(Hindustan Times
30 January 2007)
UP flares up on Muharram
HT Correspondent
Lucknow, January 30, 2007
Communal violence flared up during Muharram on Tuesday with reports of violence and attacks on places of worship in Gorakhpur and other parts of eastern Uttar Pradesh.
Basti, Faizabad, Deoria, Ghazipur, Azamgarh and Gorakhpur, where curfew continued in four police station areas, stayed tense on Tuesday. Curfew was imposed at Padrauna in Gorakhpur following incidents of arson late on Tuesday evening. There were reports of tension from Ballia, Allahabad and Maharajganj.
Activists of the BJP and the Hindu Yuwa Vahini burned taziyas, government offices, vehicles and a train coach in Salempur in protest against the arrest of BJP MP Yogi Adityanath in Gorakhpur.
An inspection bungalow was set on fire in Munderwa in Basti district, while Bharatiya Janata Yuwa Morcha activists announced a bandh on Wednesday and also threatened to stage a dharna on railway tracks.
In Faizabad, police constable Santraj Yadav was shot dead while several others were injured when an Intelligence Bureau employee Anup Sharma and his son Punit Sharma opened indiscriminate fire at a mob that attacked their house.
In Gorakhpur, with curfew on, neither was the Muharram procession taken out nor were the taziyas buried.
The district administration decided not to relax curfew in these areas, which have been tense since last Monday following the murder of a youth. The administration had to deploy para-military forces, as the situation was turning worse.
There were also reports of tension from Amroha, where two groups clashed over the procession route and opened fire at each other, injuring 15 to 20 persons. Later, members of the minority community blocked traffic on the Delhi-Moradabad road.
Governor TV Rajeswar and Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav have appealed to the people of Uttar Pradesh to maintain peace.
|
