Edited by Deepali Verma
Reportedly, four people were killed and over 60 injured in the violence that unfolded over the demolition of a madrasa and adjoining mosque in Uttarakhand’s Banbhoolpura area in Haldwani district.
A curfew was imposed and internet services were suspended in the area on February 8 after local residents clashed with security personnel, pelted stones and torched vehicles and police stations. In conversation with the reporters, the Director General of Police in Uttarakhand informed that the mob had surrounded a police station, and additional forces had to be called to ward them off.
A high-level meeting was called by Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami in the wake of the tension and issued orders to shoot rioters on sight. Owing to this tension, a resident said the area is on edge and they constantly “hear teargas and gunshots being fired”.
A considerable number of people injured after the violence were police personnel, officials told news agency PTI. The rest were municipal workers that played a part in the demolition of the local madrasa and a mosque in its complex, they said. The injured further had Haldwani SDM, they added.
What had happened?
The violence erupted after local administration deployed bulldozers to raze the mosque and madrasa, which were allegedly constructed on Nazool land.
DGP Abhinav Kumar informed that the police and administration teams had gone to the area to do away with an illegal encroachment for which there was an existing litigation in the High Court, which had ordered its removal. Shakeel Ahmad, Councillor of Ward Number 31, under which the incident took place, said that the High Court had not given a final say in the case of removing illegal encroachment.
“Some miscreants commenced stone pelting and violence. To trace the exact sequence of events that led to this kind of situation is an issue of administrative inquiry. We are checking what was the cause for this kind of public anger, and figure out if there is some conspiracy. If so, we will look into it,” said Kumar.
