Embassy of India

Ljubljana, Slovenia

PRESS RELEASE

Ministry of Home Affairs

Union Home Minister, Shri Amit Shah held a review meeting to take stock of prevailing law and order situation in Delhi, in view of recent riots affecting the District North-East.  The meeting was, inter alia, attended by the Union Home Secretary, CP, Delhi and Special CP, Law & Order, Delhi Police.

Shri 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 PSs 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.

Major Highlights from the Review Meeting:

• No major incident has been reported in the last 36 hours in any affected Police Station of District North-East.
• Prohibitory orders under Section 144 will be relaxed for a total of 10 hours tomorrow in view of improvement in ground 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 investigation.
• Delhi Police has separately set up two SITs for investigating serious offences.
• 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.
• 35 persons have lost their lives in these tragic incidents since February 24. Situation is slowly returning to normal.
• Citizens are requested not to lay credence to any rumour. Delhi Police has set up helplines – 22829334 and 22829335 – for round-the-clock assistance. These numbers are being given adequate publicity so that information about miscreants and any emerging situation may be conveyed to the Police.
• 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.
• As a confidence-building measure among different sections of the society, Delhi Police has started holding Peace Committee Meetings across Delhi to normalise situation and improve inter-community harmony. Such Peace Committee Meetings would continue till situation normalises. So far, nearly 330 Peace Committee Meetings have been organised in various districts of Delhi in the last two days. Apart from this, meeting with Residents Welfare Associations (RWA) and Market Welfare Associations (MWA) have also been convened in several areas. Such Peace Committee/RWA/MWA have been attended by different sections of the society including Civil Society Groups, representatives of different political parties including Congress, AAP, BJP, etc.
• 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 the civic amenities to the citizens is restored as soon as possible. Movement of traffic on the highway and connecting roads is returning to normal.

*****

VG/SNC/VM

(Release ID: 1604611)