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`Keep watch on communal elements'

By Our Special Correspondent

JAIPUR SEPT. 30. The Rajasthan PUCL has asked the Election Commission to keep a watch on the "machinations of communal elements'' in the run up for Assembly elections here and direct the State Government on the necessary action. The demand comes in the wake of the reported attack on Muslims in villages near Aklera in Jhalawar district recently following a clash between the local police and a group of Bajrang Dal workers. In a statement here, the PUCL condemned the attack and the expressed the fear whether the Sangh Parivar was trying out the Gujarat pattern in Rajasthan to make the Muslims second-class citizens.

The president of the PUCL, Prem Krishna Sharma, and its general secretary, Kavita Srivastava, blamed the State administration also for letting the main accused, who had led the attack on the members of the Minority community, to be still at large.

They sought action against the officials who remained mute spectators to the atrocities against Muslims in the area and compensation for the damages caused to the property which belonged to the victims. The Gehlot Government would have to make sure that such incidents were not repeated, they said.

However while talking to mediapersons here on Monday, the Rajasthan BJP president, Vasundhara Raje Scindia, denied any BJP role in the violence in Aklera and its nearby villages. It was the handiwork of the Congress Government which was trying to create an atmosphere it had created here prior to the arrest of the VHP leader, Praveen Togadia, she alleged.

Ms.Scindia alleged that the police had perpetuated atrocities against Bajrang Dal workers and in the police firing 16 persons had sustained injuries. "As such I condemn any incident of violence against any community,'' she asserted. "We don't want any kind of communal riots in the State. It does not suit our party. It only suits the Congress,'' she said in a rather blunt observation. It was all the doing of the Congress, including the damages caused to the masjid, she alleged pointing out that the pradhan of the local panchayati samiti, who is a Congressman, was involved.

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