WEB DESK
pproperties owned by the Muslims were targeted for arson and destruction during a bandh called by the BJP in this city, 150 km west of Nagpur in central Maharashtra, officials told The Indian Express.
In the Kotwali area, where the violence took place, police officials said they were outnumbered by a massive gathering of activists of the BJP, Bajrang Dal, Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena.
“They gathered at Rajkamal Chowk. A section of this crowd turned violent, burnt two shops, damaged some other shops, burnt vehicles. Almost all the victims are from the minority community. It appears that the violence had been planned a day in advance in retaliation for the violence on Friday by some members of the minority community,” said a police official.
Two shops and three two-wheelers parked outside one of these shops were burnt. One other shop was damaged, and the shop owner’s vehicle also burnt. Two shrines were also damaged.
On Friday, a massive protest march called by Raza Academy, a Muslim organisation, against the anti-Muslim violence in Tripura, had passed through the Kotwali area and stones were thrown at the house of local BJP leader Pravin Pote, breaking a window. One person was injured in the stone-pelting elsewhere. By police estimates, some 25,000 people participated in this protest.
The BJP called Saturday’s bandh in response, and, according to local police estimates, around 6,000 workers of the party and other allied organisations came out to enforce the closure, which is when the violence erupted. Pote was seen in a video urging BJP workers to gather at Rajkamal Chowk. He also instructed that there should be no violence.
In all, the police have registered 26 FIRs, 15 of them for Saturday’s violence and 11 for Friday’s incidents, at various police stations across the city, and arrested 60 people.
“All those involved have been booked for both Friday’s and Saturday’s violence,” a senior police official in Amravati said.