NEW DELHI:  It was around 1 pm on Tuesday — the third day of communal riots in northeast Delhi — when I stepped out of the Seelampur metro station to reach Jaffrabad – one of the worst-hit areas. 

As I started walking towards Jaffrabad, a Muslim-dominated area, a policeman asked me to be ‘careful’. “Aapki safety aapki zimmedari (your safety is your responsibility),” said another police officer.

In Jaffrabad, women protestors were still demonstrating against the CAA. Within 15 minutes an 800-strong crowd, mostly men carrying swords, guns, sticks and rods, assembled on the road. Soon, chants of ‘Azaadi’ filled the air.

Sensing the tension escalating, I walked into a lane assuming it would be less crowded. Here, too, armed men were visible.

I asked a local for a shortcut towards Seelampur. A resident pointed me towards a lane. Sensing I was lost, two men approached me.

“You are a Hindu; it is not safe to roam around. If riots break out nobody will care even if you are a journalist,” Maqbool, who lives in Jaffrabad, said. 

Maqbool, who was heading to another direction, decided to drop me first to a safer location.

“I will drop you where the barricades have been placed,” he said and I rode pillion on his scooter. He dropped me in an area where fellow journalists were standing.

Next, I headed towards Maujpur, a Hindu-majority area. I took the road from Shahdara where chats of ‘Jai Shri Ram’ eAchoed loud. The Maujpur Babarpur Chowk was deserted by afternoon. Here, too, men with sticks were patrolling the lanes. Three locals approached me and my colleague.

“Aap mein se koi ‘uus’ category se ho (do any of you belong to that category)?” they asked pointing towards a Muslim residential area. When we said no, his promptly assured us, “Tab aap dono safe ho, koi haath nahi lagae ga (Then both of you are safe, nobody would touch you)”. 

At Maujpur, too, we were quizzed about our religion.