Lohardaga simmered in tension on Thursday after stone-pelting on a rally taken out in support of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) triggered violence, which snowballed into a conflagration. Subsequent arson, vandalism and clashes between two groups reportedly caused injuries to at least 50 people, local sources said.
Various right wing organizations, including the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and some wings of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), had taken out the rally in support of the CAA on Thursday morning in Lohardaga town, about 60 Kilometers west of Capital Ranchi. The peaceful rally reportedly turned hostile after stones were pelted by anti-CAA protestors and some locals at Amlatoli Chowk, police said.
Several vehicles and shops were set ablaze and the police had to resort to firing in the air in order to control the situation. Lohardaga Superintendent of Police Priyadarshi Alok and other top cops of the district rushed to the spot on Thursday afternoon to pacify the crowd. Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) has been imposed in the district, which prohibits assembly of more than four people within the periphery of the district, police said.
“Sufficient forces have been deployed in the district to prevent any further incidents of clashes. Some of our policemen have sustained injuries while trying to disperse the crowd,” said Additional Director General (Operations), Murari Lal Meena. “I want to assure that strict action will be taken against all the individuals who have taken law in hand and were involved in sparking the violence,” he added.
Lohardaga turned into a fortress by Thursday afternoon and several hundred security personnel, including Rapid Action Force and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), were deployed across the district to prevent further damage to property and life in clashes. Local sources said that the situation was tensed in the affected areas even on Thursday late evening and people preferred staying indoors.
The Lohardaga clashes come as the first ever incident of violence related to the CAA in Jharkhand. While the protests gained momentum in the national capital and parts of Uttar Pradesh soon after the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) was passed by the Rajya Sabha on December 11, Jharkhand did not witness any incident of violent protests. On December 23, a tripartite alliance of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), Congress party and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD0 dethroned a former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Government here.
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad took a dig at the ruling JMM-led Govt here over the violence, claiming that the police did not stop the crowd from attacking the participants of the rally. The official Twitter handle of the VHP on Thursday tweeted, “Members of a particular community pelted stones and threw petrol bombs on CAA supporters in Lohardaga. They set ablaze houses and targeted women.”
A video featuring a bodyguard of the Lohardaga SP went viral on social media on Thursday. In the video, the bodyguard said that the stone pelting started from a particular colony and injured several policemen.
