Clashes broke out between two groups in Haryana’s Muslim-dominated Nuh district on July 31 during Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s Brij Mandal Jalabhishek Yatra with the armed mob pelting stones and setting the vehicles on fire.
Two home guards, Gursewak and Neeraj, were killed and ten police personnel sustained serious injuries when mob pelted stones on Gurugram Police teams on their way to Nuh. All injured were under treatment at Medanta Hospital. With one more death in Nuh the toll rises to three.
Nuh district administration confirmed one more death during the violence. Senior district officials held peace talks with both communities. “Another meeting will be held on August 1 at 11 am. Bhiwani SP, Narendra Bijarniya gave additional charge of Nuh SP. Internet services to remain suspended for three days in Nuh,” said the Nuh administration.
Ravi Kiran, Additional Director General of Police, South Range, said the situation was under control, but the number of casualties were not immediately known.
Prohibitory orders under Section 144 Criminal Procedure Code imposed in Gurugram. All educational institutes, government and private, ordered to remain closed in Gurugram on August 1 as “roads have been blocked by anti-social elements to disturb peace and tranquility of society,” said Deputy Commissioner Gurugram, Nishant Yadav, in late night orders.
Prohibitory orders under Section 144 CrPC was also imposed in neighouring Faridabad and Palwal as well. All educational institutes to remain closed on August 1 in Faridabad.
Earlier, several hundred devotees in the procession, including women, took shelter inside Nalhar temple and remained trapped inside, surrounded by the mob, for around five hours before the police reinforcement called from neighbouring four districts rescued them. Speaking to The Hindu over phone from inside the temple, Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Gurugram, president Ajit Yadav said the devotees rushed to the temple attacked by the mob around 2 p.m. “While we remained stranded inside waiting for the police to rescue us, the mob outside went on rampage setting vehicles on fire. We could hear the gunshots as well,” claimed Mr. Yadav.
Tension was brewing in the region after Bajrang Dal member Monu Mansar, a suspect in the kidnapping and murder of two young Muslim men in Rajasthan’s Bharatpur over suspicion of cow smuggling in February this year, in a video on social media a few days back claimed that he and his team would be part of the procession.
The locals opposed Monu’s visit to Nuh because of his alleged involved in the murder case saying that it would disturb communal harmony in the region.
According to an eye-witness, the violence broke out around noon today when around half-a-dozen vehicles, including a black Sports Utility Vehicle, carrying devotees reached Nuh Chowk leading to rumours that Monu Manesar was inside one of the vehicles. “The vehicles had ‘Gorakshak’ written on them fuelling rumours that Monu Manesar was inside them. As soon as the vehicles reached Nuh Chowk, a handful of teenagers pelted stones on the vehicles. Soon, the mob from the neighbouring villages descended on the road and went on the rampage,” said Gurugram’s Pintu Singh, 36, who sustained a shrapnel injury in the attack. He along with other devotees then took shelter at a nearby a Women Police Station.
Some local media reports claimed that both the sides raised religious slogans flaring communal tensions leading to the clash with the police completely outnumbered by the mob.
In the videos of the violence emerging from Nuh on social media, the mob carrying lathis could be seen stone pelting on the vehicles and setting them afire.
Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal made an appeal for peace saying all issues could be resolved with dialogue.
The procession being taken out in Nuh annually for the past three years begins with the offering of holy water at a temple in Nalhar before it culminates at Punhana.
Political activist Yogendra Yadav, in a press statement, said the “clash between two communities” in Nuh was much-awaited riot that the BJP had been trying to engineer in Mewat region. “The ‘Shobha Yatra’ was calculated to create communal violence, very provocative videos were issued in the last two days. Despite this knowledge and apprehension the administration allowed the yatra to enter Mewat. And when violence began, the administration simply collapsed, police disappeared,” said Mr. Yadav.
