There has been a clash between Hindus and Muslims since Monday night in different areas of Nagpur city of Maharashtra, India. Extensive stones were set on fire in shops, shops and cars. Police used tearing gas shells to bring the situation under control. The administration later imposed the curfew.
News agency PTI said the clash began on Monday evening in the Mahal area of Nagpur city. Massive stones were also thrown towards the police. Initially, six civilians and three police officers were injured, the news agency reported.
Then the clash also spread to Kotwali and Ganeshpath area. Thousands of people threw stones, vandalized, and set fire to shops and cars. Police arrested 20 people in various areas till dawn on Tuesday.
By ten o’clock in the afternoon, Minister of State for Home Affairs Yogesh Kadam told the news agency ANI, “The cause of the violence has not yet been found. At least 20 people have been arrested so far.”Police said the situation was brought under control on Tuesday morning. Although the curfew is issued there.
Local journalists say public life is normal in other areas of the city other than the Mahal region in which the conflict was spread.
However, the police have requested the citizens so that no one will go out without the need.
The area where the conflict has been spread since Monday night is very close to the main office of the Hindu reawakening organization State Volunteer Association. The house of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnbish is also in Nagpur.
The inception of the incidents
On Monday afternoon, the Hindutva organization Bajrang Dal gathered a protest in the Mahal area of Nagpur demanding the removal of the grave of Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb. A photo of Aurangzeb was burned in the protest.
Protests are taking place in different parts of the state demanding the removal of Aurangzeb from Khuldabad in the Sabhinagar district of Maharashtra.
Devendra Fadnabish, chief minister of the state of Maharashtra where Nagpur is located, has said that the radix of human anger over Aurangzeb is the Bollywood film ‘Shaba’.
On Tuesday,Mr. Fadnabish says in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, “The movie ‘Shava’ has made people angry against Aurangzeb.”
“Violence and riots look like it is pre-planned. Mob has identified some houses and shops specifically. Yet it is the duty of everyone to keep Maharashtra calm,” said Mr. Fadnabish.
“I have told the police commissioner to take strict steps whatever it be in necessary,” said Devendra Fadnavis. He urged the public not to “believe in any rumours” about the unrest.
News agency PTI police sources quoted rumors that the Qur’an was burnt during the protest so that the Muslim community would spread widespread outrage. A complaint was also filed with the police.
Archit Chandak, Deputy Commissioner of Nagpur Police, told the news agency ANI that a rumor was the beginning of Monday incidents.
“This is the result of some misinformation. The situation is now under control. The application to everyone who does not get out of the house, do not throw stones. Do not believe in rumors,” said Mr. Chandak.
Again, Nagpur MP and Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said that the communal violence started from the rumor.
In his X -handle, he said, “Due to some rumors, the situation of communal tensions in Nagpur has been created. I will request to everyone that no one listen to any rumors, and hold peace. “
AIMIM leader and former MLA Waris Pathan say, “There have been incidents of firing and stoning in Nagpur. We strongly condemn such violence. Everyone should strictly obey the law and order. But how has the incident occurred? The administration should investigate what was the reason behind it. “
He also said that for the past few days, tensions have been created in Maharashtra over the issue of Aurangzeb’s grave so that the vision can be removed from other important issues.
Old politics of demolishing Muslim sites
Aurangzeb’s tomb is in Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar city, some 500 kilometers (310 miles) away from Nagpur. The city was previously called Aurangabad, after the Mughal ruler.
Aurangzeb is a loathsome figure among India’s Hindu nationalists, who allege him of persecuting Hindus during his rule in the 17th century, even though some historians say such stories are exaggerated.
As tensions between Hindus and Muslims have mounted peak under Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi, scorn for Aurangzeb has grown. Modi has made references to Aurangzeb in the past, accusing him of tormenting Hindus.
Such remarks have led to anxieties among the country’s significant Muslim minority who in recent years have been at the receiving end of violence from Hindu nationalists, fostered by a prime minister who has mostly stayed mum on such attacks since he was elected for the first time in 2014.
Tensions over the Mughal ruler have intensified in India after the release of the Bollywood movie “Chhaava,” an action movie based on a Hindu warrior who fought against Aurangzeb. The film has been denounced by some movie critics for feeding into a divisive narrative that risks exacerbating religious cleft in the country.
While there have long been tensions between India’s majority Hindu community and Muslims, rights groups say that attacks against minorities have become more brazen under Modi. They also accuse Modi of discriminatory policies towards the country’s Muslims.
Modi’s ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party denies this. Hindu extremists have also targeted Muslim places of worship across the country and laid claim to several famous mosques including Babri Mosque, arguing they are built on the ruins of prominent temples. Many such cases are pending in courts.
Last year, Modi delivered on a longstanding demand from Hindu nationalists — and millions of Hindus — when he opened a controversial temple on the site of a razed mosque in northern India’s Ayodhya city. The 16th-century Babri mosque was torn down in 1992 by Hindu mobs who believe Ram, one of Hinduism’s most revered deities, was born at the exact spot.
Latest updates
Restrictions will continue until further notice, as per an official order issued by Nagpur Police Commissioner Ravinder Kumar Singal. The curfew applies to police station limits in Kotwali, Lakadganj,Tehsil, Pachpaoli,Ganeshpeth, Yashodharanagar,Shantinagar, Nandanvan, Imamwada,Sakkardara and Kapilnagar.
Police commissioner Ravinder Kumar Singal said that authorities will reevaluate the situation in the afternoon. Another official reported that over 2,000 armed police personnel have been stationed in sensitive areas. Quick Response Teams (QRT) and Riot Control Police (RCP), led by a DCP-rank officer, are also patrolling the affected areas.
Rajkumar Sharma, a member of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), alleged that the violence in Nagpur was prepense. He arraigned it on “Aurangzeb ki aulad,” asserting that certain groups purposely escalated tensions after a protest regarding the removal of a grave, despite prior discussions with the police and the local Muslim community.
Maharashtra deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde, portraying a comparison, remarked that the US did not allow Osama bin Laden to be buried on its land to prevent glorification. His comments came on Tuesday during a heated debate in the legislative council, where he criticized the glorification of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, whose tomb has become a cantankerous issue with right-wing groups demanding its erasure.
NCP (SCP) leader Rohit Pawar, on Wednesday, said that action should be taken against those involved in the Nagpur violence. He pointed out that the government indirectly admitted intelligence flaws. “If something is premeditated and the police are uninformed about it, then it means an intelligence failure… then action will be taken against involved individuals in the violence; they may be from any community,” he told ANI.
Several BJP MPs have condemned the violence in Nagpur over demands to remove Aurangzeb’s tomb. BJP MP Ashok Chavan described the violence as a “sad incident” and said that the situation has been brought under control. He added, “The truth will come to light after investigation.” Chavan further stressed that communal riots should not ensue over such matters, particularly in a progressive state like Maharashtra.
