NEW DELHI: Three days after a scuffle over a petty parking tiff between two individuals snowballed into a communal flare-up in Old Delhi’s Lal Kuan Bazaar, tensions seemed to have ebbed on Wednesday following the intervention of Hindu priests and Muslim preachers and the participation of an NGO in the effort to restore normality.
Activists involved with the NGO conducted a peace march in the area on the night after the incident.
An air of uneasy calm prevailed in the area for two days as it wore the look of a militarized zone. Around 1,000 police and CRPF personnel were deployed in the area to enforce peace.
However, things appeared to have limped back to normal on Wednesday, as shops opened and traffic movement was like it is on most days.
“The situation is now under control. Around four companies of security forces were deployed in the area today. Each company has about 60 personnel from police and paramilitary,” Deputy Commissioner of Police Mandeep Singh Randhawa said.
Tara Chand Saxena, a member of the Aman Committee which has been working for peace in the area in the wake of the incident, said the police has assured action against the culprits. “We have been given assurance by the police that they would not spare the culprits. We have urged people to maintain peace. Both communities are working to sort things out and bring back amity,” Saxena said.
Anil Kumar Pandey, a priest at the Durga Temple, said some people were “quite agitated” as the temple had been vandalised, “but we didn’t want to stretch the issue any further”.
“We wanted to resolve the issue. We humbly asked outsiders and those belonging to the minority community not to fan tensions anymore,” Pandey said.
Mufti Mukarram, the Imam of Fatehpuri Masjid said, “We’re pained by what happened. Some outsiders did try to make things difficult, but the love that locals, across faiths, have for each other, helped us overcome this fear of discord.”