Delhi mob attacks Kashmiri woman over feeding dogs

New Delhi: A group of youths from Kashmir, including a woman, was allegedly assaulted with sticks by residents of a DDA colony in Delhi’s Siddharth Extension after an argument over feeding street dogs on the road. A video of the assault went viral.
In their complaint, however, the youths alleged that during the attack, some of the residents hurled anti-Kashmiri abuses at them. Police said an FIR had been registered based on the complaint by the woman. It was found that the woman and the RWA members had filed 52 complaints against each other in five years.

The alleged attack took place at Siddharth Extension DDA colony on Thursday night when the group stepped out to feed the street dogs. A relative of the woman said, “We find it normal to take care of the dogs. There are more than 30 families that take care of animals. But it was us who were targeted.” She added,“The president of the RWA was present during the attack and took no steps to stop it.” said the woman’s relative.

Area RWA president S N Pandey said,“They have been staying here for a long time, so far no one uttered a word about them. We have been asking them not feed dogs in the public places. There have been at least 10 incidents of dog bites in the past few months.”

One of the residents, Tauqeer, said a dog had bitten an elderly citizen four months back. The man was still undergoing treatment for the injuries. "There hasn't been any instance where these people were targeted for their religion or for being Kashmiris. The incident on Thursday too was a fall out of a number of arguments that had taken place earlier," said Tauqeer. In fact, it was the family that had attacked a woman from the colony and threatened her with dire consequences, after which the others grew violent, he said.

DCP (south-east) Chinmoy Biswal confirmed that an FIR has been registered under sections of molestation, assault and outraging the modesty of a woman. Cops are, however, scanning the video and questioning some of the residents to establish the sequence of events.