Delhi: 5 students injured in knife attack; six minors apprehended, say police

The five students received stab wounds in their chests, abdomens and limbs, but all are out of danger and recuperating at a hospital

A scuffle over a motorcycle stunt on Friday eventually snowballed into a knife attack on Monday, with students from one government school in northeast Delhi’s Karawal Nagar stabbing students from another government school around 2km away, leaving five boys injured and hospitalised.

Police added the crime was triggered by a minor road incident that took place last week. (Representative istock image)

The six boys, who were all apprehended on Tuesday, kept stabbing the other five till a crowd gathered, said one of the victims.

Most of the 11 involved students don’t know each other, said the police, underlining that the clash only mushroomed out of a bike stunt that one of the assailants was performing in front of the victims’ school.

“The five students were stabbed in their chests, stomachs and limbs, but they are all out of danger,” deputy commissioner of police (northeast) Joy Tirkey said.

Police said they registered a case of attempt to murder at the Dayalpur police station and apprehended six suspects.

“All the apprehended boys have claimed to be minors. We are verifying their ages. Four of them are students of classes 10-12 and two others are school dropouts,” said Tirkey.

The injured boys are all students of Class 12 of a boys’ senior secondary school in northeast Delhi’s Tukmirpur in Karawal Nagar. The assailants are current and former students of the boys senior secondary school in Nehru Vihar, about two kilometres away, the DCP said.

Monday’s bloodbath was the culmination of Friday afternoon’s frayed nerves.

“On Friday afternoon, a teenager (one of the assailants) was performing a motorcycle stunt in front of the school in Karawal Nagar. Some students outside the school asked him why he was performing stunts in front of their school. That led to an argument, during which the students allegedly repeatedly slapped the stunt performer. He fell off his motorcycle and was injured,” said the DCP.

The performer got himself treated for relatively minor injuries at a hospital, but did not involve the police. “He returned home and gathered his friends to retaliate,” said Tirkey.

The police said that the six assailants planned to carry out the attack on Monday when the rival students would be returning from their board exam. They allegedly spent Saturday planning the attack and Sunday was a school holiday.

The alleged attack took place around 2pm on Monday when the students of the Karawal Nagar school were returning home after the exam.

“Some boys who were wearing blue pants, white shirts and black shoes began chasing us. Two-three of them carried sharp objects that appeared to be knives,” one of the injured students told the police in his statement. The student, who was accompanied by his younger brother, ran to save his life, but was allegedly chased until he was separated from his brother and other friends.

“They finally caught up with me and began stabbing me in the chest; they said they would kill me,” the boy alleged.

He said that the boys ceased their attack only when a crowd gathered. “I lost consciousness. My classmates moved me to a hospital,” he said.

Police said he was possibly the only one the assailants recognised, however, they still attacked the four other students in a similar fashion.

The complainant student’s brother said that his two siblings weren’t even part of the Friday incident. “It was an indiscriminate attack on anyone they believed to be from their rival school,” alleged his brother. The entire attack lasted about three-four minutes, the police said.

The police said they received a call about the incident at 3.10pm on Monday after which they lodged a case of attempt to murder and began a hunt for the suspects. “CCTV footage provided the identity of the first suspect. Thereafter, we identified all six suspects and apprehended them from the neighbourhood by 1am on Tuesday,” the DCP said.

The police said they also had to thwart attempts by a group of people to communalise the incident. “All the 11 boys are of the same religion,” Tirkey said.