Delhi: A saffron flag with ‘Jai Shri Ram’ written on it got hoisted on a minaret and a Tricolour lied below. During the riots that were taking place on Tuesday, violent mobs desecrated mosque and set it on fire, looted burnt four homes that lied underneath.
Videos of men climbing on the minaret had been circulated through Tuesday.
The loot and rampage occurred at this mosque located in Ashok Nagar between noon and 3 pm.
Two kilometres away in Brijpuri, another mosque was desecrated by rioters and torched.
Nearby residents told media,”On Wednesday a mob entered the neighbourhood around 12 pm Tuesday. “They started ransacking the mosque at first with stones which led to the breaking of its gates than the mob climbed up the minaret and hoisted the flag. Then the mob burnt the mosque. The residents ran as soon as they saw the violence occurring.”
The mob targeted a three-storey residential property facing the mosque and torched eight shops.
Locals stated that most of the rioters seemed non-local. The first round of attack happened on noon which forced the police to evacuate Muslim residents of the neighbourhood.
The mob attacked another mosque around 3 pm on Tuesday which was located in Ashok Nagar’s E Block. Akbar Qureshi’s meat shops got ransacked.
In Brijpuri a few kilometres away from Ashok Nagar, armed men burnt down a mosque and a madrassa Tuesday evening.
A school nearby was also torched. The eyewitnesses were inside Farooqia masjid offering evening namaz, a group of armed men broke the doors of the mosque and assaulted people inside.
Mohammad Masjid an eyewitness said, “The members of the mob wore helmets and we could not see their faces. They threw petrol bombs at us.”
