New Delhi : Safety and security were the main concerns for 60-year-old Israr Khan who cast his vote Saturday in east Delhi’s Trilokpuri area, which remained under the curfew for several days after communal violence broke out between the two communities during Diwali last year.
“I still live in fear. I want the government which can assure safety of my family,” a teary-eyed Khan, whose garment shop was torched by the assailants on the fateful October 23 night, soon after the riots broke out in the locality over a petty issue, told IANS.
Khan somehow managed to reopen the shop at Block 27, which is located at the centre of Trilokpuri assembly constituency, but the fear was still visible on his face.
Trilokpuri witnessed a clash between the two groups of Hindus and Muslims from Diwali that went on for four days. The violence left 70 injured, including 56 policemen.
Police later imposed prohibitory orders that lasted for three weeks in the area.
At various intersections, people huddled in groups and discussed their voting preferences.
“Security is the main issue in this constituency. Whichever, government is voted to power…they should take steps against the continuous fight that takes place between the people of both the communities,” Pankaj Agrawal, who runs a grocery shop in Block 29, told IANS.
Another resident echoed similar sentiments.
“My heart still cries while thinking about those three nights when people were pelting stones and policemen were firing in my street. I don’t want to see that again,” Madina, 55, another resident of Block 27, told IANS.
“People from every community are equal for us. While safety is a major concern for us, issues like water, electricity are equally important,” Santosh Devi, who lives in Block 20, from where the violence had started, told IANS.
As the people of this area are trundling to get back to their normal lives after the clashes broke out four months back, the police took “no chance” this time and ensured the area, which is divided into 37 blocks, was completely under ‘khaki’ cover.
While police forces were deployed at every block, senior officers patrolled various blocks during the voting. The police also conducted a march in the area, which has over 2 lakh voters, the majority of them Hindus.
Apart from the Delhi Police, several companies of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Railway Suraksha Bal (RSB) and Border Security Force (BSF) were also seen at the polling stations and on the roads.
In the 2013 elections, the Aam Aadmi Party’s Raju Dhingan had trounced the BJP’s Sunil Kumar Vaid by over 17,000 votes. This time, BJP has fielded Vaid’s wife, after he died of cardiac arrest last December.
Trilokpuri has been a communal tinderbox since Hindu mobs torched homes and burnt alive Sikh men in the horrific killings following the assassination of then prime minister Indira Gandhi on Oct 31, 1984. After the Sikh exodus from the largely working-class area, the neighbourhood filled up with Muslim migrant workers who lived along with the areas’ Hindus till the violence disrupted tenuous social equations three decades later.