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In Shiv Vihar, Were Local Rioters Paid to Target Muslims?

“Pradeep and I were like brothers,” Sameer said. “We used to go out and eat together and he used to eat from my plate.”

When Pradeep owed Sameer Rs 5,000, it didn’t bother Sameer. The money was in the family, as it were. They would square it eventually.

But on Tuesday, February 25, 2020, Sameer, hiding from a mob, watched his friend set houses on fire.

That morning, as Sameer had returned from Seemapuri to Shiv Vihar in his auto, a group of about 30 men started chasing him near the samshan ghat (crematorium) at Gokulpuri nala (canal). Panicked, he looked for a hiding place, but when no road seemed safe, he finally abandoned the auto and ran inside a building where he knew a fellow Muslim lived, three doors down from his own house. He huddled on a small balcony on the third floor and peered through a railing as a mob rampaged through the streets below.

An auto driver, Sameer also worked as a painter and plasterer and Pradeep, who lived nearby, was a colleague. They spent a lot of time together, Sameer said. If

— source | Naomi Barton | 01/Mar/2021

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