Again! Bike-borne men open fire near anti-CAA protest site in Delhi

Days after a series of firing incidents were reported from Delhi’s Jamia Nagar and Shaheen Bagh, two unidentified bike-borne men on Friday (February 7) allegedly opened fire in the air near an anti-CAA protest site in Delhi’s Jafrabad. No injuries were reported. Police said it appeared to be a case of personal enmity and not related to the protest.

However, protesters alleged the incident was a repeat of intimidatory tactics like the one at Jamia Millia Islamia and Shaheen Bagh. They said with every such incident, the accused are changing their modus operandi. “The firing was not in connection with anti-CAA protests. We suspect it to be a case of some personal enmity,” a senior police officer said.

The incident was reported from barely 400 metres away from the site where people have been protesting against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act since last month. Jafrabad police rushed to the spot after the incident. After sometime, the people resumed their protests.

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Nihal Ashraf, one of the protesters at Jafrabad, said, “The armed men fired three rounds in the air and fled the spot. They were on a scooter without a number plate unlike the Jamia incident in which the vehicle used by those who fired had number plate. They two men fired after moving a few metres ahead of our protest site.”

Mohd Irshad, a Jamia student said a youth fired outside the Jamia Millia Islamia on January 30 and also shot a student in front of the police. “He (youth) provoked and then fired. In the second incident on February 1 at Shaheen Bagh, the assailant fired from a few metres away from the main gathering to cause disturbance.

“In the third incident again outside Jamia on February 2, the assailants shot in the air from the opposite road so that they could not be caught like the previous two accused. However, the police got their vehicle number. Therefore, the assailants at Jafrabad got a vehicle without a number plate so that their vehicle cannot be identified,” he said.

(With inputs from agencies)

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