2 men on bike fire in air near anti-CAA protest site, Ahead of Delhi election

A senior police official said that the firing was not in connection with the anti-CAA protests and the police suspect it to be a case of some personal enmity

Two bike-borne men allegedly opened fired in the air near an anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protest site in Northeast Delhi’s Jafrabad on Friday, but the police said it appeared to be a fallout of personal enmity and not related to the stir over the contentious law.

No one was injured in the incident, which some protesters alleged to be a repeat of intimidation tactics after the firings near Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) and at Shaheen Bagh.

According to the police, Shabir (50) was at his garments shop when two men arrived on a motorcycle and fired two rounds. The Jafrabad police rushed to the spot after the incident.

“A case has been registered and an investigation initiated,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (Northeast) Ved Prakash Surya said.

He said police are trying to find out if any CCTV camera was installed in the area and obtain footage of the alleged incident to ascertain the sequence of events and establish the identity of the suspects.

“The firing was not in connection with the anti-CAA protests. We suspect it to be a case of some personal enmity,” a senior police official said.

The incident took place barely 400 metre from the site where people have been protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act since last month. Some agitators claim it to be a threat tactics and with every such incident, and alleged the accused are changing their modus operandi.

Nihal Ashraf, one of the protesters at Jafrabad, said, “The armed men fired three rounds in the air and fled the spot. They were on a scooter without a number plate unlike the Jamia incident in which the vehicle used by those who fired had number plate. They two men fired after moving a few metre ahead of our protest site”.

Mohd Irshad, a Jamia student, said a youth fired outside the Jamia Millia Islamia on January 30 and also shot a student in front of the police.

“He [youth outside Jamia] provoked and then fired. In the second incident on February 1 at Shaheen Bagh, the assailant fired from a few metre away from the main gathering to cause disturbance.

“In the third incident again outside Jamia on February 2, the assailants shot in the air from the opposite road so that they could not be caught like the previous two accused. However, the police got their vehicle number. Therefore, the assailants at Jafrabad got a vehicle without a number plate,” he said.