Traffic on roads, particularly NH-24, connecting Uttar Pradesh to Delhi was paralysed on Monday as thousands of Shia protesters in around 70 buses tried to enter the national Capital via Ghazipur border in the afternoon to protest against the alleged encroachment on Karbala land in South Delhi.
Traffic snarl soon spread to several areas in UP-Delhi border affecting commutation in Anand Vihar and Seema Puri. NH-24 bore the brunt as traffic jam was reported as far as Hapur.It seems there was massive intelligence failure on part of Uttar Pradesh as they failed to inform the Delhi Police about such a huge movement of people from the Shia community towards Delhi. .
The protesters from UP were keen to reach Jor Bagh to join a protest against alleged attempt to grab wakf land by a Congress leader belonging to the minority community. The matter is sub-judice as arbitration proceedings are going in the Supreme Court. The tension soon spread to Karbala area and a large posse of armed Delhi Police personnel was deployed at 24, Akbar Road, the head quarters of Indian National Congress.
Two Delhi Metro stations, Central Secretariat and Udyog Bhawan, were closed to ward off the protesters from reaching Akbar Road. Shia leader Maulana Kalbe Jawad addressed the gathering. He also visited the residence of Sonia Gandhi but she was unavailable. Police officials requested him to convey his problems to other Congress leaders but Maulana Jawad was adamant on meeting the Congress president.
Earlier, as the Delhi Police foiled protesters' attempt to enter Delhi, they resorted to arson by burning a mini-truck and two cars, sources said, adding two fire tenders were pressed into service to douse the flames. Subsequently, they staged a protest on NH-24 leading to massive a traffic jam that caused immense hardship to office-goers and others travelling to East Delhi and Ghaziabad till late at night.
There has been tension between Shias and Sunnis over a property dispute over the nursery situated at Karbala. Shias claim that the disputed property belongs to Anjumn-e-Haideri, an organisation that takes care of Dargah Shah-e-Mardan. Speaking to The Pioneer, Anjumn-e-Haideri manager Zahrul Hasan complained that despite having an agreement between the nursery owner and the High Court, commercial activities are going on unabated in the nursery, supposed to be owned by Waseem Khan, a resident of Shajahanpur in UP. Khan now resides in Jamia Nagar area of South east Delhi.
"There is barricading here all the time and the people face trouble when they need to go to the cemetery for rituals as they allow only one member at a time. Whenever we approach Sonia Gandhi she passes the buck to her political adviser Ahmed Patel who gets our people arrested when we meet him. He should be arrested since he has criminal cases against him," alleged Hasan. The hold-up is expected to last a bit longer as Intelligence reports said that around 500 buses have been hired to bring in more protesters.