News Conflict

We were wandering the streets, waiting: Family of Shahid Alvi, who was shot dead in northeast Delhi

25 February 2020
In the afternoon on 24 February, images of a man who had been shot began circulating online, in which he could be seen bleeding profusely from his side. The Caravan has identified the man as 23-year-old Shahid Alvi. According to his family, Shahid was shot dead while returning home from the dargah, amid the violence that engulfed northeast Delhi. Violence in the area began on on 23 February, when right-wing mobs arrived to oppose the peaceful sit-ins against the CAA in the area.
Mohammad Meharban
In the afternoon on 24 February, images of a man who had been shot began circulating online, in which he could be seen bleeding profusely from his side. The Caravan has identified the man as 23-year-old Shahid Alvi. According to his family, Shahid was shot dead while returning home from the dargah, amid the violence that engulfed northeast Delhi. Violence in the area began on on 23 February, when right-wing mobs arrived to oppose the peaceful sit-ins against the CAA in the area.
Mohammad Meharban

Late in the morning on 25 February, in street number 17 of Delhi’s New Mustafabad, a group of women and men had gathered under a cloth canopy. They were in mourning. Shahid Alvi, a 23-year-old resident of the nearby house number 1715, was shot dead the previous day, in the violence that engulfed northeast Delhi.

An auto driver by profession, Alvi was returning home after offering duas—prayers—at a nearby dargah, when he was shot in the stomach twice, at around 3 or 4 pm. The shooting took place near the Mohan Nursing Home on the Wazirabad Road, the main thoroughfare that divides the predominantly Muslim localities of Chand Bagh and Mustafabad from the Hindu-majority neighbourhood of Yamuna Vihar. It is unclear whether Alvi died on the spot, but according to his family, two strangers took his body to the nearby Madina Charitable Clinic. “I was at home yesterday and my brother was coming from the dargah,” Shahid’s brother Irfan said. “When he reached Bhajanpura”—referring to the area near Wazirabad road— “rioters shot him in the stomach. He was on the road. Some Muslims took him to a private nursing home. He was declared brought dead.” Irfan added, “We don’t know exactly when he died, but I suspect he passed away immediately after being shot.”

Tushar Dhara is a reporting fellow with The Caravan. He has previously worked with Bloomberg News, Indian Express and Firstpost and as a mazdoor with the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan in Rajasthan.

Keywords: Delhi Violence Citizenship (Amendment) Act
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