VADODARA/AHMEDABAD: Tazia processions in Vadodara
turned violent on Friday afternoon in which four persons, including two
policemen, were injured. Police had to resort to firing and lobbing teargas
shells to quell the violence. Trouble continued till late evening as mobs came
out on the streets in the Wadi Ladwada area where the police had to fire 9
rounds to.
In all, some 25 rounds were fired by the
police during the day but there was no reports of bullet injuries. Trouble
started from Sarasiya Talav area when Moharram tazias were being immersed at
about 4 pm. Rival groups
clashed and pelted stones. A nearby house was ransacked by a mob. Police
officers said that processionists had complained about stone pelting on them.
“While this is yet to be ascertained, it
might have led to rioting. Processionists then barged into a nearby house and
ransacked it,” said police commissioner D D Tuteja Late on Friday evening, the
police nabbed 115 persons returning after immersions. They were pelting stones
on the way and carrying stones in vehicles. Earlier, leaders of both the
communities had agreed to observe restraint on Moharram. Harmony was, however,
nowhere to be seen on Friday.
While the city Tazia Committee had decided
against bringing out tazias, some dissidents insisted on doing so. As many as
68 applications were cleared by the police. First signals of trouble were seen
on Thursday night itself when rival groups clashed during a ‘tazia pittani’
procession in Panigate. On Friday, policemen on duty near the pond were also targetted
by mobs.
Rioters smashed the glasses of the car of
joint commissioner of police P C Thakur. The car driver and a wireless operator
were injured and were taken to SSG Hospital. Thakur
said that vehicles of policemen parked at the spot were also charred. “They set
ablaze two two-wheelers of policemen of the special branch. The rioters also
attacked a middle-aged man and he was taken to a hospital for treatment,” Thakur
said.
Trouble then spilled over to other parts of
the city with mobs gathering on the route of the procession. The situation here
was brought under control soon with teargas shells. Rioting broke out in
several neighbouring localities of Fatehpura. Besides stones, soda bottles and
cracker bombs were used by the mobs.