Lucknow, July 27: Three people were killed and over two dozen others, including some policemen, injured as communal violence erupted in Uttar Pradesh's Saharanpur town, about 500 km from here.
Sources put the death toll at five. The number could go up as at least six of the injured, including a cop, were in critical condition, police said.
Rampaging mobs torched dozens of shops, buses and houses and a petrol pump and pelted stones at fire tenders and security personnel, prompting the latter to use force to disperse them, said sources. The rioters also opened fire, injuring several people.
Eyewitnesses said the mobs torched the fire-brigade office too. “The town resembled a war zone, with burning shops, houses and vehicles, littered with stones,” said a police official in Saharanpur.
The Army has reportedly been put on standby and the Rapid Action Force and the Provincial Armed Constabulary have been deployed in the town to maintain law and order. Fire tenders were rushed from the Sarsawa Air Force station to extinguish the blaze after the civil administration sought their help, said the sources.
Central paramilitary forces have also been deployed in the town to quell violence. Shoot-at-sight order has been issued and security personnel are patrolling the streets. “The situation was very tense. Reports of violence were still coming in from different places,” the official said.
Officials were trying to ensure that the violence did not spread to rural areas. Police said the clashes erupted in the early hours of Saturday after some members of a community tried to prevent members of another community from erecting a wall on a “disputed” land in the Qutubsher locality in the town.
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