PUNE: The situation in Dhule in Maharashtra remains out of control for the third day yesterday, after communal riots broke out on Sunday following the alleged tearing of an Eid Al-Fitr poster by members of the militant Hindu Defense Committee, with the Muslims in turn tearing the poster of a Hindu festival.
In spite of a dusk-to-dawn curfew being imposed for an indefinite period by the police, this failed to defuse the situation. Defiant mobs of Hindus and Muslims again fought yesterday pitched battles in the city and its outskirts and pelted stones at each other.
According to police sources, mobs from both sides indulged in violence and arson, attacking the police and the paramilitary forces. Two rubber-manufacturing factories were set on fire. The mobs also set on fire seven trucks, fully loaded with goods, on the Agra-Mumbai highway. Some other vehicles were also torched.
The mobs also attacked with stones and bricks at the Rapid Action Force (RAF) and State Reserve Police Force (SRPF) units which tried to stop them from indulging in arson and looting. Several houses and shops were also targeted and set on fire.
Some more police reinforcements were summoned from neighboring districts to bring the situation to normal. The state Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, who was expected to arrive here on Monday evening, canceled the program in view of the visit of Congress President Sonia Gandhi to Nanded city. However, deputy chief minister and home minister, R.R. Patil, along with the state Director General of Police Anami Narayan Roy, arrived in the city on Monday.
Patil toured the riot-hit areas to take stock of the situation. He also visited the civil hospital and enquired about the condition of the injured. Patil assured the affected people that the government would sanction suitable compensation to those whose shops and houses were burned down.
In another development, the Mumbai police clamped the draconian Maharashtra Control of Organized Crime Act (MCOCA) against the 20 Muslim youths that were arrested for their alleged links with the terror outfit Indian Mujahedeen and sending the terror e-mails to the media before the blasts in Delhi and Mumbai.
Meanwhile, the Muslims found support and sympathy from the federal agriculture minister and president of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Sharad Pawar. Taking his own party state deputy chief minister to task, Pawar came down heavily on the state police force for their “double standard”. Pawar said “If Muslims are being targeted as terrorists, why is no action being taken against the Hindu militant organizations like Sanatan Prabhat and Bajarang Dal?”
Pawar said that he had worked in the Home Department but yet does not know why the police are declaring names of terrorists at press conferences nowadays and asked as to why all the accused are masterminds who were caught after blasts.
Upset with the state home department and the failure of intelligence department, Pawar held a closed-door meeting with Patil. According to sources, Pawar was upset with Patil for his being complacent on sensitive issues, which has marred the image of the NCP.
