The Turkman gate demolition and subsequent massacre was an infamous case of

political oppression Political repression is the act of a state entity controlling a citizenry by force for political reasons, particularly for the purpose of restricting or preventing the citizenry's ability to take part in the political life of a society, thereby ...

and

police brutality Police brutality is the excessive and unwarranted use of force by law enforcement against an individual or Public order policing, a group. It is an extreme form of police misconduct and is a civil rights violation. Police brutality includes, b ...

during the Emergency when, on 31 May 1976, residents of

Old Delhi Shahjahanabad colloquially known as Old Delhi( Hindustani: ''Purāni Dillī'') is an area in the Central Delhi district of Delhi, India. It was founded as a walled city and officially named Shahjahanabad in 1648, when Shah Jahan decided to shi ...

were killed by police while protesting a

slum clearance Slum clearance, slum eviction or slum removal is an urban renewal strategy used to transform low-income settlements with poor reputation into another type of development or housing. This has long been a strategy for redeveloping urban communities; ...

. An official account of the number of people killed at Turkman gate is not available and a

media blackout A media blackout is the censorship of news related to a certain topic, particularly in mass media, for any reason. A media blackout may be self-imposed or voluntary or enforced by the government or State (polity), state. In countries with stro ...

ensued in the wake of the massacre. One local guide claimed that nine of his friends were killed by the police. More than ten bulldozers razed illegal structures and homes, and protestors were fired upon by police.

Background

During the Emergency,

Indira Gandhi Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (Given name, ''née'' Nehru; 19 November 1917 – 31 October 1984) was an Indian politician and stateswoman who served as the Prime Minister of India, prime minister of India from 1966 to 1977 and again from 1980 un ...

's government, prompted by her son Sanjay, launched the demolition drive to clear the Delhi municipality of slums and force poor residents to leave Delhi and move to distant settlements. The residents of Turkman Gate refused to move as they had occupied this internal area of the

walled city The following cities have, or historically had, defensive walls. Africa Algeria * Algiers * Ghardaïa * Timimoun Egypt See List of Egypt castles, forts, fortifications and city walls. * Al-Fustat * Cairo * Damietta Ethiopia * Harar Libya *Apo ...

since the

Mughal Mughal or Moghul may refer to: Related to the Mughal Empire * Mughal Empire of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries * Mughal dynasty * Mughal emperors * Mughal people, a social group of Central and South Asia * Mughal architecture * Mug ...

period and would have to commute every day, paying high bus fares, to reach the city and earn their living. They resisted the bulldozing of their houses. On 18 April 1976, the police opened fire on protesters, killing several of them. The government, which had earlier imposed censorship, ordered the press not to report the massacre. The Indian public learned of the killings through foreign media outlets, such as the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

. It was later reported that protesters were run over by bulldozers, resulting in several deaths.

Total deaths

After the incident the police admitted to six deaths: Om Prakash, a CPI(ML) activist who led the rioting, and five Muslim residents of the locality. ASI Govind Ram Bhatia admitted to Shah Commission that eight individuals had actually been killed. Officer Rajesh Sharma, who had issued the firing order to the CRPF, claimed that at least 20 people died in the shooting. Independent researchers, John Dayal and Ajoy Bose, in their book on the Emergency in Delhi, put the death toll at 12.

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