Delhi Brahmpuri: The offensive posters immediately received outrage from a number of sources, with many tagging Delhi Police to respond swiftly
In the three years since the riots, which left 53 people dead, two-thirds of them Muslims, hundreds injured, and thousands of crores worth of property lost, inhabitants of numerous northeastern Delhi neighbourhoods have worked to rebuild their lives.
The hope was that things would get better as people battled the Covid-19 outbreak and attempted to rebuild their lives after the economic chaos it brought about. Currently, there are posters in several areas of Brahmpuri in Shahdara asking Hindus not to sell their properties to Muslims and threatening to block any attempt to register such a property.
“All landlords from the Brahmpuri area are informed that they should not sell their houses to Muslims. If you sell them to Muslims, local residents will not allow them to get registered. Then, they will be responsible themselves for it,” written on the poster.
“Any deal will have to be done with the Hindu party,” it added. The name and address of Pradeep Sharma are also mentioned at the bottom of the poster and are from Lane No. 13 in Brahmpuri, also states that only Hindus should do any future business there.
क्या इस तरह प्यार बाँटा जाएगा??
दिल वालों का शहर? #Delhi
यहाँ तो दीवारों पर भी नफ़रत चिपकाया जा रहा है!इस पर क्या कोई संज्ञान लिया जाएगा??#दिल्लीhttps://t.co/CBo4VEpNEx pic.twitter.com/2QokvfAKbc
— Sadaf Afreen صدف (@s_afreen7) January 12, 2023
The offensive posters immediately received outrage from a number of sources, with many tagging Delhi Police to respond swiftly.
Tajinder Singh, a social media user, called the posters an “open threat” and an “open abuse of constitutional rights.” He requested that the Delhi Police pursue those responsibly.
Amina Kausar, a different social media user, claimed that while such acts are getting more widespread in India, no one is paying attention to the problem. She referred to it as “Islamophobia.”
This has become too common that there is very little serious conversation about it. In this poster from Pradip Sharma, he’s telling Hindu residents of Brahmpuri to not sell their properties to Muslims else they’ll create problems! #Islamophobia pic.twitter.com/loMgQxCHRN
— أمينة Amina (@AminaaKausar) January 11, 2023
However, Delhi Police are yet to react to the issue
Ironically, these posters have appeared in a region that was largely spared from the threat of violence due to the approach of the vast majority of Muslims. The Brahmpuri neighbourhood was spared from the violence three years ago when there were riots in several areas of northeast Delhi because of the efforts of the locals, according to paediatrician Nafees Ahmed, who runs a clinic on Lane No. 13 in this neighbourhood told The wire.
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On one side of Lane No. 13, there are mostly Muslim-owned shops, whereas, on the other, the majority of shops are held by Hindus. However, if you were to look at the entire population, Muslims would make up the majority. The Muslims in this area protected the Hindus’ shops during the riots of 2020. They provided them with unwavering support. Many of the Muslims in the area openly informed their Hindu neighbours that they have nothing to be afraid of. They even monitored the neighbourhood at night to make sure that miscreants didn’t damage anyone,” he added.
