Most who fled Trilokpuri too scared to return

Reena, Bittu’s 18-year-old niece, told Newsline on phone that she is eager to return but her mother is still worried. “We do not have a man in the house, so my mother is doubly scared,” Reena said.
With elections in Delhi coming soon, many who were thinking of returning say they may not.
Local resident Rana, who is away, said though her decorator husband is missing work, they do not wish to return.  “I shudder to think of how Trilokpuri was when we left. People tell me everything has been cleared but look at what happened before the elections in Western UP?” she said.
At the Sanjay Gandhi camp, there were rows of houses with locked doors. Mukesh, 36, and Prabha Devi, 63, are the two Valmiki families in the neighbourhood dominated by Muslims. Mukesh said he had sent his wife and daughter to Jafrabad ahead of Muharram. “Muslims here are my childhood friends, but these clashes have left their scars,” he said.

Thirty-year-old Baby, a safai karamchari, had also fled to her village in Agra with her two daughters. She was among the few women who ventured out of home on Muharram. She returned to Trilokuri on Monday to resume work but left behind her daughters, aged 8 and 12.

“They both go to school, but I hear hardly any children or teachers are going to the government schools in Trilokpuri,” she said. “Anyway, look at the police force, the burnt shops. Is this the atmosphere to which I can bring my girls back?”

People who have returned say they feel like strangers in the neghbourhood they were born in. They are cautious of the many rumours that are still doing the rounds. Alimuddin, 25, was sent to his relatives’ house by his parents on the night the riots broke out. He returned on October 30. “There is peace today but there is fear. The other communities look at us with suspicion now,” he said.
A member of the intezamia committee of the Imam Bada, the Shia mosque in block 27, said the fear was natural. “We have been telling people to get their families back, it is the only way to return to normalcy.” The Imam Mubarak from the Sunni mosque in the area said, “People who own houses here have been forced to return, but tenants are still staying away.”

Mohammad Naeem Ahmed, a volunteer with the Hindu Muslim Sikh Isai Ekta Committee, said after Muharram, effort will be made to convince people to bring their families back. Until now, we have been busy with putting rumours to rest and convincing people to maintain peace. Now we will encourage people to call their families, particularly women and children, back.”