Hyderabad, April 01: Processions taken out after India’s victory over Pakistan in the World Cup cricket semi-final match turned violent when two groups clashed in parts of Karimnagar late on Wednesday night. The clashes spilled over to Thursday afternoon.
People from various walks of life took out processions and vehicle rallies from Telangana Chowk to the Rajiv Chowk in the town on Wednesday night soon after India’s win. As soon as they reached Rajiv Chowk, some miscreants hurled stones at the gathering causing injuries to the people and some police personnel.
Even as there was commotion at the busy Tower Circle area, as the two groups clashed by hurling stones and chasing each other in the darkness. A group then set ablaze a few two-wheelers at a locality. Irked by this, another group entered a function hall and set afire vehicles besides damaging the furniture, while others attacked shops.
The police swung into action and tried to disperse the clashing mobs by resorting to a lathi-charge. Several police personnel sustained injuries in the stone-throwing and a police vehicle was damaged. Additional forces were rushed and the situation was brought under control by Thursday morning.
However, there was trouble on Thursday as miscreants attacked some shopkeepers who were about to open their shops in Rajiv Chowk.
Sensing trouble, police forces were deployed in large numbers to avoid any untoward incident and the area was cordoned off.
Breaking the security cordon, a section of processionists rushed towards Tower Circle area forcing the police to resort to lathi-charge to bring the situation under control.
Section 144
Mr. Shivashankar Reddy told The Hindu that the situation was under control, and the police were monitoring the situation by intensifying the patrolling in sensitive areas. They had also imposed Section 144.
–Agencies