Protests against alleged wakf land grab lead to traffic woes in Delhi

Commuters in East Delhi went through a harrowing time on Monday evening due to a protest by scores of minority community members against alleged attempts to grab prime wakf land in the national capital.

The National Highway 24 saw a traffic jam of nearly 7 hours thanks to the protests.

Trouble started after thousands of people travelling in around 60 buses tried to enter Delhi via the Ghazipur border with Uttar Pradesh in the afternoon, police sources said.

As police foiled their attempt, the protestors resorted to arson by burning a mini-truck and two cars, they said, adding two fire tenders were pressed into service to douse the flames.

According to a Times of India report, “there was massive jams on both sides of the highway that links the city with Ghaziabad, Indirapuram and Noida.”

“I had come for shopping at Lajpat Nagar and was returning around 3.30pm when I got stuck at the mouth of the NH-24 near Nizamuddin. After 3 hours, I have just managed to travel 4km,” Harish Upadhyay, a student from Ghaziabad told the Times of India.

Commuters also complained about the lack of information or help from traffic police as they were stuck in traffic for many hours.

“I started at around 6.20pm from Vasant Kunj and could not reach Indirapuram till 9pm on Monday. There is no information about what is happening and thousands of commuters are stuck around the border areas of Ghaziabad and also inside Delhi,” Sanjeev Sethi, a resident of Indirapuram told the Hindustan Times .

The protesters were keen to reach Jor Bagh to join a rally against alleged attempt to grab Karbala land by a Congress leader belonging to the minority community.

Traffic problems were also encountered in Jor Bagh and Lodhi Road and adjoining areas like Aurobindo Chowk, Safdarjung Madrasa, Tughlak Marg. Two Metro stations – Jor Bagh and INA – were shut down to prevent protestors from reaching the disputed site.

In 2012, the dispute over the land had led to a major riot. “On advice of Delhi Police, due to security reasons, INA and Jor Bagh Metro stations were closed for passenger service at 3:20 PM and later re-opened at 6:23 PM,” DMRC spokesman said.

Ghaziabad Superintendent of Police Shiv Meena said the protestors wanted to reach Jor Bagh at any cost but were stopped.

With inputs  from PTI