Delhi violence: Shah takes stock of law-and-order situation at review meet

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday held a review meeting to take stock of prevailing law and order situation in Delhi in view of the violence that engulfed the North-East district of the national capital.

The meeting was attended by Home secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla, CP Delhi Amulya Patnaik, and Special CP, Law & Order SN Shrivastava.

According to the ministry, no major untoward incident has been reported in the last 36 hours in any police station of North-East Delhi.

Prohibitory orders under Section 144 will be relaxed for a total of 10 hours tomorrow in view of the improvement of the situation.

"So far, 48 FIRs, pertaining to clashes, loss of lives/property, etc., have already been registered and further FIRs would be registered in due course. Police has detained/arrested 514 suspects for questioning so far. Further arrests would be effected in the course of the investigation," Home Ministry said.

The Ministry claimed that 35 persons have lost their lives in these tragic incidents since February 24.

"Two Security personnel sacrificed their lives in the line of duty to restore law and order. Besides, nearly 70 Police personnel and senior officers have been injured in these unfortunate incidents. Adequate steps have been taken to ensure medical support to the injured," MHA said in a press release.

Shah has appealed to citizens not to believe in rumours and fall prey to evil designs of miscreants and groups interested in precipitating communal tension.

"Only 12 Police Stations out of the 203 Police Stations in Delhi (about 4.2% of the geographical area) have been affected by these riots, while normalcy and communal harmony has prevailed elsewhere in the National Capital. Delhi Police is mandated and obligated to provide security to all sections of society irrespective of caste and religion," the ministry said.

The home ministry claimed that East Delhi Municipal Corporation has already initiated steps to clean the streets and repair damaged public properties in riot-affected areas. Other civic agencies are also ensuring that civic amenities be restored as soon as possible.

The situation is slowly returning to normal. Movement of traffic on the highway and connecting roads is returning to normal, the ministry said.

MHA said that nearly 7,000 Central Para-Military Forces have been deployed in the affected areas of North-East District since February 24.

"Besides, Delhi Police has also deployed three Special CPs, six Joint CPs, one Additional CP, 22 DCPs, 20 ACPs, 60 Inspectors, 1,200 other ranks and 200 Lady Police under the overall supervision of Commissioner of Police to effectively guide and supervise Police response so as to contain and normalise the situation," the ministry said.