Lucknow: Authorities on Sunday deployed drone cameras to keep the peace in Uttar Pradesh’s Saharanpur district where communal violence claimed three lives and left over a dozen critically injured.
Officials admitted that the situation in the district was still tense although there was no violence on Sunday morning.
The trouble began when members of one community started construction work at a site in the Kutubsher area in the wee hours of Saturday, which was objected to by the other group.
Both the sides indulged in heavy brick-batting, arson and opened fire, and there were reports of several shops being gutted in the clash, police said.
Police fired rubber bullets to control the situation as mobs went on a rampage, setting several shops on fire.
A curfew enforced on Saturday after the violence erupted remained in force, a district official said.
The official said any decision to relax the curfew in the city would be taken by the police and the home department.
With an injured man succumbing to his injuries, the death toll in the clashes now stands at three, police said.
The condition of over a dozen injured, mostly by gunshot wounds, is critical, officials said. They include a police constable and a Home Guard personnel.
Security forces, meanwhile, deployed drone cameras to keep a vigil on “mischievous elements”.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has sent two senior officials to camp out in the violence-hit city and oversee security arrangements.
Paramilitary forces, including the ITBP, CRPF and the RAF, were deployed following phone conversations between Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Akhilesh Yadav.
“No incident has been reported since yesterday. Curfew is in force and is being enforced strictly,” Mukul Goel, Uttar Pradesh additional director-general of Police (Law and Order), said.
He said steps were being taken to normalise the situation at the earliest. “It has been directed that action should be taken against whosoever is found guilty,” he said in Lucknow.
“The situation is better than yesterday,” Sandhya Tiwari, Saharanpur district magistrate, who toured the violence-hit areas, said. “I have to just impose law and order in the city and the situation is quite normal now.”
She said 20 people have been arrested in connection with the violence.
On the land dispute, Tiwari said, “I’m not going into it. The construction is on hold.”
Meanwhile, a political blame game has begun over the violence with Congress accusing the UP government of an “administrative lapse” while the BJP has alleged that the Samajwadi Party was indulging in “vote-bank politics”.
Reacting to the charges, Samajwadi Party said there was an effort to “disrupt peace in the state” and that there was “no place for communalism, anti-social elements”.
SP leader Rajendra Chaudhary said that if the opposition tried to get political over the issue, then the law will take its own course.
Congress leader Rita Bahuguna Joshi said that if it was a fact that there was a court judgement on the issue and police help was sought by one side, then it was the responsibility of the officials to find a solution by making both sides understand that the court order must be implemented.
“The Uttar Pradesh government has completely failed to run the administration in the state,” BJP leader Shahnawaz Hussain said. “The people ruling the state themselves want...communal tension so that they do vote-bank politics.”
“BJP wants amity and peace. Every person has the right to worship and nobody has the right to interfere in that. But Akhilesh Yadav’s government is weak on every front. A message has gone that there is nothing called government in the state. Whenever there are such tense situations, the government proves to be incompetent.”
Manoj Jha of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) alleged that there has been a rise in such incidents since the BJP came to power at the Centre.
Officials in Lucknow said Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has sought a report from the district authorities regarding the incident in Saharanpur, which is nearly 170km from the national capital Delhi and 560km from the UP state capital Lucknow. Yadav has termed the incident “unfortunate” and said that those responsible will not be spared.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday spoke to the Chief Minister over the phone and asked him to ensure communal harmony in the state. He offered all the help available to contain the situation.
