Broken desks, burnt books tell a sordid tale of vandalism

New Delhi, February 27

“Welcome to a very happy school” reads a half-charred board at a private school in Brijpuri area of North East Delhi which is now home to broken desks and burnt books after it was vandalised during the violence.

Arun Modern Senior Secondary School, which is over 32 years old, looks no less than a cemetery, say officials. The estimated damage is over Rs 70 lakh. “While I am yet to recover from what has happened at the school, my biggest relief is that children were not in the premises when this happened. I do not even want to imagine what would have happened if that was the case,” school principal Jyoti Rani says.

“Our security guard was there on Tuesday evening when a mob entered the premises. Scared by the happenings, he rushed outside to save his life. Only two days later could we gather the courage to go to the school. All I could see was vandalised desks, burnt books and a mess everywhere. It looks no less than a cemetery now,” she says. Bhisham Sharma, the school owner, says the rioters burnt books worth Rs 70 lakh. “The school has been running since 1987. The incident happened around 5 pm. They came and burnt down everything. We have lost records of 30 years.” At Rajdhani Public School in Shiv Vihar, schoolbags, crayon and half-burnt models are among the remains while the entire library has been burnt. — PTI

Gone to take exam, Class 8 girl missing

New Delhi: A 13-year-old girl, who had gone to school to take an examination in the Khajuri Khas area, some 4.5 km from her home, three days ago, went missing amid the violence in northeast Delhi. The Class 8 student’s father, who deals in readymade garments, said: “I was supposed to pick her up from school at 5.20 pm. But I got caught in the violence in our area. My daughter has been missing since then.”