New Delhi: Among the 35 houses set on fire by rioters on two lanes of Khajuri Khas in northeast Delhi was a house of Border Security Force (BSF) Jawan serving on the border.
Nameplate said ‘BSF‘
The BSF jawan, Mohammad Anees had also put up a nameplate in front of his house announcing his service in the paramilitary force.
The mob was going one by one vandalizing and burning down each house in Khas Khajuri Gali on the afternoon of February 25. Anees’ family hoped, or prayed, that the nameplate outside the two-story house would give the rioters some pause.
‘Idhar aa Pakistani’
Anees, his father Mohammad Musi, uncle Mohammad Ahmed and a cousin, Neha Parveen were huddled inside the house while the mob outside burnt vehicles stationery in front of it. The mob shouted out lines like, “Idhar aa Pakistani, tujhe naagrikat dete hai (‘Come here Pakistani, we will you citizenship’) and pelted stones at the house.
Anees, who joined the forces in 2013, had served three years in Jammu and Kashmir along the tension-ridden India-Pakistan border. Anees and three others managed to escape with help from the paramilitary forces after rioters threw a gas cylinder into the house to burn it.
“Charred remains of the house now stand where the house was till three days ago. In the two lanes of Kharuji Khas near Anees’s house, 35 houses were set on fire. Only one house belonging to a Muslim family was spared,” reported News18.com
Two weddings in family
“The loss suffered by the BSF soldier’s family was perhaps greater as they had kept all their life’s savings inside: two weddings in the family were to take place in the next three months.”
While Neha was to get married this April, Anees’s own wedding was in May. “All the things we collected all our life, jewellery…two gold necklaces, silver jewellery, it is all gone…we used to buy jewellery on installments …used to give money every month and collected this jewellery,” the report quoted the family as having said.
Anees’ family said outsiders were involved in the attack while their Hindu neighbors had asked them to leave the area and even helped them douse cars on fire.