Delhi Communal Clashes: Eunuchs Contain Violence in Trilokpuri's Block 35

While the police have been trying to contain the tensions in east Delhi's Trilokpuri area after three days of communal clashes, a group of eunuchs have successfully maintained peace in Block 35 of the area.

Eunuchs, also known as Hijras in Indian community, were an unidentified gender until Supreme Court granted them "third gender" recognition in April this year. The same community, which has ever been undermined by the society, came forward to prevent the communal tensions from spreading beyond the few blocks of Trilokpuri area.

Using the same trick they use for extorting money from people, they threatened to take off their clothes if the mob with swords and stones attempted to enter Block 35. Their threats didn't go in vain, like always, and the angry mobs retreated.

Although, several blocks in the area have witnessed violence, the group of eunuchs is trying to subdue it in Block 35 and preventing it from spreading to the nearby localities. They have also driven the residents into cleaning the roads littered with stones and shards of glass.

"The condition of the area was so bad that people weren't able to even walk on the roads. Sanitation staff hasn't come after the riots. Someone has to clean these streets as we all have to live here in the end," decades old resident of the area and the chief of the group Laila Sa told The Times of India.

"We sit outside on the benches all the time. Iron gates are installed at the entrance, segregating one block from another. We take turns to guard the gate," she added.

What triggered the violence on Diwali

Even after five days of clashes between Hindu and Muslim communities in east Delhi's Trliokpuri area, the cause behind the incident is uncertain.

People have come up with different versions of the incident, which led to communal tensions in Trilokpuri, but not a single version has been ascertained to be the cause behind the violence that erupted on Diwali and continued until Saturday evening after police imposed prohibitory orders in the area.

One version states that a fight started after a Muslim man was caught urinating next to a Mata ki Chowki. After a short fight, the Hindu community, offering puja when the incident occurred, headed towards the mosque to take revenge.

"I heard that a Muslim boy was found urinating there even as a puja was being performed inside. When asked to leave, he began hitting everyone else present. Muslims have been angry ever since the local authorities disallowed them from using a local ground to offer prayers this Eid but allowed the Hindus to organise the chowki," Hindustan Times quoted a Hindu resident.

"We did what anyone would have done. We had to avenge the desecration, so we marched down to their mosque to do the same," another resident said.

Others believe that the fight turned into violence when a group of men "in civil clothes, biker helmets and with cricket bats and hockey sticks in their hand" started smashing whatever came in their way. They claimed that the men wanted to take advantage of the heated argument.

Unaware of the fact that it was a plot of outsiders, both communities blamed each other, which consequently led to communal tensions in the area.

However, police has a very different version of the incident. They said drunken miscreants, "deliberate exaggeration, rumour mongering" and a short-circuit in a shop led to the violence.