CUTTACK: The death toll in Hindu-Muslim clashes in Bhadrak town in Orissa’s Balasore district rose to 17 while sporadic violence continued in and around the sub divisional town for the fifth day according to official reports received here.
Three more deaths were reported from areas adjoining Bhadrak town where indefinite curfew and shoot at sight orders were continuing since Sunday the sources said.
The communal clashes large-scale violence arson and looting in the town were a sequel to a procession organized by a Hindu = organisation on Ramanavami day which allegedly shouted provocative slogans.
Reports said that two people were beaten to death during the day near a large private sector industrial unit at Randia while a slum in the nearby Govindpur village was set on fire.
Four battalions of the central reserve police force requisitioned by the state government to help the law and order authorities in controlling the situation had not reached the strife-tom area.
Nineteen platoons of the Orissa state armed police force were deployed in the area to control the situation and restore normalcy.
Handicapped by inadequacy of force the police was concentrating in sensitive areas in and around the town while a large number of people wanting to leave their areas for safety were unable to do so for want of police protection.
Around 60 people were officially reported injured in the incidents of violence and about half a dozen of the critically injured including a police inspector had been rushed to the medical college here for treatment.
Property worth several millions of rupees had been destroyed or looted in Bhadrak town.
The police was rounding up anti-socials and miscreants but were Jet off later. .
The Orissa state branch of the Bharatiya Janata Party called for a state-wide strike on March 28 (Thursday) in protest against the alleged failure of the state government to protect the lives and property of the people.
Meanwhile four leaders of the BJP at Cuttack were detained under the National Security Act (NSA) on charge of “preparing and provoking for causing loot arson bloodshed and loss of human lives.”
A team of newsmen from Balasore which visited the Bhadrak town saw fires smoldering in many areas of the town. All shops numbering about 150 in the market had been reduced to ashes.
Many shops elsewhere in the town had also been completely burnt.
Article extracted from this publication >> April 5, 1991
