Badshahpur: Eyewitnesses said a mob of around 200 had entered the area around 4 pm.
New Delhi:
The ripples from yesterday’s 18-hour communal clash in Haryana’s Nuh — which claimed five lives and left at least 70 people injured — has reached Badshahpur, 40 km away. Restaurants and shops were vandalised and torched by a mob this evening amid religious chants.
Eyewitnesses said a mob of around 200 had entered the area around 4 pm, armed with sticks and stones. They vandalized several shops, including several meat shops, and set fire to a restaurant. No one was injured.
Violence broke out during a religious procession yesterday in Nuh — just 50 km from Delhi — following what many say is an objectionable video that went viral. As a mob attacked the procession with stones, the 2,500-plus participants rushed into a temple to take shelter.
The violence escalated as the evening progressed — a mosque was torched post-midnight, more than a hundred vehicles were torched and vandalised as mobs went on rampage in Nuh and neighbouring Gurugram. The dead include two security personnel and two civilians, one of them a cleric of the mosque.
The people who had taken shelter in the temple were rescued close to midnight.
According to the administration, 44 FIRs have been registered so far in which more than 70 people have been arrested.
The violence started after rumours that Monu Manesar, a Bajrang Dal activist wanted over the murder of two men from Bharatpur, was attending the rally.
Monu Manesar — on the run since Junaid and Nasir were beaten and burnt alive in their car in February — had asked people in a video to join the religious procession and claimed that he would attend it also. Sources said his associates had also given provocative speeches ahead of the rally.
Chaudhary Aftab, the MLA from Nuh, said, “People were already angry with the statements of Monu Manesar, Bittu Bajrangi and rumours spread that Monu had come to Manesar… so the violence started”.
“I told the administration a day ago that the atmosphere is deteriorating, do not give permission (for the procession). But they did not agree. All this happened due to Monu Manesar’s statement,” he added.
Today, all educational institutions including schools, colleges, and coaching centres, remained closed in Gurugram. Board exams for Classes 10 and 12 were also postponed.
Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has promised “strict action”. “Today’s incident is unfortunate. I appeal to all the people to maintain peace in the state. The guilty will not be spared at any cost, and strictest action will be taken against them,” he posted in Twitter.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has termed the communal violence “deeply troubling” and appealed to the state’s people to maintain peace.
“The communal violence in Haryana’s Nuh (Mewat) is deeply troubling. After Manipur in the Northeast, now such an incident in Haryana is not a good sign,” he said.
