New Delhi, Dec. 11 (ANI): Before adjourning for the day on Wednesday, members of the Lok Sabhacondoled the death of sixty persons, including several children in relief camps set up for riot victimsin Uttar radesh’s Muzaffarnagar District.
A reference was made in this regard in the House by Speaker Meira Kumar.
Members stood in silence for a short while as a mark of respect to the memory of the departed.
Beginning on August 27, clashes between the Hindu and Muslim communities claimed 43 lives and injured 93. The state government had to then impose a curfew in all riot-hit areas and call in the army to establish law and order. The attacks were described as “the worst violence in Uttar Pradesh in recent memory.”
The army was deployed in the state for the first time in 20 years.
Even after the riots ended, a grave humanitarian crisis unfolded, as several riot victims who had been lodged in many relief camps suffered from official neglect, terrible living conditions and expose to the bitter north Indian cold.
Sixty people died as a result in the post-riot phase.
The Malakpur relief camp, which is around 18-kilometers from Shamli, one of the epicentres of the September riots,housed the largest number of displaced people.
It also saw the maximum number of deaths in the past one month — 28, including 25 nfants, all under a month old.
Three months after the riots, close to 18,000 people are still huddled in these relief camps, 4,500 of them in the Malakpur camp alone. (ANI)