Delhi violence: Only 4.2% of Delhi affected by communal riots, says MHA

Only about 4.2% of Delhi's geographical area has been affected by communal riots in north-east Delhi while normalcy has prevailed in other areas, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said on Thursday night after a review meeting chaired by Home Minister Amit Shah.

The Delhi police has detained or arrested 514 suspects for questioning after registering 48 FIRs so far, it said, adding prohibitory orders under Section 144 will be relaxed for 10 hours on Friday "in view of improvement in ground situation". The situation is "slowly returning" to normal, the MHA said.

In a statement issued at 10 pm, the MHA said that "no major incident" has been reported for 36 hours in the riot-hit north east Delhi localities even as Shah appealed to citizens that they should "not believe in rumours and fall prey to evil designs" of miscreants and groups interested in precipitating communal tension.

Taking stock of the situation at a meeting attended by Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla and Delhi Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik among others, Shah said Delhi Police is mandated and obligated to provide security to all sections of society irrespective of caste and religion.

The MHA said areas under only 12 out of the 203 police stations in Delhi, which is about 4.2% of the geographical area of the capital, have been affected by riots while normalcy and communal harmony has prevailed elsewhere in the capital.

Nearly 7,000 paramilitary personnel have been deployed in the affected areas since February 24 besides Delhi Police's three Special Commissioners, six Joint Commissioners, one Additional Commissioner, 22 Deputy Commissioners, 20 Assistant Commissioners, 60 Inspectors and 1,200 other personnel besides 200 policewomen to supervise police response.

As part of confidence-building measures, police has held nearly 330 peace committee meetings across the capital.