Protests erupted in several parts of the country, including the national Capital, over the alleged controversial remarks on Prophet Mohammad by two now-suspended BJP functionaries. The protests turned violent at several places, forcing the authorities to impose curfew. Scores of policemen were also injured.
In what seemed like coordinated protests, Muslim devotees came out in large numbers on the streets across the country after the Friday prayers.
Curfew has been clamped in Ranchi, besides Kishtwar and Bhaderwah towns of Jammu. Curfew was also imposed and internet services suspended in major towns of Chenab valley region in Jammu & Kashmir.
The violent protests in six districts of Uttar Pradesh led to the arrest of 109 miscreants. Crude bombs were hurled by the protesters in Prayagraj and heavy stone pelting was reported from Saharanpur where the Islamic seminary Darul Uloom Deoband is located. District Magistrate, SSP, SDM and several police officials were injured in the violence.
Reports also suggested disruption of train services on the Howrah route. Muslim devotees jammed highways in large areas of Howrah district, blockaded traffic and vandalised public properties for hours ignoring frantic appeals for peace made by the State Ministers.
A helpless administration watched on even as Howrah continued to burn for the second consecutive day on Friday as a section of people — protesting controversial remarks of suspended BJP leader Nupur Sharma against Prophet Muhammad — went on rampage blockading trains, national highways and burning police and other vehicles .
This, whereas a clueless police force took piecemeal action for want of orders from the above, sources said. Even as thousands of people, including daily commuters, were stuck on roads amid protests and punishing heat, Governor Jagdeep Shankar asked Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee — who had on Thursday appealed for peace “with folded hands” — to contain the situation.
Apparently taking a cue from the stone pelters of J& K, protesters at some places hit the police with stones prompting the latter to charge them with batons and use tear-gas shells.
In Delhi, protesters gathered outside the historic Jama Masjid after the Friday prayers demanding the arrest of suspended BJP Spokesperson Nupur Sharma.
Some of the Muslim devotees, who gathered on the steps of the mosque, carried placards and shouted slogans against Sharma and Naveen Jindal, former head of the Delhi BJP’s media unit.
The protest was held peacefully and lasted for 15 to 20 minutes and the protesters were later dispersed from the area, according to senior police officials.
Several students of Jamia Millia Islamia also staged a demonstration on the university campus here demanding Sharma’s arrest. They raised slogans and also held placards that read - “Blasphemy is RSS’s inborn language, Save India from them, Arrest Sharma” and “Stop Attacking Muslim”.
In Jharkhand, some policemen were injured while trying to control violent protesters near Hanuman Temple on Ranchi’s Main Road.
Ranchi Police fired shots in the air and resorted to baton charge to control the protesters who spilled out on the road after the Friday prayers and pelted stones and shouted slogans.
Police officials said the protests were continuing since morning and picked up tempo post-Friday prayers. Many shops and establishments owned by Muslims kept their shutters down in protest against the alleged controversial remarks.
Communal tension gripped Jammu’s Bhaderwah and some areas of Kishtwar prompting authorities to impose curfew. Parts of Kashmir observed a shutdown. Officials said internet services were snapped in the Bhaderwah and Kishtwar towns besides Srinagar city of Kashmir as a precautionary measure. Mobile internet was also suspended in parts of Kashmir to check communal flare-up.
Sporadic incidents of stone pelting were reported in Bhaderwah town and some radicals came out on the streets and threw stones at security forces while raising slogans. In Srinagar, protests were held at Lal Chowk, Batamaloo, Tengpora and other places with the demonstrators holding placards.
Jammu and Kashmir DGP Dilbag Singh said efforts are on to defuse tension in Bhaderwah town and appealed to the people to behave responsibly and not get misled by provocation besides maintaining communal harmony. Curfew has been imposed as a precautionary measure to maintain peace, he said.
In Uttar Pradesh, protests broke out at several places with policemen pelted with stones by people in Prayagraj and Saharanpur after Friday prayers.
In Prayagraj, some motorcycles and carts were set on fire and an attempt was made to set ablaze a police vehicle. Police used tear gas and batons to disperse the demonstrators and peace was later restored, officials said, adding one policeman was hurt in Prayagraj.
The demonstrations in the district were marked by slogan-shouting against Sharma. In Saharanpur, the protesters demanded a death sentence for her.
Protests were also reported from Bijnor, Moradabad, Rampur and Lucknow. Reports of sloganeering also came from Lucknow.
Hundreds of protesters blocked roads in different parts of Howrah district in West Bengal. Some agitators clashed with police personnel at Dhulagarh, Panchla and Uluberia when they tried to lift the blockade on National Highway-6.
Police had to baton charge to disperse the crowd at Dhulagarh and Panchla, where the demonstrators pelted stones in retaliation, causing damage to nearby cars, police said. The protesters also blocked railway tracks between Fuleswar and Chengail stations in the Howrah-Kharagpur section from 1.22 pm, a South Eastern Railway official said.
In Gujarat, protests were held in some areas of Ahmedabad and Vadodara. Shops and markets in Muslim-dominated Dariyapur and Karanj areas in Ahmedabad remained shut while in Dariyapur, several men and teenagers gathered on a main road with placards proclaiming love for the Prophet and demanding the arrest of Sharma.
They also demanded that Sharma, and others who make such statements, must be charged under provisions of the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
Police officials said shops in most parts of Ahmedabad’s old city remained open and the day went off normally in other Muslim-dominated areas, such as Kalupur.
Muslim also staged protests in several cities of Maharashtra though no untoward incident was reported from anywhere. In Panvel city in Navi Mumbai, at least 3,000 protesters including around 1,000 women took out a protest march, seeking the arrest of Sharma and Jindal.
A delegation submitted a memorandum to Panvel tehsildar and the protest was over peacefully by 4 pm, said a local police official.
A protest was also held at Shivaji Chowk in Vashi, where a delegation submitted their demands to the Vashi Police Station. Similar protest gatherings or marches were held in Thane, Aurangabad, Solapur, Nandurbar, Parbhani, Beed, Latur, Bhandara, Chandrapur and Pune.
Meanwhile, a complaint was filed at a court in Muzaffarpur in Bihar against Sharma, Jindal and religious leader Swami Yati Narsinghanand by a social activist.
The BJP on Sunday suspended Sharma and Jindal after their derogatory comments on the Prophet stoked a furore, including in the Arab world.
In a belated move, the Union Home Ministry on Friday evening issued an advisory, following nationwide protests, to take precautionary measures ahead of Friday prayers.
