Bhadrak limping back to normalcy, educational institutions to reopen on Tuesday

So far, eight cases have been registered in connection with the violence and 73 persons have been arrested. The police also seized huge volumes of looted materials apart from eight bikes.
Shops in Bhadrak gutted during the riot on Saturday. (Photo | EPS)
Shops in Bhadrak gutted during the riot on Saturday. (Photo | EPS)

BHUBANESWAR: Four days after hate posts on social media triggered a wave of tension between two
communities, Bhadrak woke up to a normal morning on Monday when the police relaxed the restrictions.

With curfew lifted for six hours since 8 am, people were back on the streets, heading to markets for essential shopping. Vegetable vendors, grocers and the neighbourhood tea-sellers did brisk business.

As 38 platoon of state police force and two companies of Rapid Action Force kept a watchful eye, the buzz was back in the town that had plunged into chaos, experiencing widespread arson and loot only a few days back.

Even bank branches reopened, although shutdown of internet services did not allow normal transactions due to failure of links.

Under the supervision of Home Secretary Asit Tripathy, DG of Police KB Singh and ADG Binayanand Jha who have been camping in Bhadrak since Friday, the administration has decided to open educational
institutions from Tuesday.

Earlier in the day, sensing normalcy, the administration had planned to extend the curfew relaxation during the day, but a single incident of arson at Bonth Bypass promoted re-imposition of the restrictions from 2 pm again. Taking advantage of curfew relaxation, a youth set a small shop on fire near Bonth Square
but he was apprehended by the police and the flames were controlled.

So far, eight cases have been registered in connection with the violence and 73 persons have been arrested. The police also seized huge volumes of looted materials apart from eight bikes.

DGP Singh said normalcy was coming back to the district headquarters town. “Controlling the situation necessitated that there is no group clash leading to bloodshed of any kind. We have achieved that
but we will remain watchful. Certain government offices and banks functioned today and educational institutions will resume operation tomorrow,” he added.

In fact, the decision to shut off internet services appeared to have worked wonders as rumour mongering which was threatening peace and harmony among the communities has come to a halt. A seven-member team of the Crime Branch - which is probing abuse of social media to spread communal disharmony - also reached Bhadrak on the day. The team intends to find out how local utilities were used to spread the messages on Whatsapp and Facebook.

Interestingly, preliminary CB investigation into hate posts and message threads has showed that mobile numbers where these were traced to have uninstalled the applications altogether.

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