Aqib Nazir, Adnan Ali and Huda Ayisha
After our group arrived at the Shiv Vihar metro station in northeast Delhi, a 28-year-old Muslim man, Abu Bakar, gave us directions over a call.
Following his instructions, we three journalists crossed a congested colony of tyre godowns, houses, and drains.
We crossed a bridge connecting a Hindu and Muslim colony. Abu Bakar said we had now entered the predominantly Muslim one. We saw open drains in front of the houses, attracting insects and flies.
We saw orange and green crescent symbol flags hanging above the streets; residents said this started after the communal riots in February 2020.
We were there to meet four out of the six Muslims we learnt had been falsely accused of rioting and had been acquitted last year. Four, including Bakar, were 28 years old and just starting in life when the riots broke out.
They had recently started their careers or were looking to get married when this false case shattered their hopes and dreams.
Their relatives and neighbours occasionally objected to our presence because they were worried that talking to the media would endanger the sense of calm that seemed to be returning to the riot-hit community.
They believed this injustice was a thing of the past and injustices like this had happened to many people they knew. So, it was not worth rehashing to the reporters who had come and gone.
When we talked about politics, the young Muslim men said they didn't mind whose political party was in power at the state or national level. They only wanted a decent life with enough money to support their families.
Gulafsha, Abu Bakar's sister, kept a diary documenting the riots and the injustices she felt.
Seeing this diary reminded us of the book by Anne Frank that we read in school. In it, Anne, a Jewish girl, recorded her family's two years in hiding during the German occupation of the Netherlands.
Decades later, Gulafsha seemed to be recording the persecution she faced.
Of the 53 people killed in the riots, three-quarters were Muslim.
When we started a conversation with Abu Bakar’s mother, she told us that her son had become a burden to his father since the riots. She told us that he could not work and wanted to be left alone, and she wished to kick her son out of her home due to exasperation.
Mohammed Ajeej, 28, had to move out of his home due to persistent domestic violence faced by his wife from his family members.
Hashim Ali, 58, one of the six freed last year, told us that he was finding it challenging to fight the injustice done by the police administration and judiciary in not finding the culprits who were involved in burning his house and a mosque.
Read Aqib Nazir, Adnan Ali and Huda Ayisha’s full story here.
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