RANCHI: Jharkhand Police has been put on high alert following intelligence inputs that the protesters may take to the streets again on Friday after offering ‘Namaaz’ in different mosques in Ranchi. To avoid any untoward incident, district administration has beefed up the security of religious places, besides putting barricades in at least 25 sensitive localities in the capital city.
Police also performed mock drill to deal with any unruly mob that may come out to disturb the social harmony in Ranchi. The move was taken after police received intelligence inputs regarding the possibility of disturbance after Friday (Jumma) prayers at the mosques in the capital city.
According to police officials, more than 2500 security forces have been deployed in Daily Market, Doranda, Lower Bazaar, Hindpiri and Chutia police station areas along with magistrates.
“As a precautionary measure, barricading has also been done at various sensitive locations to control the crowd, besides deploying additional forces and magistrates there. All equipments to deal with the unruly crowd have been made available to the Ranchi Police,” said Ranchi Range DIG Anish Gupta. In the wake
of the violence which took place on June 10, additional forces have been deployed in some of the sensitive locations along with the Rapid Action Force (RAF), he added.
Gupta further informed that a mock drill was also conducted with the additional forces deployed here and they have also been briefed by senior police officials. “Flag March of the Vajra Vahan and water cannon vehicles brought from other districts was also organized as a symbol of preparedness that we are ready to deal with any kind of eventuality,” said the DIG.
Meanwhile, various Muslim bodies in Jharkhand have appealed people to remain at home after offering ‘namaaz’ in their respective localities on Friday. They also appealed youths to refrain from making baseless messages viral on social media, keep away from rumours and deny the requests to join any procession to avoid any untoward incident.
A PIL has also been filed in Jharkhand High Court seeking NIA probe into the violence which took place during a protest march on June 10 against the controversial statement given by BJP leader Nupur Sharma. The Court has allowed the petition filed by petitioner’s Advocate Rajiv Kumar requesting it to hear
the matter soon and has listed the matter for June 17.
In between, a supplementary petition was also filed in the High Court by petitioner Pankaj Yadav saying that the Nawab Chishti, who was arrested for inciting violence through social media, has connection with some of the ministers and MLAs in the Government. Through this petition, the Court has also been informed about the removal of posters, carrying photographs of the protesters who were involved in the violence, under the pressure of State Government.
Notably, an altercation had taken place between Police and an unruly crowd, which went violent on June 10 while protesting against the controversial statement given by senior BJP leader Nupur Sharma against the Prophet Muhammad. Police had to resort to firing and apply lathi-charge in order to disperse the crowd, which resulted into the killing of two persons and over dozen others received bullet injuries.