NEW DELHI: The youth who fired at a group of protesters in Delhi’s Jamia Nagar on Thursday afternoon, leaving one injured, according to a Facebook post had threatened to convert Shaheen Bagh into Jallianwala Bagh.
The shooter, who was taken in custody, claimed to be a minor, roamed around the area for three hours and posted three Facebook lives from there.
His bio on Facebook read “... naam hai mera, bio main itna kafi hai, baki samay ane par. Jai Shree Ram (... is my name. This much is sufficient for the bio. Rest when the time comes. Jai Shree Ram).”
In one of his posts, he had challenged one like-minded Hindutva hardliner, “If I had even half the followers that you have, I would have converted Shaheen Bagh into Jallianwala Bagh long ago.”
Before he opened fire on protesters, he shouted, “Yeh lo azaadi”, triggering panic in Jamia Nagar.
The gunman had been sharing inflammatory posts since 29 January.
He has also shared posts that suggest that he was planning such an attack. Moments before he opened fire, he wrote a post on his Facebook saying “Shaheen Bagh, Khel Khatam (Shaheen Bagh, the game is over)”.
The injured student, Shadab Farooq was taken to the AIIMS Trauma Centre.
Till late evening, he was admitted at the emergency ward of Trauma. Bhim Army chief Chandra Shekhar Azad also reached AIIMS to meet Shadab.
Special Commissioner Praveen Ranjan also reached AIIMS to meet the injured student.