Asaduddin Owaisi allegedly stopped by police from visiting riot-hit parts of Jahangirpuri

New Delhi, Apr 20: Lok Sabha MP and AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi was allegedly stopped by the police from visiting the riot-hit parts of Jahangirpuri where the North Delhi Municipal Corporation demolished several structures on Wednesday before the Supreme Court ordered a stay on it.

Police personnel with anti-riot gear were deployed in Jahangirpuri in large numbers as Owaisi reached there in the evening and tried to reach the violence-hit area.

The Hyderabad MP lashed out at the BJP and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the BJP over the anti-encroachment drive launched by the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) in the area.

"The AAP is saying they are Rohingyas and Bangladeshis. I condemn it," he told reporters and termed the demolition drive an "example of vigilante justice" and slammed the BJP for it.

"A BJP leader wrote a letter for using bulldozers in Jahangirpuri and the mayor said that they are criminals and their houses should be demolished," Owaisi said.

He claimed the demolition was carried out without serving notices to the people owning those structures and added that it was a "biased" behaviour of the BJP and the AAP.

He wondered why the BJP, which runs the NDMC, did not raze these structures earlier.

The AIMIM chief also sought to know how a procession could be taken out in Jahangirpuri on Hanuman Jayanti without police permission.

Delhi Police officials said they were taking all possible measures to prevent the tense situation from escalating.

Earlier in the day, bulldozers tore down several concrete and temporary structures close to a mosque in Jahangirpuri as part of an anti-encroachment drive by the BJP-ruled civic body, days after the northwest Delhi neighbourhood was rocked by communal violence. The Supreme Court had to intervene twice to stop the drive after it took cognizance of a petition filed by Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind against the demolition.

The area witnessed violent clashes, including stone-pelting, arson and firing, between two communities during a Hanuman Jayanti procession on Saturday that left eight police personnel and a local injured.