GUWAHATI: The authorities on Friday clamped prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the CrPC and sought the help of the Army in Assam’s Hailakandi town where a clash between two groups of people left over a dozen, including policemen, injured.
Hailakandi Deputy Commissioner (District Magistrate), Keerthi Jalli, said the prohibitory orders had been enforced in town areas as “a strange relation exists between groups who are trying to indulge in violence and create communal violence”.
Columns of paramilitary forces, such as CRPF and Assam Rifles, have been deployed to the restive town in Southern Assam’s Barak Valley. The district authorities have also sought the help of the Army to bring the situation under control.
The trouble on Friday began when a group people, after offering Friday ‘namaaz’, allegedly attacked shops, belonging to people of another community, by hurling stones. Soon, both sides got engaged in a stone-pelting battle. It got deteriorated later as shops were vandalised and vehicles set on fire.
The police and paramilitary forces brought the situation under control by firing blank shots. According to locals, over a dozen people were injured and several vehicles torched.
The violence has its genesis to a recent incident in which some two-wheelers, parked outside a mosque in the town, were damaged by the miscreants. The mosque-goers had on that day filed an FIR with the police demanding the immediate arrest of the culprits. They had also warned that they would offer their Friday prayers on the road if the culprits were not punished.
Assam minister Parimal Suklabaidya, who rushed to Hailakandi from Guwahati on getting news of the violence, told this newspaper that efforts were being made to restore normalcy. “Some people were injured in stone-pelting while some shops were vandalised and vehicles torched,” he said, adding, “Additional forces were being rushed to Hailakandi from neighbouring districts”.
He appealed to people to maintain peace and harmony and assured that action would be taken against the perpetrators of the crime.