A drone flew over riot-hit Trilokpuri in east Delhi on Tuesday morning. It was armed with a camera. The camera clicked many pictures. Those pictures revealed a part of the anatomy of the riot: Deadly weapons, ranging from cleavers to kirpan-type swords to heaps of bottles and knives of all sizes and sorts stacked on rooftops.
The next step was to seize the weapons, which the police did after cordoning off certain blocks. "Raids in Block 8 yielded the largest number of arms, from knives to swords and glass bottles," Deepak Mishra, special commissioner (law&order), Delhi Police, told dna.
Several persons were arrested after the raids bringing the total number of arrests so far to 64. The police also claimed to have nailed the identities of two people who instigated and started the riots: A father-and-son duo who are now on the lam.
Tuesday's raids also spewed forth a buzz of rumours of unidentified elements conducting searches of "homes of all Muslims." Mishra rubbished the claims, saying that disturbances in Trilokpuri right from day one were fueled by rumours. At least 40 people were detained for spreading rumours.
Political interference has been another part of the script being played out though Mishra says he has kept politicians at "arms length." On Tuesday, CPM politicians Mohammed Salim and Suhasini Ali were at Mayur Vihar Police Station (Trilokpuri falls in its jurisdiction), where Mishra has been camping for four days, demanding to know the "real facts."
Meanwhile, dna has found that when rioting was at its peak, the police intervened and bullets were fired. "Bullets were fired from both sides. The police had no recourse. When somebody is coming at you with a wicked looking cleaver, there is no other option but to pull out your gun and use it," Mishra told dna. "Bullet burn marks left on clothes showed how close the guns were fired from."
Apart from "bullets", another word, which got written many times over while reporting the riots, was "siege", particularly of Muslim-dominated blocks. Mishra said there was no "siege", while Delhi Police PRO Rajan Bhagat told dna the word was "media-owned," adding that reports that policemen sustained bullet wounds were also rumours.
Yet another word, which caught the media's as well as popular imagination, was "curfew". Bhagat said curfew was not imposed in Trilokpuri, but prohibitory orders were in place. Mishra said "curfew is a legal term" and that it had a wider ambit than section 144. That said, it is a fact that policemen did halt media-persons from entering riot-hit blocks with the words "get your curfew passes first."
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