The issue had been smouldering for a long time and things came to a head when angry Shia Muslims virtually laid siege to the Delhi-UP border on Monday. Traffic came to a standstill on National Highway (NH)-24 as the protesters did not allow vehicles to cross the border at Gazipur. The traffic snarls soon spread to several km into Delhi, choking Anand Vihar and Seemapuri. The situation on NH-24 was so grim that the traffic came to a grinding halt up to as far as Hapur on the other side.
Delhi and UP Police deployed a large number of their personnel and riot vehicles were also pressed into service. Yet, the blockade continued. The cascading impact was such that the entire Trans-Yamuna area, Central Delhi and even South Delhi was affected. Commuters complained that it took over four hours to reach Ghaziabad from Central Delhi areas. Many office-goers were stranded for hours even as cops tried to jostle with the protesters and the men and officers of the traffic police tried to bring sanity on the city roads.
Senior police officers said that the protesters were not willing to leave the area as they had been adamant in demanding the arrest of Ahmed Patel, the political advisor to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, for his alleged complicity in the illegal encroachment of land at Karbala by one Waseem Khan of Jamia area. “This is an ongoing agitation by the aggrieved Shia community to free the land at Karbala in South Delhi that it claims belongs to them. We will not move an inch from here till our demands are met,” said Tahir of Muzaffarnagar who soon was joined by others from districts such as Shajhanpur, Meerut, lucknow, Saharanpur and Bareilly.
Representatives of the Shia community had come from various districts of UP in 70 odd buses and tried to force their way into the National Capital. They were, however, stopped in their tracks by the Delhi police as additional forces were requisitioned by the East district police to deal with the emergency situation. A truck was set on fire. The UP police wielded the baton and the situation was brought under control. This led to further hold-ups as vehicles kept piling up on all sides.
The impact of NH-24 being clogged was so huge that several major and radial roads of Preet Vihar, Patparganj, Karkadooma, Vivek Vihar and Vikas Marg were blocked. Its spill-over effect was also felt at India Gate hexagon, Jorbagh, Mathura Road, Outer Ring Road, Swami Dayanand Marg and Gazipur round-about.