MEERUT: Over twenty-seven Muslim men have been taken into custody and sections of the stringent National Security Act (NSA) has been invoked against three men including a 65-year-old man after a cricket match between teenagers of two communities snowballed into communal clashes.
A majority of members of the minority community were booked in FIR and no action was taken against the majority community.
In all 38 men were booked by name, out of which 28 are in jail including Shamsher and his nephews Mehboob Ahmad and Aftab, who have been slapped with NSA, Times Of India reported.
The incident which led to the communal clashes on August 21 and 24 took place in Purbaliyan village that saw skirmishes during the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots in Uttar Pradesh.
Sanjeev Balyan, BJP MP from Muzaffarnagar who visited the communally sensitive village on August 25, had advocated invoking the NSA.
“Such severe action will be taken that no one will have the courage to misbehave like this…the NSA will be pressed against primary offenders…” the Indian Express quoted him as saying.