Muzaffarnagar: The death toll in the trouble-hit Muzaffarnagar district and adjoining towns in Uttar Pradesh rose to 48 on Wednesday morning, reports said. The district administration, meanwhile, announced a relaxation of four hours in the curfew. On Tuesday also, curfew was relaxed for over two hours in three areas of Muzaffarnagar, with violence abating. Civil Lines and Nai Nandi areas the administration had clamped curfew on Saturday following incidents of communal violence.
ADG (Law and Order) Arun Kumar had yesterday described the situation as “under control”.
Sending out a stern warning, U P Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav had said, “The state government would deal strictly with all those who have tried to create communal chasm and harm the atmosphere of Muzaffarnagar and Uttar Pradesh.” “It would be our efforts that communal amity is strengthened and the areas where situation has been brought under control no new incidents are allowed to take place,” he told reporters after a state Cabinet meeting which took stock of the recent developments.
“We have got information that many people have left their homes and villages and collected elsewhere and they have to return…It would be my appeal that brotherhood should remain intact”, he said. In Agra, SP Chief Mulayam Singh Yadav defended the state government. “The government did everything to control the violence. It was stopped in two days. The security forces dealt with the problem very effectively,” he told reporters. “Whatever happened is the result of caste conflict,” he said.
Curfew remained in force in other areas. Army patrolled the troubled areas in Muzaffarnagar, Shamli and Meerut. Security has been stepped up in sensitive Bareilly district following communal violence in western districts of Uttar Pradesh. In Delhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh yesterday announced Rs 2 lakh each to the next of the kin of those killed in Muzaffarnagar violence and Rs 50,000 each to those seriously injured. Singh had on Monday spoken to the chief minister and assured him of all help from the Centre to deal with the situation.
A one-member judicial commission headed by retired Justice Vishnu Sahai has been constituted by the state government to probe into the Muzaffarnagar violence and asked to submit its report in two months. Union Home Ministry asked the state government to send Muzaffarnagar situation report every 12 hours. The state government has also shunted out Saharanpur DIG, SSP Muzaffarnagar and SP Shamli. Violence-hit Muzaffarnagar lies in Saharanpur range.
Bureau Report
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