PUNE: At least six people died and 100 people were injured after police cracked down on Hindu-Muslim clashes in Dhule, Vidarbha region in Maharashtra.
Violence and arson continued yesterday despite a curfew. Clashes between Hindus and Muslims took place on Sunday afternoon following the alleged tearing of Eid-Al-Fitr banners put up by Muslim Dhule Municipal Councilor Sabir Bhangarwala by alleged workers of Hindu Defense Committee, a Hindu militant outfit. The Muslims it is alleged retaliated in tearing down the banners put up by the Hindu party for a Hindu festival. This led to violent clashes between the two communities. People were seen throwing rocks at each other, setting shops and houses on fire and torching vehicles.
The mobs defied the curfew and shoot-on-sight orders issued to the police, setting ablaze some houses and shops and pelting stones at the police. The police first lobbed tear gas into the crowds, when this failed, they resorted to firing their weapons.
According to information received by Arab News from police sources in Dhule one of the dead was identified as a 45-year-old Shaikh Imran Shaikh, who died in the police crackdown. Among the injured are district collector M.Y. Patel, 30 policemen and five women.
As a precaution to prevent communal riots from spreading to the nearby town of Malegaon, an additional reinforcement of Rapid Action Force (RAF) and State Reserve Police Force (SRPF) have been rushed to Malegaon to maintain law and order.
The district collector of Dhule has appealed to the people to maintain peace and not to be carried away by any rumors. The state chief minister, Vilasrao Deshmukh, Deputy Chief Minister R.R. Patil and Director General of Police A.N. Roy also rushed to Dhule yesterday to take stock of the situation.
Terror ÅeculpritsÅf nabbed
In a late night sweep in a Pune suburb on Sunday, Mumbai police arrested five Muslim youths for alleged terror links and whisked them to Mumbai for interrogation.
The five were identified as: Mohammed Akbar Ismail Choudhary, Anees Shakil Sayyad, Majid Attar Shaikh, Yasir Anees Sayyad and Farooq Shamshuddin Taraskar.
Yasir, Anees and Akbar are reported to be mobile repair technicians, while Majid is a graphic designer and Farooq and accountant.
The crime branch sleuths, who presented the five before a court yesterday, claimed that the five were arrested on charges of sending terror emails prior to the recent blasts in Delhi and Gujarat.
