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Relief camp to be this newborn’s first home

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | By
Mar 06, 2020 03:07 PM IST

Bano’s newborn becomes the latest victim of the displacement caused by the communal violence in northeast Delhi last week that killed at least 53 and left hundreds injured and homeless. Since Bano’s house is in one of the worst-affected areas, the fear in her heart refuses to go.

Shiv Vihar resident Sabiha Bano, 24, had planned to celebrate the arrival of her second child with a small family gathering. However, after giving birth to a boy on Wednesday at a local Mustafabad nursing home, she plans to return to the Eidgah relief camp where hundreds of other riot victims have taken refuge.

“My house was ransacked by rioters after we fled from our neighbourhood on February 25. There is nowhere else to go because our relatives stay far away. I will return to the camp on Friday with my child,” she said from her hospital bed.

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Dr Nasreen Akhtar, who helped deliver her baby and has been working with riot victims at the relief camp, said, “We would have discharged her on Thursday. But seeing the weather condition and fear of infection, we decided to keep the mother and the child for one more day.”

Bano’s newborn becomes the latest victim of the displacement caused by the communal violence in northeast Delhi last week that killed at least 53 and left hundreds injured and homeless. Since Bano’s house is in one of the worst-affected areas, the fear in her heart refuses to go.

“Most of our neighbours had left by the time we decided to leave. When I was running around amid stone-pelting and arson, there was nobody around. After we managed to reach Chaman Park, my blood pressure shot up,” said Bano whose first born is now one-year old. Several riot-victims had taken shelter in the nearby locality of Chaman Park before heading to the relief camps.

Sabiha’s husband Mohammad Arshad, 29, has failed to go to work at Vaishali since then. “My employers have been asking me to join work. I have to because we have no money left. My family will have to stay at the relief camp till then.”

The young parents refuse to return to their home in Shiv Vihar due to security concerns. “We saw violence happening in front of us. What if something happens after I go back in this condition? The government should help us feel safe and get back what we lost,” Bano said.

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