‘Papa, aa jao, bachao hamein (Papa, come and save us),”.
Trapped inside her home, Akbari had burn injuries on her hands and died of suffocation. The children managed to survive.
Akbari’s body remained inside the burnt house for close to 10 hours and could be taken out by firefighters only at around 9:30 at night on Tuesday after the fire was brought down.
The report also added that firefighters were still trying to bring down the smoke coming out under control. The workshop has been completely burnt down.
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