3 Days After Maujpur Mayhem, NSA Doval Told To Rein In Violence; Police Get 'Free Hand': Sources

Three days after the total mayhem and chaos on the streets of North-East Delhi, government sources say that National Security Advisor Ajit Doval has been told to rein in violence in the areas such as maujpur, Jaffrabad, Gokulpuri, Bhajanpura among others. According to news agency ANI, “the NSA has made it clear that lawlessness would not be allowed to remain in the National Capital and adequate number of police forces and paramilitary forces have been deployed.” After being accused of inaction, the Delhi Police has reportedly been given ‘free hand’ to curb the mob attacks. On Wednesday morning, situation remained tense. However, no reports mob attacks were reported on Wednesday. News Nation team saw the SSB jawans holding flag march inside the bylanes of Jaffrabad.

The violence that engulfed the region for past three days has claimed 18 lives so far. Around 200 people have been injured in the violent clashes. Reports suggest that half of those injured suffered bullet injuries. After midnight order by the Delhi High Court, the cops shifted the injured to another hospital for better medical treatment. “There were four bodies and 20 injured victims at a hospital in Chand Bagh. We had to shift them to another hospital as per High Court orders. All the victims have been shifted to another hospital now, so that they can get proper medical treatment,” Additional DCP DK Gupta was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who met the Union Home Minister Amit Shah for a high-profile meeting on Tuesday, demanded the deployment of the Army in the affected region. “I have been in touch wid large no of people whole nite. Situation alarming. Police, despite all its efforts, unable to control situation and instil confidence. Army shud be called in and curfew imposed in rest of affected areas immediately (sic),” Kejriwal said on Twitter.

Meanwhile, the Delhi High Court directed police to respond by 12:30 pm on Wednesday to a plea seeking lodging of FIRs and arrests of those involved in the ongoing communal violence in parts of northeast Delhi over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA). A bench of Justices S Muralidhar and Talwant Singh said a senior-level police officer, who is aware of the facts, should be present before it at 12:30 pm with instructions. The court said police does not need its direction to take action in relation to the violence and police should take suo motu action as "this is very important".

The matter was mentioned for urgent hearing before Justice Muralidhar's bench by senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, appearing for human rights activist Harsh Mander, as the bench headed by the Chief Justice was not holding the court on Wednesday.

(With agency inputs)