Jamiat delegation meets police officials, says poor and needy should be given a chance to restart their business

New Delhi, May 1 (PTI) A delegation of Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind on Sunday met senior police officials and expressed concern over the arrest of "innocent people" following the Jahangirpuri violence, the prominent Muslim body said in a statement.

It conveyed to the police officials that a particular community is being targeted by using the term "stone pelters".

In a statement, the Jamiat said the police department and its senior officials should play a responsible role and stop "targeting" a particular community.

The poor and the needy should be given a chance to restart their business, it said.

The delegation also demanded that the police administration play a proactive role in addressing the fear and anxiety prevalent among the residents.

The Jamiat delegation distributed 500 Eid kits among the needy in Jahangirpuri and vowed to rehabilitate the affected shopkeepers.

Clashes broke out between two communities during a Hanuman Jayanti procession at Jahangirpuri last month, leaving eight police personnel and a local injured.

Several concrete and temporary structures in Jahangirpuri were brought down last month as part of an anti-encroachment drive by the BJP-ruled North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC), days after the northwest Delhi neighbourhood was rocked by communal violence.

The Supreme Court had to intervene twice to stop the drive after it took cognizance of a petition filed by Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind against the demolition.