UP: Tensions erupted in UP’s Shahjahanpur district outside a Gurudwara after a 14-year-old Hindu girl was hit with a stick by the Gurudwara’s watchman.
Clash broke between the two different communities on Saturday August 25 after the incident with people retorting to stone pelting which injured at least a dozen of people including two policemen, the Quint reported.
The Police, on Sunday, has booked over 80 identified and hundreds of unidentified people for rioting and damaging public property , reported PTI.
Additional Superintendent of Police (rural) Subhash Chandra Shakya speaking of the incident said tensions erupted when a 14-year-old girl belonging to Hindu community was setting up her rakhi cart to sell before the Guruwara in Banda area and the gurudwara’s watchman objected to it.
The watchman of the gurdwara also allegedly hit the girl on her leg with a stick, the police said, PTI further reported.
The news of the incident spread fast and many Hindus and Sikhs reached the area and retorted to stone-pelting at each other. Gunshots were also reportedly fired in the air.
Three FIRs have been registered against more than 80 people from both sides and hundreds of others under various sections of the IPC for rioting and damaging public property…A heavy police deployment has been made in the area, S Chinappa, Superintendent of Police, Shahjahanpur, as quoted by PTI
The District Magistrate Amit Tripathi had then intervened and called upon both the communities to warn them of the consequences if the tensions prevail. He also warned locals from circulating rumors on social media added the SP.
“One police vehicle and two other vehicles have been damaged due to stone-pelting,” Sub-divisional Magistrate Satyapriye Singh had said on Saturday.