Delhi violence: Attacked with acid, Shiv Vihar family prayed to die under mosque debris

Watch video: Ruins, relief camps and restoration: Tale of Shiv Vihar

Wakeel was later admitted to the Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital (LNJP) where doctors have been treating his eyes.

His 20-year-old daughter, Anam, who also suffered blisters on her body in the acid attack, said, “He (Wakeel) has not been able to open his eyes since the attack.”

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The family of six along with their two goat kids had managed to escape to the nearby Madina Masjid when the rioters had barged in their premises. When the mosque also come under attack soon after, Mumtaz said she and her family had just one prayer.

Interior of a charred house in Shiv Vihar (Express photo: Midhat Fatimah)

“We did not want to be killed by the mob. We prayed that either we come out safe or be buried under the mosque’s debris,” she said.

“We called the police but no one came to help. In fact, later, when we saw the police standing near the drain, I thought it was better not to ask them for any help.”

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Shiv Vihar is one of the worst-affected areas in the violence that gripped the northeastern parts of Delhi. Most of the families in the region fled home in the dead of the night to find refuge in nearby areas like Mustafabad, Chaman Park and Babu Nagar as mobs of hundreds torched homes and shops in Shiv Vihar.

Lane next to Madina Masjid. (Express photo: Naman Shah)

When residents returned to their homes, most of them found their houses to be ransacked, looted or burned. Mumtaz, too, who had until now been living in Shiv Vihar for over 30 years, returned after a week to find her shop looted and burned.

Mumtaz asks, “They destroyed everything…How will we live?” It is a sentiment that echoes everywhere in Shiv Vihar now.