Enmity festered over garbage dump’s revival

New Delhi : A dumping ground that was recently turned into a mata ki chowki, locals claim, was the trigger behind the Trilokpuri clashes on Saturday morning. The conflict, they said, goes back to the first days of Navratri when the garbage dump was cleared by residents of Block 20 and turned into a place for puja.

Virender Singh, a local, said youths cleared the ground under a Swacch Bharat Abhiyan initiative and built a chowki where Jagran would be organised during Navratras.

However, Singh claimed that Muslim residents were annoyed with dumping ground being replaced by a chowki which prevented them from throwing garbage  in the area. “We warned them against creating trouble but no one was violent with them,” he said.

Singh claimed Muslim youths attacked the people gathered at the site on Diwali evening, “hurling stones from terraces of buildings and using offensive language”.

While Muslim residents agreed that Hindus had taken a 10-day permit to set up the chowki and extended the period to 41 days, but said the Muslim community did not incite violence.

“The clash started after Hindu and Muslim youths got into an argument over the extended period the chowki remained at the spot. Muslim boys did not start the fight. It was the Hindu side who took offense and started the fight,” Shameem, in block 27, said.