Eleven migrant workers from Murshidabad district are holed up at a rented house in Ghonda Chowk, a violence-hit locality in north-east Delhi, with only a few packets of biscuits for survival.

The labourers said they had been confined to the house for the past three days and as the shops in the area remained closed because of the violence, they had no way to replenish their stock of vegetables and other essentials.

Ghonda Chowk is adjacent to Maujpur area, the epicentre of violence in Delhi.

“For the past three days, there has been no supply of food. We are at our rented house at Ghonda Chowk that still remains violent. We are living off biscuits and did not have a decent meal in the past three days,” said one of the workers, Saddam Sheikh.

The 11, aged between 25 and 36 years, had gone to Delhi three months ago to work at a factory that manufactures ceiling fans. They are residents of Trimohini village in Murshidabad’s Nowda police station area.

“We can hear cries and shouts of people from outside our rooms. We even saw a few people setting fire to gas cylinders. In such a situation, how can we step out in search of food? We have contacted our kin and asked them to contact local leaders to rescue us,” Halim Sheikh, one of the workers, said over the phone from New Delhi.

The workers said they had been to Delhi for work in the past 10 years but never witnessed such violence.

The family members of the workers in Murshidabad are also worried. They have contacted local leaders to seek their help to rescue them from the trouble-torn area.

“My son went to Delhi around three months ago for work. He called me up on Tuesday to brief me on the crisis. We are afraid whether my son will return home safely,” said Imazuddin Sheikh, a farmer in Trimohini village whose son Iman Sehikh is one of the 11 workers stuck in Delhi.

“We have already contacted our local leaders and requested them to rescue our sons,” he added.

Abu Taher Khan, MP and Murshidabad Trinamul president, is also a resident in Nowda area. “The family members came to me pleading to get the workers rescued. I am trying my level best to bring them back home,” said Khan.

The family members also contacted officials of the Bangla Sanskriti Mancha, an apolitical organisation working for migrant Bengal workers. “We have already contacted three groups involved in social work. They are also trying to rescue the workers,” said Samirul Islam, the president of the Mancha.