Curfew relaxed in Bareilly, situation turning normal

LUCKNOW - With no fresh incident of violence reported in the last two days and the situation fast returning to normal, curfew in Bareilly district was relaxed Monday, nearly two weeks after a communal clash erupted in the Uttar Pradesh town, an official said.

“Taking into account the normal situation in parts of Bareilly, we today (Monday) relaxed the curfew during the morning hours,” Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) (Bareilly Range) Rajiv Sabharwal told IANS over phone.

Bareilly is some 250 km from Lucknow.

“In all the areas coming under the five police stations — Subhashnagar, Prem Nagar, Baradari, Kotwali and Kila — the curfew was relaxed for about four hours since 6 a.m.,” he added.

According to police and district authorities, their first priority would be the resumption of schools, colleges and educational institutions that were closed after the curfew was enforced March 2.

“Our foremost priority is to get the educational institutions open as soon as possible. For this, we have even convened a meeting of school principals and heads of educational institutes to chalk out a strategy,” Sabharwal said.

Inspector General (Bareilly Range) Bhanu Pratap Singh told reporters: “We are reviewing and monitoring the situation at every one hour or so. For the last two days, there has been no incident of any kind. The situation is fast returning to normal.”

Police said no violence had been reported since Friday evening when at least 15 people, including a senior police officer, were injured in clashes with protesters.

The protestoers were agitating against the release of Muslim cleric Maulana Tauquir Raza Khan, president of the Ittehad-e-Millat Council, who was arrested for his alleged role in the communal clashes March 2.

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

“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.

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.