Uttar Pradesh's Shahjahanpur district was tense after a clash broke out between people belonging to two separate communities outside a gurdwara on Saturday, 25 August. According to The Times of India, two policemen were among more than a dozen people who were injured in the clash that broke out in the district's Banda block.
Over 80 identified and hundreds of unidentified people were booked for rioting and damaging public property, the police said on Sunday, reported PTI.
Additional Superintendent of Police (rural) Subhash Chandra Shakya said that tension erupted on Saturday when a 14-year-old girl was putting up a cart to sell rakhis outside a gurdwara in Banda area of the district and the watchman objected to it.
The watchman of the gurdwara also allegedly hit the girl on her leg with a stick, the police said, PTI further reported.
As the news spread, Hindus and Sikhs reached the area and indulged in stone-pelting, they said. Gunshots were also reportedly fired in the air.
Three FIRs have been registered against more than 80 people from both sides and hundreds of others under various sections of the IPC for rioting and damaging public property...A heavy police deployment has been made in the area.S Chinappa, Superintendent of Police, Shahjahanpur, as quoted by PTI
A meeting of the two sides was reportedly called by District Magistrate Amrit Tripathi so as to establish peace in the area, the SP further said, adding that locals have been warned against rumours circulating on social media.
DM Amrit Tripathi told PTI that the culprits would be identified by analysing the video footage and arrested soon afterwards.
"One police vehicle and two other vehicles have been damaged due to stone-pelting," Sub-divisional Magistrate Satyapriye Singh had said on Saturday.
(With inputs from PTI and TOI)
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