BHUBANESWAR: After three days of unrest, normalcy was restored in Jadupur and Sarakantara on the outskirts of the City on Tuesday.
Warring factions of the two villages, locals of adjoining Raghunath Nagar came together and took out a peace rally in Dumduma market. Village headmen, elderly persons, youth representatives and local corporators came together and arrived at a consensus to resolve all issues amicably in future. Toeing their seniors, the youngsters pledged not to resort to violence by sensitising trivial issues.
While villagers maintained that the incidence was provoked by external elements to disturb harmony in the area, sources said disputes have been simmering for the last two years between the two groups of the villages.
“The incident on Monday, in which a meat shop was torched at Aiginia, was a handiwork of outsiders. It escalated the situation while we were proceeding to settle the matter,” a member of village peace committee said.
The violence which started with a minor accident on Saturday evening, in which a youth from Sarakantara village was injured, had snowballed into major group clash on Sunday.
Henceforth, a close watch will be kept on miscreants who intrude into the area and try to sabotage peace, an elderly man from Jadupur, Syed Sansar Ali said.
The prohibitory orders continued in the area for the third consecutive day. With eight platoons of force deployed, no untoward incident was reported on Tuesday.