Jahangirpuri violence: Delhi Police chief says no bid to plant saffron flag on mosque
Darpan News Desk IANS, 18 Apr, 2022 10:04 AM
New Delhi, April 18 (IANS) There is no evidence for the theory that a bid to plant saffron flags at a mosque led to violence in Delhi's Jahangirpuri but was "a minor argument which later took the shape of massive violence", Delhi Police Commissioner Rakesh Asthana said on Monday.
"The people who are saying that someone attempted to plant a flag there... it is not true," he said at a press briefing on the Jahangirpuri communal violence.
He said it is too soon to tell what the reason for provocation was . "This is part of the investigation. I can't tell you anything because the investigation is yet to be completed," he said.
Asked again about planting the saffron flag, Asthana said: "It is not right. There was no such thing."
However, Jamiat-Ulema-e-Hind's Delhi state General Secretary Abdul Raziq, who visited the site of the violence along with a delegation on Sunday, told IANS that when the third procession was passing near the mosque, some miscreants tried to enter and place a 'saffron flag' at the gate of the mosque.
Asthana also said that at the time of violence the police were present in adequate numbers and initially even managed to separate both the groups.
"Nine people, including 8 cops, were injured in the clashes. This shows that the police efficiently did their job which prevented any injury to the public," he added.
"Under 'Operation Ganga' to rescue Indian citizens, 1,314 Indians have been airlifted today by seven special civilian flights from Ukraine's neighbouring countries. With this, more than 17,400 Indians have been brought back since the special flights began on 22nd February, 2022."
Channi also said that 997 students from the state were in Ukraine, out of whom 420 have returned, and 200 students have reached Poland and are safe but some of the people are still stuck in Ukraine.
In 2017, the Aam Aadmi Party had got around 23 per cent votes but the projections for this election is 39 per cent, while Congress seems to have lost around 11 per cent votes, against in last election's over 38 per cent now, to around 26 per cent and may see its tally come down from 77 seats to 25 seats.
Harjot's brother Prabhjot Singh, who resides in Delhi's Chhattarpur, told IANS: "The last conversation I had with Harjot was on February 26 at 9 p.m. I haven't spoken to him since then. On March 2, at night, he contacted the family and informed them about his injuries.
While directing officials to ensure safe return of the remaining students and other persons stuck in Ukraine, he said the state government is sparing no effort to help the distressed families in this hour of crisis.
Over 700 Indian students are stuck in Sumy and they are running out of basic necessities like food and water and they have been urging the Indian government to get them evacuated from there.
