Delhi riots: Communal frenzy leaves orphaned children scarred for life

The communal frenzy in northeast Delhi has left many children of both communities orphaned and they are struggling to come to terms with their loss.

Many are too young to even comprehend what’s happening around them even as the families that have lost their breadwinners stare at  a bleak future, finds Sana Shakil

Shifa’s last memory of her father Mudassir Khan is a video call. But at least, the 15-year-old has a memory. Mudassir’s youngest daughter Inaaya is all of 15 days — too young to know her father, who was killed in the orgy of mindless communal violence that erupted in the northeastern part of Delhi last Sunday.

Thirty-five-year-old Mudassir, a small-time scrap dealer in old Mustafabad, has left behind his old parents and wife Imrana to take care of his eight daughters. But an inconsolable says she doesn’t know how she will do that, let alone fulfilling his dream of making their two teenaged daughters a doctor and a teacher. “Our marriage of 16 years was perfect. I have studied only till Class 8. How will I take care of them? Nobody has offered me any support,” she says.

On February 24, Imrana and her mother-in-law repeatedly urged Mudassir not to leave home for work. But being the sole breadwinner in the family, he perhaps did not have the luxury of sitting at home and losing out on business. He left home, stayed at a relative’s place for the night at Kabir Nagar. He was shot dead while coming back home next day.

“Abbu called ammi and daadi on the 24th…His last call was a video call with ammi and me on the 25th. His hand was injured… He said the situation was worsening,” said Shifa, the eldest among eight siblings.