Muzaffarnagar: As the victims of communal violence narrate their harrowing tales at District Hospital here, nature of their injuries indicate that rioters mostly used household objects like sickles, heavy sticks and country-made pistols in the attack.
Dr VK Johari, Chief Medical Officer of District Hospital Muzaffarnagar, said the victims were hit by blunt objects, sticks and sharp tools like sickle. Local made pistols were also used.
Meanwhile, the curfew in the strife-torn district relaxed between 3.30 PM and 6.00 PM in three parts of the city-- Kotwali, Civil Lines and Nai Mandi area.
A total of 81 people have been reported to be injured in the communal violence so far in Muzaffarnagar and adjoining areas since September 7.
And out of that, 68 injured, including 59 males, five women and four children, have been brought to the hospital here, a senior doctors said, adding that many of them have been discharged or referred to Medical College in Meerut, while 15 are still recuperating.
The CMO said, "27 bodies have been received by the hospital and 17 autopsies have been conducted."
The victims, brought for treatment, are from Bawari, Bhora Khurd, Nath, Karana, Sohram and other adjoining villages.
A 10-year-old girl, Azra, has received severe injuries in her right hand and stomach from a sharp object which is used to cut sugarcane, claimed her mother Herunisa a resident of Bawari village.
She said that three of her family members including mother-in-law (60), brother-in-law (40) and 11-year-old daughter died when their house was attacked on Sunday.
Herunisa received injuries on her face by bullet shrapnels and her 5-year-old daughter, Aksa, also received injuries on her face and hand.
MG Siddiqui, a nurse in the eye department, said that due to the curfew people can neither go out of the city nor enter.
Prices of various commodities have gone up and there is a scarcity of essential items.
"The situation will not improve until things become normal in villages," she said.
An eerie silence prevailed in the city and except for police and army personnel, which are on regular patrol in the area, not a single person was seen on the roads. Although people were seen sitting outside their houses in some areas of Shahpur.
Akhtari, 35, from Nath village, has brought her gravely injured 70-year-old mother-in-law Sakhura to the hospital for treatment.
Akhtari said, "We were attacked on Sunday afternoon when a group of people burned our house and and few neighbouring houses. We were saved by the military."
Anuvesh Balyan, 26, resident of Sohram village has received injuries all over his body. Balyan was attacked on Saturday while he, along with few others, was returning from the Mahapanchayat called by the Jat community. He was in a tractor-trolley when suddenly stones were pelted on them from homes and he got injured.
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