Northeast Delhi violence: 42 dead, 30 identified — Families say broken, many had young kids
Fifteen post-mortems have been performed by hospitals so far. The Indian Express spoke to families of 30 people who lost their lives in the riots.
Families of the victims at GTB hospital, Thursday. Abhinav Saha
On Thursday, the death toll from the violence that rocked Northeast Delhi touched 38. While 34 deaths were reported from GTB Hospital, three were reported from Lok Nayak Hospital and one at Jag Pravesh Chandra Hospital. Fifteen post-mortems have been performed by hospitals so far. The Indian Express spoke to families of 30 people who lost their lives in the riots.
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Mubarak Ali, 35
Ali worked as a painter and is survived by his wife and three children, two girls and a boy. His niece said, “He was returning from Bhajanpura, where he worked… We couldn’t find him for three days… until today.”
Alok Tiwari, 24
A native of Hardoi, Tiwari worked in a cardboard factory and lived in Karawal Nagar with his wife and two children. Standing outside the mortuary at GTB Hospital, his elder brother said: “I can’t begin to express how our family is dealing with the news. He has gone too soon.”
Mohd Irfan, 32
Irfan is survived by his wife and two children and worked as a labourer. Outside the mortuary of GTB hospital, his mother Khuresha (57) couldn’t stop crying. Her elder son Mohd Furkan (32) tried to console her. “He earned Rs 8,000 per month. Who will take care of his family now?”
Relatives wait for bodies of victims outside the GTB Hospital mortuary in Delhi on Thursday. (Express photo: Abhinav Saha)
Rahul Thakur, 23
A resident of Bhajanpura, Thakur was preparing to take the civil service examinations, to be held in April. He was the youngest son of his family. He was shot in the chest. His father is an RPF officer. “There was no ambulance in the area and we ferried him on a scooter to the nearest clinic. We were then referred to GTB Hospital. He was under observation for a few hours… he died later,” said his cousin Ankit.
Suleiman, 22
A blacksmith, he hailed from Hapur. He had been missing since Monday. His elder brother Yunus reached GTB Hospital on Thursday to identify the body.
Mortal remains of Ankit Sharma being put into an ambulance at GTB Hospital mortuary post riots in northeast Delhi area on Thursday. (Express photo by Abhinav Saha)
Ankit Sharma, 25
An Intelligence Bureau security assistant, Sharma’s body was pulled out from a drain in Chand Bagh a day after he went missing.
Mohd Shahbaan, 22
A resident of Mustafabad, Shahbaan was shot dead when he was closing up his welding shop. According to his family, the mob also burned down his shop.
Sanjeet Thakur, 32
Thakur, who worked in a welding unit, is survived by his wife and two children. A resident of Khajuri, he was hit with stones at Chand Bagh while he was on his way to home.
Ratan Lal, 42
From Rajasthan’s Sikar, he joined Delhi Police as a Constable in 1998. He was currently posted in the office of ACP/Gokalpuri as a Head Constable. He is survived by his wife and three children.
Mother of Md Shahbaz, 22, who is not found yet. His mother is waiting to identify among some dead bodies at Delhi’s GTB Hospital mortuary post the riots on Thursday. (Express photo by Abhinav Saha)
Akbari, 85
She died after her family’s home in Gamri village was set on fire, said her family. Her son, Mohammad Saeed Salmani, operated a garments workshop on the first two floors of his house.
Anwar, 58
A resident of Shiv Vihar, Anwar ran a poultry farm and is survived by his wife and two daughters. His relative, Salim Kassar, said his body was charred and it was tough to identify him at first. “I could tell it was him by looking at a mark on his leg,” he said.
Dinesh Kumar, 35
Kumar worked as a driver and is survived by his wife and two children. Ashish Kumar, his nephew, said Kumar was on ventilator support for seven-eight hours. On Thursday, he was declared dead at 3.40 pm.
Funeral procession of a riot victim being carried out in northeast Delhi’s Mustafabad on Thursday. (Express photo by Gajendra Yadav)
Aamir (30), Hashim (17)
Residents of old Mustafabad, brothers Aamir and Hashim had been missing since Wednesday afternoon. Their elder brother Sheruddin (31) came to the hospital to identify their bodies on Thursday evening.
Musharraf, 35
From UP’s Badaun, he was thrown into a drain by a group of people in Gokulpuri. Survived by his wife and three children, he used to work as a driver in Kardampuri.
Vinod Kumar, 50
A resident of Arvind Nagar, Ghonda Chowk, he is survived by his wife and two sons. His elder son, Nitin Kumar (25), was with him when the mob attacked the two. His bike was also set on fire.
Shopkeeper Danish came to his shop which was vandalised during the riots in Chanbagh area of northeast Delhi. (Express photo by Gajendra Yadav)
Vir Bhan, 48
A businessman, Bhan was shot in the head on Monday in Karawal Nagar. He is survived by his wife, 22-year-old son and 15-year-old daughter.
Zakhir, 26
A resident of Brijpuri, Zakhir worked as a welder. He died on Tuesday evening after he suffered a bullet wound to his head and multiple injuries in his stomach.
Ishtiyak Khan, 24
A resident of Kardampuri, he used to build portable welding machines. He is survived by his wife and son, aged a year and a half, and daughter, aged three. He was shot in the stomach.
Northeast Delhi’s Chand Bagh area affected following clashes between people demonstrating for and against a new citizenship law in New Delhi. (Express Photo By Amit Mehra)
Deepak Kumar, 34
He worked in a private factory in Jhilmil and is survived by his wife, son and daughter. He was shot in the head.
Ashfaq Hussain, 22
An electrician, Hussain sustained five bullet injuries. He is survived by his wife. The two got married on February 11.
Parvez Alam, 50
A resident of Ghonda, he was shot in the stomach on Tuesday. He used to run a motor garage in Wazirabad.
Mehtab, 21
A construction worker, Mehtab was killed by a mob on Tuesday. His family waited for two days outside GTB Hospital for his body. On Thursday, they took him home.
Mohd Furkan, 32
From Uttar Pradesh, Furkan used to design wedding boxes. He is survived by his wife and two children — a girl aged four and a boy aged three and a half years.
Rahul Solanki, 26
Solanki was pursuing civil engineering and worked in a private company. His father, Hari Singh Solanki (69), said the family was making preparations for his sister’s wedding in April. Rahul died from a gunshot wound.
Mudassir Khan, 35
He worked as an auto driver and is survived by two children.
Shahid Alvi, 24
From Bulandshahr, Alvi died on Monday evening from a gunshot wound in the stomach. He worked as an autorickshaw driver and got married four months ago. His wife, Shaziya, is pregnant.
Amaan, 17
He was brought to Lok Nayak Hospital. A group of lawyers at the hospital said his family was part of the sit-in protests at Seelampur.
Mahroof Ali, 30
Hailing from Bhajanpura, Ali was shot in the head. He owned an electrical shop.
Mohd Yusuf, 52
A resident of Old Mustafabad, Yusuf was a carpenter. He is survived by seven children. He was returning home from Noida when he was attacked.
Mubarak Husen, 28
At the mortuary was Muhammad Ibrahim, who had flown to Delhi from his village in Madhubani, Bihar, the previous day. His son, Mubarak Husen (28), had died Tuesday. “The people of my village collected money for my wife and me to take a flight to Delhi as soon as possible. We arrived on Thursday afternoon but have not been able to see his body till now,” he said Friday afternoon.
According to Mubarak’s younger brother Sadaqat (19), he had left his home in Bhajanpura on Tuesday afternoon to go for his work as a construction labourer. “At the gate of the five-story building, a group of men shot three bullets towards him. The first two missed but the third hit him on the chest,” he alleged.
Dilbur Negi, 20
Twenty-year-old Devender Negi identified the charred body of his brother Dilbur, who was born in the same year as him. Dilbur had come to Delhi from his village in Pauri, Uttarakhand, and was working as a waiter at Anil Sweets in Shiv Vihar, which was also where he stayed.
According to Shyam Singh, who worked with him, Dilbur had been missing since Monday when a mob broke into the eatery. On Wednesday, the body had been found by police just outside the eatery, burnt. “I identified him by checking the height,” said Devender.
Monis, 21
A new body had also been identified on Friday afternoon by Shahbir (35) — of his nephew Monis.
“I had come to the hospital on Wednesday and Thursday as well but could not find his body among those in the mortuary those days. I found it on the third day,” he said.
A resident of Mustafabad, Monis had stepped out of his home Tuesday and had called his cousin at 4 pm saying he was on his way home. However, he did not reach and his family could not reach his phone after that.
Babbu Salmani, 33
Salmani, who had been injured on Tuesday, succumbed to his injuries at GTB Hospital on Thursday.
“He lived with his wife, and three children, aged one, three and seven, and his parents. He drove an auto for a living. Babbu had left for work in the morning but did not come back home for lunch as he usually does. A friend called his brother and he found him injured and immobile 300 metres from home,” said his uncle Shamim Ahmed.
Ayyub, 60
A scrap collector, he was brought to GTB Hospital on Friday by his 18-year-old son Salman. According to the teenager, his father had been beaten up by a group of men in Shiv Vihar early Friday morning.
Faizan, 24
Faizan was identified Friday after succumbing to a gunshot wound at Lok Nayak Hospital on Thursday morning. A resident of Kardam Puri, he had been injured on Monday.
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