War Zone

As we travelled out of Delhi, and thru it’s sister city Gurgaun, on our way to a 16th Century Fort Palace we came across what resembled a war zone.  We passed busses that had been completely gutted by flames, trucks still smoking , two of which were still being licked by bright orange flames.  The smell of burning rubber was strong.  I discretely pulled out my camera and took some shots from the car window although everything in me wanted to jump out and really start shooting the scene (there is that closet journalist again).  The driver of our taxi told us that the evening before a large mob attacked a group of trucks which were transporting beef for slaughter.  As cows are worshiped here the slaughter of cow’s is banned.  Knowing this I do find it odd that some muslim businessmen (who don’t revere the cows and rather enjoy them on kebabs) decided to transport so many in a convoy – you would think you would stagger the trucks, spread them out a bit, take a few different routes.  But in their wisdom they decided to travel in convoy and a village outside Gurgaun got wind of it.

There was a riot with the papers reporting anywhere between 15 and 35 trucks and vehicles being set alight.  From driving thru we would say the mark was closer to 35 if not more.  There was no news of anyone injured but I guess that would be highly censored, being a Hindu-Muslim issue.  The tragedy if no life was lost was the lost of property – trucks with new vehicles being transported for sale, trucks full of vegetables for sale at the markets, timber and many other goods, private cars reduced to charred scrap.  I feel for all those that have lost assets and income as a result of this.  Something like this can hit a family hard here with insurance either not affordable or insurance companies reluctant to pay such a loss can push a family below the poverty line.