Repeated alerts and call for making police presence felt at public places during the ongoing festival season by DGP OP Singh has failed to cut ice with his junior colleagues. Or so it seems.
The DGP’s directions were blown to smithereens when members of the two communities came to a head on the streets and fought a pitched battle for several hours before the indecisive and action-shy UP Police personnel in Mirzapur on Tuesday. The strife left several persons, including cops, with injuries. Police patrol has now been ensured to avert any recurrence and prevent violence.
As per reports, Vishwa Hindu Parishad activists took out a procession in Mirzapur on Tuesday night, exhorting Hindus to attend “Dharma Sabha” slated in Ayodhya on Sunday.
As the procession reached Mukeri Bazar near Gurhatti crossing, a staff holding a saffron flag somehow broke a tube light installed for Barawafat celebrations in the area dominated by members of the other community. This led to heated arguments and soon a police team reached there and pacified the warring groups.
Since the police took no action, hence an hour later, members of both the communities came to a head and started pelting stones and clashed with each other. Initially, remaining mute spectators, some cops tried to intervene but the mob targeted them forcing them to flee the scene. Only after senior officers rushed there and requisitioned additional force from neighbouring districts that the situation could somehow be brought under control.
SP of Mirzapur later suspended inspector of Katra Kotwali police station and two cops posted at Mukeri Bazar police outpost for the dereliction of duty.
The BJP and RSS activists sat on a protest on Tuesday night, demanding action against those involved in the incident.
Meanwhile, UP Congress on Wednesday condemned the incident and said that communal forces were making desperate efforts to vitiate the atmosphere in the state to gain political mileage. The party claimed that clashes between two communities in Mirzapur and emergence of highly objectionable poster about Gyanvyapi in Varanasi clearly pointed to the agenda of some parties that they wanted to polarise the 2019 Lok Sabha polls on religious lines. “The communal clash in Mirzapur is nothing but a result of negligence and slackness of the police, who are dancing to the tunes of their political masters and vitiating the atmosphere in the state. It is a state-sponsored violence,” asserted UPCC general secretary Vinod Mishra. Urging people to maintain peace, Mishra said that people should be vigilant about the nefarious designs of these political forces. Mishra also criticised the state government for unnecessary building up tension in Ayodhya to divert people’s attention from core issues and non-performance of the Modi and Yogi governments.
