The Hindu : Front Page : Situation in Old Lucknow still tense, curfew to continue

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Apr 03, 2007
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Situation in Old Lucknow still tense, curfew to continue

Special Correspondent

27 held for clashes, no untoward incident in Kanpur

KEEPING VIGIL: RAF personnel posted at a curfew-bound area in Old Lucknow on Monday. — Photo: Subir Roy

LUCKNOW: The situation in the curfew-bound areas of Old Lucknow, rocked by sectarian violence on Sunday, continued to remain tense even as a youth Ilyas alias Babloo Painter, who sustained bullet injuries, died in hospital on Monday. Another youth was killed in police firing in Kanpur on Sunday. The Lucknow district administration decided that curfew would continue in the Thakurganj and Saadatganj police station areas till April 8. Shia Muslims had planned to take out a procession April 6, coinciding with the 17th Rabi-ul-Awwal.

A tense situation prevailed at the Trauma Centre here with Ilyas' relatives refusing to accept the body after a post mortem examination. They were demanding action against a leader of a sect, who they alleged instigated his supporters to open fire on unarmed persons near a commercial complex in the Nakhas area on Sunday, and also a Rs. 10-lakh compensation to the next of kin of the youth. No untoward incident was reported in Kanpur on Monday.

Home Secretary Arun Sinha told newspersons that 27 persons were arrested in connection with the violence, and the district administration of Lucknow and Kanpur announced acompensation of Rs. 1 lakh each to the next of kin of the two deceased youths.

Mr. Sinha denied that the clashes were planned. He said some districts were sensitive.

The large-scale use of firearms and crude bombs in Sunday's violence flies in the face of the Election Commission's directive to flush out illegal arms and ammunition in the poll-bound State.

Mr. Sinha said proper searches would be conducted to recover arms.

The Central Para Military Force was for area domination and to instil confidence in the people, and would not be used for house-to-house searches in the Old City.

Meanhwile,Chief Secretary Shambhu Nath, Principal Secretary (Home), K. Chandramouli and Director-General of Police G.L. Sharma reviewed at a videoconference the law and order situation in the districts going to the polls in the first and third phases.

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