LUCKNOW: A minor verbal spat between two persons on late Thursday night snowballed into a major communal build-up leading to vandalism and arson injuring around two dozen people including an SDM and three cops in Ghoorpur locality of Allahabad city on Friday.
The situation turned tense after two neighbours --Dhamrendra Patel, 22, son of Subhash and Wasim, son of Salim – in Ghoorpur, indulged a scuffle over bonfire on Thursday night. In fact, Dharmendra confronted Wasim for taking away some husk (puaal) kept near his house without asking him to ignite the bonfire.
Both sparred over the issue and after the intervention of elders, the issue subsided on Thursday night. Next morning, Wasim and his aides attacked Dharmendra with a knife and injured him. This reignited the tension which later took the shape of communal unrest wherein people from both the communities came
face-to-face with each other. Both the warring factions indulged in heavy brick batting, vandalism and arson setting a few shops of the locality on fire.
As the issue took a grave turn, local police force, led by Allahabad SSP Akash Kulhari, rushed to the spot to take the situation under control. Even senior officers of district administration also reached the spot of trouble to take stock of the situation.
Meanwhile, following the knife attack on Dharmendra, his family and neighbours took to streets and laid a seize of Gauhania –Karchhana Road jamming it for hours. In a bid to get the road blockade cleared, as the cops tried to disperse the crowd, the protesting locals and Dhamendra's supporters clashed with the police and started stone pelting on the force.
The cops retaliated by resorting to cane charge on protesting locals and firing a few rounds in air to control the situation and disperse the mob. It took hours for the cops to control the situation and pacify Dharmendra's kin who were seeking immediate action against the other community members, especially Wasim. In the melee, SDM, Karchhana, his attendant, three cops and a station house officer sustained injuries besides over two dozen local people who were injured in the unrest.
According to SSP Kulhari, the injured were taken to Swaroop Rani Nehru (SRN) hospital in Sangam city for treatment and medical aid. Now the situation is tense but under control and the police administration has deployed around three companies of Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) to avert any untoward incident.
According to police sources, there were cross FIRs from both sides and around four persons were arrested and two absconding.