PURI: The pilgrim town of Puri witnessed large-scale violence and arson by mob which went on the rampage on Wednesday on Grand Road protesting introduction of queue system for devotees visiting the Jagannath temple.Jagannath Sena, Sachetan Nagarik Manch and other organisations had jointly given a 12-hour bandh call for Wednesday demanding fulfilment of their eight-point charter of demands, including immediate withdrawal of the queue system. They stated that the queue system cannot be imposed on the locals who visit the temple to offer prayers every morning and evening.
The bandh, however, took an ugly turn with agitators uprooting the barricades raised for queue system, ransacked Sri Jagannath Temple Office, looted cash from donation cell, damaged vehicles in the temple office parking lot and also the information centre and metal detectors installed in all the four temple gates.
The mob unsuccessfully tried to barge into the residence of the Superintendent of Police Sarthak Sarangi, but did cause damage to the gate of local legislator and Revenue Minister Maheswar Mohanty.
The agitators, mostly comprising anti-socials, laid seige to Badadanda (Grand Road) for more than five hours and attacked police personnel. Twenty policemen were injured. Fourteen people, including four mediapersons, also sustained injuries in the attack.
IGP Soumendra Priyadarshi said the police had wanted to avoid confrontation with the activists as they had promised to stage a peaceful demonstration. He said the activists were informed that that the queue system was being conducted on an experimental basis. The violence was an outcome of the mob going berserk, he added.
The fact though is the police intelligence completely failed to foresee the mayhem created during the bandh. Police were caught off guard as the bandh activists, which initially comprised around 200 agitators, suddenly swelled to thousands. The street vendors, who were recently evicted from Badadanda, had joined the mob in large numbers. The servitors, who seem to be affected because of Supreme Court judgment on temple reforms, had allegedly extended their tacit support to the bandh call.
A number of servitors were seen dislodging the barricades inside the temple.The district administration clamped Section 144 of CrPC from Town police station to Simhadwar even as police had to use teargas shell and resort to mild lathi-charge to disperse the crowd.
Later, the police conducted flag march as reinforcements of armed police contingents arrived from Bhubaneswar.Police security at the residence and office of the district judge Ambuj Mohan Das, whose 12-point inquiry report has been incorporated in the apex court judgment, has been beefed up in view of the widespread violence.
Gopal Subramanium, the amicus curiae who is likely to visit Puri after three weeks, has asked temple chief administrator P K Mohapatra to submit a report on Wednesday’s incident.District Collector Jyotiprakash Das convened a peace committee meeting to restore normalcy on the Grand Road and the periphery of Jagannath temple. Police said the situation has been brought under control and normal darshan in the temple has resumed.