Turkman Gate Demolition Drive: Delhi Police has identified 30 stone-pelters and is probing more than 400 videos.
The police action is related to the stone-pelting incident that happened during an anti-encroachment drive in the Ramlila Maidan of Delhi near the Faiz-e-Elahi mosque. On January 7 early morning, several people pelted glass bottles and stones at Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) workers and the police team. MCD was only following the orders of the Delhi High Court. The Court ordered the MCD to recover more than 38,000 square feet of communal encroachment from iconic Ramlila Maidan, Turkman Gate.
Delhi Police has also sent a notice to Mohibullah Nadvi, Rampur’s Samajwadi Party MP, who was present at the stone-pelting site to join the investigation.
Turkman Gate Demolition Drive-What Happened 50 Years Ago?
In early 1976, the family planning campaign was initiated on the orders of a top Congress leader and the son of the then PM Indira Gandhi.
Sanjay Gandhi ordered the jhuggi-jhomproi and slum colonies to be cleared. He also ordered that the residents be forcibly sterilized. Sanjay visited Turkman Gate to oversee the proceedings and was visibly upset by the hostile reception from area residents.
On 13 April 1976, the first bulldozer arrived at the walled city’s Turkman Gate. Some outlying hutments were cleared. A few days later, beggars, street vendors, rickshaw-wallas and even passers-by were picked up at random and forced to undergo sterilization.
On 19 April 1976, the bulldozers on the orders of Sanjay started moving forward again. A group of children and women started gathering on Turkman Gate’s main road. After protests by residents, police started indiscriminate firing leaving the whole area strewn with injured and dead. Senior police officers of Delhi were seen shouting orders to their men. ‘Aage badho, aage badho! Maro salaon ko! Maro, maro!’ (Advance, advance, shoot them, shoot, shoot!).