Deaf and dumb children stranded as agitationists take to roads

New Delhi, Sep 20 (UNI) Even as agitationists fought pitched battles with the police over the sealing operation in the Capital, about half-a-dozen deaf and dumb children were stranded for several hours in the traffic, without food and water.

The driver of the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) bus, carrying seven children allegedly left them after parking the vehicle near the Deputy Commissioner of Police office in North-East Delhi, according to sources.

The driver, who later returned, said he did so as the violent mob was targetting DTC buses, adding that he had ''not left the children'' but had gone nearby and was keeping a watch from a distance.

The bus on its way to Jafrabad from Mayur Vihar, after being caught in the traffic jam due to agitationists taking to the road, had been brought to a ''safe place'', he added.

However, later parents of five of the children reached the spot and took the children with them.

The driver, after the roads were cleared of the mobs, left to drop the remaining two children to their residence.

The children, who remained stranded without food and water for nearly three hours, were from an institution in Mayur Vihar for the speech and hearing impaired, run by an NGO.

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