Other States - Rajasthan   

Chittaurgarh town tense but calm

JAIPUR: The situation in curfew-bound Chittaurgarh town of Rajasthan continued to be tense on Sunday, though no incident of fresh violence was reported in the areas adjacent to a dargah where violent mobs torched shops and hurled stones on Saturday. Curfew continued in the town without any relaxation.

The district town of Tonk, which also witnessed communal tension during the Holi celebration on Saturday, was peaceful.

The fort town of Chittaurgarh, 322 km from here, was rocked by communal violence when mobs attacked shops, kiosks and cabins near Qazi Shah’s dargarh and set them on fire.

According to the police sources, about 30 shops were torched.

Eyewitness accounts said the mobs, armed with weapons and inflammable material, selectively targeted the shops of tailors and cloth merchants even as the police remained a “mute spectator” to the violence.

The police control room is situated just opposite the dargah.

Arson also took place at a number of other places in the city and the majority of the 35 injured persons were those wounded in the police lathicharge and firing of teargas shells.

Trouble erupted in the town on Friday during an Id-e-Miladunnabi procession, when two youths clashed over the erection of a temporary wooden gate on the route. Though the tension subsided after the two communities reached a settlement on the issue, violence flared up the next day without any visible provocation.

The police have arrested an unspecified number of people from both the sides, while those injured were admitted to the Government hospital. In addition to the Special Task Force, eight companies of State police were deployed to control the situation and enforce the curfew orders.

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