Hyderabad peaceful, curfew continues

HYDERABAD - The situation in riot-hit old city of Hyderabad Tuesday remained peaceful even as the indefinite curfew imposed Monday night continued, police said.

No untoward incident was reported since Monday night from any of the 17 police stations in south zone, where indefinite curfew was imposed at 7 p.m. following communal violence for the third consecutive day.

The violence, which broke out Saturday in Moosabowli area of Hussaini Alam over a dispute on putting up of religious flags, has so far left one person dead and over 80 injured while several places of worship were attacked and vehicles torched.

With rampaging mobs taking to streets in several areas Monday afternoon, police imposed curfew to bring the situation under control. Hundreds of policemen and paramilitary forces personnel were deployed across the communally-sensitive walled city.

The violence of last three days and the curfew has put the residents to severe inconvenience.

Police, with the help of some dairy farms, arranged supply of milk in curfew-bound areas Tuesday morning. Women were allowed to come out and buy milk from the suppliers.

Police are keeping a tight vigil in sensitive areas around the historic Charminar by strictly enforcing the curfew.

Policemen from other parts of the state, neighbouring states and personnel of central forces like Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Rapid Action Force (RAF) and Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) have been deployed in the trouble-torn areas.

Police Commissioner A.K. Khan said any decision on relaxing the curfew would be taken after a review of the situation.

Chief Minister K. Rosaiah has called an all-party meeting at 11 a.m. to review the situation.

Large-scale violence broke out Monday afternoon with mobs attacking each other with stones and sticks in several areas despite the heavy police presence.

A youth died in stabbing while dozens of people were injured. When repeated baton-charge, use of teargas shells and firing in the air by the police failed to bring the situation under control, indefinite curfew was imposed.

Authorities have postponed the Class 10 examinations in all curfew-bound areas. The education department announced that the examinations would be held for students in the old city at a later date.

Other parts of Hyderabad, twin city of Secunderabad and Cyberabad, the information technology district, remained incident-free though police imposed prohibitory orders banning assembly of five or more people as a precautionary measure.