Bareilly remains tense after 12 days of curfew

BAREILLY - Tension continued in Uttar Pradesh’s Bareilly district, parts of which have been under curfew for 12 days, following the fresh outbreak of trouble in which 15 people were injured the day before, police said Saturday.

“We are reviewing the situation almost after every one hour… Still, the situation is tense, but it is well under control,” Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) (Bareilly range) Rajiv Sabharwal told reporters here.

Now, we have also started making arrangements to supply vegetables, milk, other edible and daily use items to the public. Special arrangements have been made for women, who want to buy such items in the curfew-hit localities,” Sabharwal added.

Police said no violence had been reported since Friday evening when at least 15 people, including a senior police officer, were injured after clashes with protesters agitating against the release of a Muslim cleric who had been arrested for his alleged role in the communal clashes on March 2.

We have deployed adequate security personnel in all the sensitive areas of the district. At present, there are nearly 18 officials of the rank of SP (superintendent of police)/Commandant, four deputy SPs, seven inspectors, 265 constables and 10 Station House Officers (SHOs), deployed in parts of the district,” a senior police officer told IANS.

The five areas hit by communal violence were Subhashnagar, Kotwali, Kila, Prem Nagar and Baradari.

On Friday, some groups vandalised property while protesting the release of Maulana Tauquir Raza Khan, president of the Ittehad-e-Millat Council.

Khan gave a “rabble rousing speech” that led to communal violence in parts of Bareilly last week, police said.

A minor communal clash followed by sporadic arson March 2 afternoon led the administration to clamp curfew in several parts of Bareilly city.

Trouble sparked off over the passage of a Barawafat procession. What started with exchange of hot words between members of rival communities, almost instantly snowballed into a violent clash as members of a particular community went on an arson spree, burning down a few shops.