NEW DELHI: Community relations between Hindus and Muslims took a turn for the worse with more than half a dozen Indiantown’s being placed under curfew restrictions and the Army inactive deployment in most of the troubled areas.
The latest town to join the “tense” regions is Kanpur whereas many as eight police stations were placed under curfew following group clashes involving the death of one person.
Communal clashes spread in Hyderabad, the capital town of Andhra Pradesh. Over the weekend eighty persons died in group clashes there. The Army has been called out to assist the civil administration maintain the law and order.
Indefinite curfew continued in Aligarh (U.P) where 79 persons died in “communal violence”. Muslims of Aligarh in a representation to the Centre demanded a visit to the town by an all-party Parliamentary delegation. The Muslims said that the pro Hindu Provincial Armed constabulary ‘was committing atrocities on Muslims. Major political parties such as Congress (I), Janata Dal and the C.P.(M) demanded a judicial enquiry into the violence and blamed the armed forces for excesses on Muslims.
Meanwhile the Hindu fundamentalist “satyagraha” at A Ayodhia continued with more than 2000 kar sevaks being arrested by the authorities. On Dec 9 the police arrested one Suresh Kumar along with 26 powerful dynamite sticks with which he wanted to explode the Babri mosque. A special police team reached Ayodhia on Dec 10 to interrogate the fundamentalist and to find out the support behind the explosion plan.
The B.J.P. chief L.K. Advani on Monday told newsmen at Calcutta that the Ayodhia Satyagraha had nothing to do with the current spate of communal violence in the country. He said nothing would have happened had the authorities permitted the construction of the Ram temple at the disputed site. He said the agitation would continue till the government permitted the construction of the temple.
Article extracted from this publication >> December 14, 1990
