Scars of violence haunt New Delhi after riots скачать в хорошем качестве

Scars of violence haunt New Delhi after riots

(28 Feb 2020) India's hardline Hindu nationalists watched anti-government protests centered in Muslim communities for months in anger that finally boiled over in the worst communal rioting in New Delhi in decades, leaving 30 people dead and the Indian capital shell-shocked. Tensions had been building over a new citizenship law that critics see as a threat to India's secular society and a way to further marginalize the country's 200 million Muslims. With Prime Minister Narendra Modi feting U.S. President Donald Trump on his first state visit to India, a moment that was supposed to help cement the country's place on the world stage instead became an embarrassment. On Sunday, as Modi prepared for Trump's arrival, a group of predominantly Muslim protesters demonstrated against the citizenship law, which fast-tracks naturalization for some religious minorities from neighboring countries but not Muslims, in a northeastern corner of the capital. Kapil Mishra, a local leader of Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party who lost his Delhi state assembly seat in recent elections, held his own rally, urging police to clear out the protesters. By Thursday, the death toll from the violence that followed, between Hindus and Muslims who had lived side by side for centuries but attacked each other with guns and swords, metal rods and axes, had risen to 30 and threatened to climb still higher. Helmeted, camouflaged and baton-wielding police marched down pavements littered with broken glass and charred vehicles as residents peered fearfully from behind neighborhood gates they had locked from inside. O.P. Mishra, joint commissioner of police, leading the march, said he was responsible for reassuring residents that peace had returned. Despite this, a ban on groups of five or more people remained in place, and schools were closed. Muslims accused police of aiding Hindu mobs in the clashes.    Because New Delhi is a federal territory, Modi's government controls the city's police force, which reports to Home Minister Amit Shah — the prime minister's trusted confidante. Down the street, police showed crude catapults on a burned and ransacked building and behind a makeshift barrier that they accused Muslim rioters of using to attack Hindus living on the other side near an undamaged Hindu temple. Police denied allegations that they aided the Hindu marauders or failed to stop violence against Muslims. But bystander videos appeared to show police standing by as Hindu men attacked Muslims, or commanding Muslims to sing India's national anthem, and the Delhi High Court on Wednesday chided police for not stopping the mobs. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...