Residents of Indira Vihar try to put together the few remaining pieces of their lives

New Delhi: Vishveshwar Dyal, 65, had to leave his house in north-east Delhi’s Indira Vihar on February 25 when communal violence broke out in the area and neighbouring

New Delhi: Vishveshwar Dyal, 65, had to leave his house in north-east Delhi’s Indira Vihar on February 25 when communal violence broke out in the area and neighbouring localities. After taking refuge at a relative’s place in Shiv Vihar for a few days, they have now returned to their house and are trying to put back the pieces of their life. Dyal’s was among just eight Hindu families in the colony. Seven of the eight families had left out of fear during communal violence in the area last week.

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Many of them have returned now. Sitting in his courtyard with his children on Saturday, Dyal said, “We were not attacked or threatened by anyone here. However, when violence broke out in neighbouring colonies and many Hindus were attacked, we started to feel unsafe. Ours is the only Hindu family in the entire lane. We were really scared about our safety and then decided to move out for a few days.”

Dyal’s son Vijay, 27, a student at Industrial Training Institute (ITI) in Nand Nagri, said, “It was unsafe for us to live in the locality at that point.Everything is in place.”

A few metres from Dyal’s house, Bhagwati Devi’s family has also returned back to their house after 10 days. “When we heard Hindus being killed and looted by the Muslim neighbours in Brijpuri and Khajoori Khas, we fled to our relative’s place in Uttar Pradesh. We were very scared to come back. But who can leave their houses forever?” she said.

However, some Hindu families in nearby Brijpuri , who lost their houses and shops in the communal violence, said they have nothing left to return to. Virender Chaudhary, 69, whose three-storey house on the main Brijpuri lane was burnt down, went to check on his house twice over the past week. He said there was nothing to even pick from the charred piles of belongings.

“We have filled up the compensation form, but don’t know how long will it take for the house to be repaired if at all. There is nothing left here to stay. I had to buy even a pair of clothes to come back, because we just ran out in our slippers when the rioters struck. We have neither a shop nor a house, what do we do here? We plan to stay at our village in Meerut till things improve. My wife and daughter-in-law have been there since the violence broke. They are too scared to even think about what happened that day,” he said.

Tushant Kaushik, 24, who lives just next to Chaudhary’s, had come with his mother to see their house. They had just renovated the two-storey house last year. It has now been charred beyond recognition. “We have been staying at my sister-in-law’s place house nearby, since the violence. We lost all cash and valuables and the crucial documents we needed for my father’s business. I don’t know when and if we can ever come back here,” he said.