All it took was 30 minutes but Thursday night’s alleged mob violence against African nationals in south Delhi has the potential to attract international repercussions. African envoys had already expressed outrage following the killing of a 23-year-old Congolese youth in south Delhi’s Vasant Kunj area last week.
Seven African nationals, including women that this correspondent spoke to, said locals in Chhattarpur’s Rajpur Khurd village attacked them with cricket bats, bricks and iron rods after picking them out at random.
Three victims were hospitalised and one received five stitches on his nose.
“The mob attacked every African who passed through the lane between 10.30 pm and 11 pm. We sought help from the locals but no one came forward. When we pleaded for help, they just laughed from their balconies,” said Shamila, a Ugandan national.
Kate, the Nigerian mother of a four-month-old boy, said she, her husband and child were on the way home in a car and, when they reached the lane in which they live, a group of youth attacked their car. “The mob hurled bricks at the windscreen of their car. My husband was attacked with a sharp object but somehow managed to drive away the car. Only God knows how we managed to survive, it was like they wanted to kill us,” said Kate, who was also injured.
Vicky, a Congolese lady who resides in the same locality, had been on her way home with her brother, who had been discharged from AIIMS on Thursday night, when a group of youth attacked them.
“Some 10 or 15 guys stopped my auto and pulled my arms and clothes. I pleaded with them not to hurt my brother, but they didn’t stop. When I began running, they chased me and hit me with iron rods. As I fell, they kicked me and abused me. They threatened us to go back or face dire consequences,” she said. “I ran to every house. I told the women with folded hands, ‘Please, sister, help me’. No one moved. They looked away and closed their doors, and some even laughed at me,” Vicky said.
Another victim, Kenneth Igbinosa, said: “The attackers kicked, slapped and abused the women. They thrashed us with sticks and iron rods, but no one came to rescue us. Calling us ‘black’, they warned us to go back to our countries or else we would be attacked again.”
The police, however, ruled out the incident being a racial attack. A senior police official said the police reached the spot after a PCR call and took the victims to hospital for a medical examination.
The police claimed that two of the attacks took place after locals objected to loud music being played by the African nationals late in the evenings. The locals had also been objecting to a group of Africans consuming alcohol in public and later it turned into a minor scuffle.
“We conducted a raid in the area and detained five youth after they were identified by the victims. We have filed three different cases under IPC Sections 341 (wrongful restraint), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 334 (voluntarily causing hurt on provocation) and 506 ((criminal intimidation) against unidentified youths at the Mehrauli police station. The case is under investigation, the culprits will be arrested at the earliest,” said Nupur Prasad, additional deputy commissioner of Delhi police (south).
