Many of the slum’s residents work as domestic help in posh homes nearby.
Gurugram:
Muslims living and working in Haryana’s Gurugram apparently continue to be the target of hate crimes, after posters threatening the residents of a slum in Sector 69A of the ‘mega city’ were put up on Sunday night. A majority of the residents of this slum are Muslims.
There were also posters specifically targeting Muslim women and these come days after a mazar in a Gurugram village was set on fire in the tension after communal clashes in neighbouring Nuh district.
The posters – which also demanding the slum dwellers leave the hovels they call home – read – “Slum dwellers… you need to vacate homes by August 28 and leave… otherwise you may have to face bad consequences. If you want to save your honour… you have 2 days…”
Local police removed the posters and filed a case, but not before panic and fear spread in the community. “We have removed the posters and started investigating the matter,” Assistant Commissioner of Police Manoj Kumar told NDTV. He also declared the slums are “illegal”.
So far the police have not made any arrests and have not been able to identify those responsible.
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The slum may be an illegal construction but the people who call it home have lived there for years, with many – especially the women – working as domestic help in nearby high-rise apartment complexes. And, understandably, many are terrified after the posters emerged.
“We are more afraid for our children. When my husband and I go to work… the children are here alone. We had gone to the village after the riots but now, these posters have come up,” one woman told NDTV, while another said, “We are scared… have lived here for many years.”
Both women were so frightened the requested their names be withheld.
After the violence in Nuh in July – in which six people were killed – parts of Gurugram are on edge, particularly amid reports of attacks on Muslim shopkeepers. The fear has already led many families to flee from and those who have stayed on so far – like those in the Sector 69A slum – are now nervous.
