A curfew was imposed in Maharashtra's Amravati city on Saturday after a mob hurled stones on shops during a bandh allegedly organised by BJP in protest against rallies taken out by members of a minority community the day before against the purported communal violence in Tripura.
Police resorted to lathi-charge to control the situation, an Amravati Police official said.
Against the backdrop of back-to-back incidents of stone-pelting on Friday and Saturday, officiating police commissioner Sandip Patil issued orders imposing a curfew in the city limits of Amravati under sections 144(1), (2), (3) of the CrPc to avoid any untoward incidents.
Except for medical emergencies, people are not allowed to come out of their houses. Similarly, a gathering of more than five people is not allowed, as per the order. The curfew will remain in force till further notice.
On Saturday morning, hundreds of people, many of them holding saffron flags in their hands and raising slogans, came out on streets in Rajkamal Chowk area of this east Maharashtra city, located around 670 km from the state capital. Some members of the mob hurled stones at the shops and damaged them in the Rajkamal Chowk and some other places, the official said, adding that the police lathi-charged the protesters to bring the situation under control.
On Friday, various cities in Maharashtra had witnessed stone-pelting during rallies taken out by some Muslim organisations protesting against the purported communal violence in Tripura. These incidents were reported from Amravati, Nanded, Malegaon, Washim and Yavatmal districts.
Police have so far arrested 20 people and detained four others by registering 20 FIRs under various charges, including rioting, in connection with Friday's incidents.
In Amravati, over 8,000 people had gathered outside the district collector's office on Friday to submit a memorandum demanding that atrocities against the minority community be stopped. When people were leaving after submitting the memorandum, stone-pelting took place at three places between Chitra Chowk and Cotton Market under the limits of the Kotwali police station.
Meanwhile, launching a veiled attack on opposition BJP, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut on Saturday said the violence in Amravati and other places is aimed at destabilising the MVA government. Speaking to reporters in Aurangabad, Raut said the state government is firm in the saddle and that the real faces of the perpetrators of violence will be exposed soon.
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