The high cost of targeted violence in Northeast Delhi: A list of the deceased
We would like to introduce this list by first expressing our deepest condolences to the families of all those who have lost a loved one in the targeted violence that plagued Northeast Delhi between February 23, 2020 and February 29, 2020. Violence is never easy to make sense of and it is our hope that people in the affected areas can focus on the ties that bind rather than what divides. That may be the only way to forge ahead in a time of extreme communal strife and polarization in society.
We also strongly condemn the hate speeches and pronouncements made by Indian leaders that have culminated in these deaths. Leaders of the ruling party are supposed to protect their citizens, not create and enable adverse conditions that lead to their deaths.
Our list of deaths has been compiled from the following sources between February 24, 2020 and March 2, 2020. We will be updating this list as new information becomes available. The sources are:
- Deaths recorded at hospitals which have been released to the public.
- Deaths reported by FirstPost, Indian Express, The Wire, Quint and Print.in.
- Deaths reported in other print news stories filed by credible journalists.
To undertake this task we have triangulated and cross-referenced information across these different sources to arrive at names of people who were felled in this violence. If a name does not appear in at least two different lists published, we have not included it. We have also not included unidentified bodies that have been counted in some of the other enumerations of death tolls. We have only added those unidentified persons of whom we are reasonably sure, an identification has not been made. This helps us avoid counting the same person twice. So this is essentially a list of confirmed deaths. However, as there is movement in this data everyday with bodies being identified and given names, histories and proper personhood, we are releasing this as data subject to revision as new information emerges.
It is important to remember that these are people with lives, families and identities and that their tragic and violent deaths are directly attributable to increasingly toxic levels of hate-based politics in India.
Aamir, 30, M
Aas Mohd., 30, M
Aftab, 18, M
Akbari, 85, F
Aqil Ahmad, 40, M
Alok Tiwari, 24, M
Amaan, 17, M
Ankit Sharma, 26, M
Anwar Kassar, 58, M
Aqib, 18, M
Arshad, 22, M
Ashfaq Hussain, 22, M
Ayub Shabbir, 60, M
Babbu Salmani/Babbu Mohammad, 33, M
Bhure 25, M
Bir Bhan/Bir Khan, 50, M
Constable Ratan Lal, 42, M
Deepak Kumar, 34, M
Dilbar/Dilbur Negi, 20, M
Dinesh Kumar, 35, M
Faizaan, 23, M
Hamza, M
Hashim, 17, M
Ishtiyak Khan, 24, M
Jamaluddin, 30, M
Mahroof Ali, 30, M
Mehtab, 22, M
Mohd. Furqan, 30, M
Mohd. Monis, 22, M
Mohd. Irfan, 32, M
Mohd. Shahbaan, 22, M
Mohd. Yusuf, 52, M
Mohsin, 22, M
Mubarak Hussain, 28, M
Muddassir Khan, 35, M
Musharaff, 35, M
Naresh Saini, 32, M
Nazeem Khan, 35, M
Nitin Paswan, 15, M
Parvez Alam, 50, M
Pravesh, 48, M
Prem Singh, 27, M
Rahul Solanki, 29, M
Rahul Thakur, 22, M
Salman, 24, M
Sanjeet Thakur, 32, M
Sayid, 19, M
Shahid Alvi, 23, M
Shan Mohd., 35, M
Suleiman, 22, M
Vinod Kumar 50 M
Zakhir, 26, M
*This piece has been updated on March 3, 2020 to include the demise of Aqib, 18, M, remove the name of Atul Gupta, 45, M (as our original source for this name was the list of Print.in and they have removed him from their list).
*This piece has been updated on March 5, 2020 to include the names of Jamaluddin, 30 M and Naresh Saini, 32, M.
*This piece has been updated on March 6, 2020 to include the names of Hamza, M and Bhure 25, M.
*This piece has been updated on March 7, 2020 to remove the unidentified female person (aged 70) since there could be no independent confirmation about her identity even though she was mentioned in the first Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital list.
*This piece was updated on March 18, 2020 to add the name of Aas Mohd, 30, M.