Family of brothers killed in Delhi riots fight for 'justice'

Five years after the bodies of two Muslim siblings were found in a drain following unrest in the Indian capital, a court has acquitted 12 men accused of the crime. Namita Singh reports

- Namita Singh

In the dimly lit ground floor of his small house in northeast Delhi’s Mustafabad, Babu Khan sits hunched on a plastic chair as the air fills with the rhythmic clicking of sewing machines operated by his wife and daughter.

Together, on a good day, they earn up to 500 rupees (£4.25) but on some days, nothing. The family’s monthly income rarely touches 7,000 rupees.

It’s daytime but sunlight barely filters in, making it hard to tell day from night indoors. The main door is the sole source of natural light in the room, which opens into a narrow, 500-metre alleyway no wider than three feet.

This is the world left behind by Aamir Ali and his brother Hashim Ali, whose bodies were found in a drain near Bhagirathi Vihar on 27 February 2020 following riots in the national capital.

In a set of rulings related to one of the deadliest episodes of religious violence in India, a Delhi court recently acquitted 18 people accused of killing Muslim men, including the Ali brothers, during the riots. For the family of Aamir and Hashim, the ruling is the latest blow in their long quest for justice – a wait they now fear may never end.

Over three days of bloodshed, at least 53 people, mostly Muslims, were killed and more than 200 injured as mobs laid siege to Muslim neighbourhoods, burning homes, shops and mosques in what survivors and rights groups have since called a “pogrom”.

The trigger for the riots was a citizenship law introduced in 2019 that critics say marginalises India’s Muslim minority. Clashes broke out between those opposing the citizenship law and those supporting it with Hindus and Muslims both blaming each other for starting the riots.