Syed Khalique Ahmed | India Tomorrow
NEW DELHI, JULY 24—Delhi Minorities Commission’s fact-finding report on anti-Muslim violence in February this year in Northeast Delhi has found that rioters, besides indulging into destruction of residential, business and religious properties, also resorted to sexual harassment of Muslim women during the anti-Muslim violence in riot-affected areas.
The report says that Muslim women were victims of sexual violence not only of the rioters but also of the police force deployed on duty in the riot-hit areas. While some of the women identified themselves in their testimonies, others preferred to hide it.
The report running into 134-pages, under a sub-head “Impact on Women” says that “the Muslim women were attacked on the basis of their religious identity and their hijabs and burqas were pulled off” by both the rioters and the police.
According to the report, the Al-Hind Hospital received about 54 Muslim women with various injuries in the three days of violence.
The report mentions several victims of gender violence by their names. Razia from Shiv Vihar said that she saw a mob tearing the clothes of a girl and then throwing her into fire. Her husband has been mentally unstable since they were rescued.
The 26-year-old Rukhsar said that she was among uncountable women who were sexually assaulted in Shiv Vihar. She says she identifies the culprits who did the violence in her locality.
The 45-year-old Fatima said the “mob pulled my dupatta and tore my salwar’s sleeve. I was saved by a family that was still there”.
Three month’s pregnant, Rubina (37) from Chand Bagh, was brutally beaten up by not only the communal mob but also by the police. She says that a man in police uniform tried to kill her with stone, rendering her unconscious. She was taken to Al-Hind Hospital and then shifted to AIIMS Trauma Centre.
Shabana (26) from Karawal Nagar, who was in her advanced stage of pregnancy, said, “The mob beat me with lathis…Some kicked me in the stomach. She delivered a boy the next day.
The 30-year-old Shabnam from Bhagirath Vihar told the minorities commission that she was caught by six to seven men who beat up and molested her. “They did whatever they could, hit me with what they had, and touch me in my private parts. They did everything… the only thing they didn’t do was rape me”.
A 20-year-old Muskan, who was eight months pregnant, said, “They threw me to the ground, kicked my stomach and my whole body. I pleaded with them not to harm my baby, but they kept kicking”
Several women told the fact-finding team members that “the police force and violent mobs attacked the anti-CAA protest site at Chand Bagh; women were beaten up by male police officers and attacked by mobs”. Women in Delhi had played a leading role in anti-CAA protests all over the capital during which they repeatedly raised the slogan of “Azadi” from the discriminatory Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA).
The report says that the police used the same chants of “Azadi” to “sexually harass women and attack them, including at least one incident of a police officer flashing his genitals in front of women protesters”.
“The nature of verbal abuses was also sexual and communal”, the report points out.
Sexual Assault and Gender Violence
Under the sub-head of “sexual assault and gender violence”, the minorities commission report says that when the women in Shiv Vihar stepped out of their houses to protect their men, they were physically and sexually assaulted by the mob.
Mob used the word Azadi (Freedom) as metaphor for sexual assault
Several women told the fact-finding team that “the mob used vulgar language and threatened them saying that if they wanted “Azadi” (freedom) then they were ready to give them “Azadi”, using the word as a metaphor for sexual assault”.
Police sexually assaulted women
The report quotes an anti-CAA woman protester from Chand Bagh who said that “the Delhi police brutally attacked and even sexually assaulted women”.
In her painful account, she narrated that when she was being attacked by rioters at Chand Bagh, two men tried to protect her but they were beaten up by the police. She also alleges that police dragged a 13-year-old Muslim girl. The women said that she tried to protect the girl but she was hit on her head and she fainted. She said that she saw many wounded women around when she regained her consciousness. The crowd of rioters, she says, continuously kept on abusing them verbally.
Policemen point their genitals towards women
“It was then that the police pulled their pants down and pointed their genitals towards the women stating that they wanted “freedom” and they were there to give them “freedom” and that this was their freedom”, the woman narrated.
A woman from Shiv Vihar told the team that a “neighbour’s daughter was dishonoured and killed”.
She said that when the violent mob entered the Muslim locality of Shiv Vihar chanting “Jai Shri Ram”, they shouted to bring the women out and they will assault on the spot.
Another woman told the team that “her clothes were torn to shreds by several men who entered her house forcefully”.
A woman said her clothes were torn to shreds by several men who entered her house.
Women also narrated that the mob also carried acid and use it to attack women.
A woman in a video-interview said that acid was thrown on her, her daughter and her brother-in-law.
Women referred to as ‘terrorists’, ‘anti-nationals’ and ‘foreigners’
The report, quoting several other women, says that Muslims were constantly referred to as ‘terrorists’, ‘anti-nationals’ and ‘foreigners’ by the mob.
Another woman, who wears burqa, said that she had to leave her burqa behind to save herself from the mob.
