Violence in Surat After Arrest of Patidar Leaders Over Quota Fast

Violece broke out in the city as mobs set ablaze a BRTS bus in Yogi Chowk and vandalised a bus stand in Varachha.

Hardik Patel was detained by Ahmedabad Crime Branch as he left his house to sit on a one-day hunger strike over the issue of reservations for Patidars.

(Photo: PTI)

Tension gripped Surat in Gujarat on Sunday, 19 August, after the arrest of Patidar leaders – Hardik Patel, Alpesh Kathiriya and seven others – reported PTI. The leaders were stopped from holding a day-long fast in Ahmedabad, after which they were arrested by the police.

Violece broke out in the city as mobs set ablaze a BRTS bus in the Yogi Chowk area and vandalised a bus stand in Varachha, apart from burning tyres on the roads and stone-pelting. Police detained 20 people who staged a dharna in Varachha demanding the release of the leaders, reported The Indian Express.

Those detained in Surat for protesting Hardik’s arrest were released late on Sunday night. But then a fresh round of violence broke out in the city to protest against detention of supporters of Hardik and Kathiriya.

PAAS Members Behind the Violence: Police

Surat Police Commissioner Satish Sharma said the situation was under control and the police were trying to ascertain who were behind the violence, according to PTI.

A BRTS bus was set ablaze and a bus stand damaged by mobs, but we have brought the situation under control. We are trying to ascertain who all were behind the violence. It appears that those behind the violence are PAAS members and those sympathising with the outfit.

Satish Sharma, Surat Police Commissioner told PTI

Sharma added that patrolling had been intensified since evening, anticipating violence, after Kathiriya, who is from Surat, was arrested by the Ahmedabad Crime Branch in an old sedition case.

Kathiriya is a leader of the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS), an outfit organising protests demanding reservation for the Patidar community. He was arrested by the Crime Branch in Ahmedabad when he was on his way to stage a symbolic fast.

Kathiriya was detained, along with Patel, who is spearheading the protest demanding reservation for the Patidar community, and seven others by the Ahmedabad Crime Branch this morning when they were on their way to a protest site to observe a symbolic fast, according to PTI.

While eight of them were released on bail after being booked under sections 143 (punishment for unlawful assembly) and 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions) of the IPC, Kathiriya was shown as arrested in a sedition case dating back to 2015, in which he was an accused, a Crime Branch official told PTI.

This had apparently irked the PAAS members and sympathisers, who indulged in violence, Sharma said.

Request People to Maintain Peace: Hardik Patel

Meanwhile, Patel released a video clip, appealing for peace, reported PTI.

I request the people to maintain peace and not destroy public property. Whatever the police did was not right, but what is being done now is also not right. Protest, but peacefully and constitutionally, not by destroying government property. I appeal for peace.

Hardik Patel said in the video clip

Patel also tweeted, “Anti-social elements were causing damage to public property in Gujarat.”

(With inputs from PTI and the Indian Express.)