Special Correspondent
New Delhi : A young electrician who had got married just 11 days ago is among the 22 people who have died so far in the Delhi riots.22-year-old Ashfaq Hussain, who lived in Mustafabad, was shot when he was returning to his houseAshfaq, the third among five sons and three daughters of Hussain, was killed in the riots in Brijpuri on Tuesday evening.
“I received information that he was in Al Hind hospital. Ashfaq worked as an electrician and had gone to Brijpuri before the evening namaz to attend a complaint,” his father Agaz Hussain said.
“He had more Hindus than Muslims as his friends. All of them had visited our ancestral home in Bulandshahr for his marriage,” he said.
Tasleen had married Ashfaq in Sakhni, Bulandshahr on February 14, Valentine’s Day. The husband, a resident of Delhi, had traveled back to Mustafabad on Sunday night at about the same time the conflict first started brewing in nearby Maujpur and Jaffrabad in east Delhi.
Ashfaq was allegedly shot nearby and his body taken away before his family even found out he was dead.
“I was returning from evening namaz when a local told me they saw my boy bleeding and that he was taken to a local hospital,” Ashfaq’s father, a vegetable vendor, said.
Ashfaq was taken to Al Hind hospital in New Mustafabad where he breathed his last. His body was then sent to GTB Hospital in Dilshad Garden. The family does not know when they will receive the body for last rites after post-mortem.
According to locals, mobs armed with guns, sticks, petrol bombs and other weapons started arriving in hordes in Mustafabad from Sunday night and by Tuesday, things were out of hand. “We kept calling cops, fire stations, but no one came. Even ambulances were not allowed to enter till Wednesday,” Ashfaq’s uncle Mukhtar said.
Ashfaq’s teacher in a local madrasa, Maulana Mehdi Hasan said the violence could have been prevented if the police had taken timely action.
“Many calls were made to police but no help arrived as the area was consumed by violence and riots,” he claimed.
The violence in many parts of northeast Delhi has claimed at least 38 lives over 200 injuries.
Widespread arson has also resulted in gutting of scores of vehicles, houses, shops, some religious places, schools and other properties.