In two separate incidents in the last couple of days, Meerut in Uttar Pradesh has witnessed communal clashes between Muslims and Hindus that were triggered by petty fights between a few individuals. Police deployment had to be made in both the cases to stop the situation from getting uglier.
In the first case, a cricket match that took place four days back has now resulted into communal clashes with both group accusing each other of making targeted attacks. The incident happened in Sardhana area of Meerut where an altercation took place between two groups while playing cricket.
Youths belonging to the Muslim and Dalit communities were reported to have come to blows during the match, but the fight was contained on that day. However, a day later, Muslim group is alleged to have attacked the homes of Dalits and even fired at the youths from country made pistols.
Banti, one of the those injured in the attacks and firing, has claimed that the Muslims had organised a panchayat, where they decided to attack them in a planned way. Around 10 persons, including a woman, suffered injuries in this attack and they are being treated in a local hospital.
After this attack, Dalits are also reported to have carried out counter attack on the homes of Muslims, causing injuries to the other side. With situation turning worse, police forces had to be deployed in the area and cases have been registered.
Both the groups are accusing each other of starting the fight and denying any organised or planned violence on their part. The situation is reported to be tense but under control after police intervention.
In another incident that took place in Indira Chowk area of Meerut, police had to be deployed to contain communal clashes that happened after a hotel owner objected to a dog littering the area outside his hotel.
The Hotel is owned by two brothers Satish and Pramod, who were frustrated with one guy Nadeem who used to bring his dog daily outside his hotel leading to littering in the area. When the brothers objected to this, Nadeem went away but returned with a mob of 20-25 people from his locality.
Armed with sticks, the Muslim mob not only attacked the hotel owners and damaged the hotel property, they beat up others too who were in the hotel or in the vicinity. This led to the other group respond to the attack and the soon the incident took communal colours.
Police was informed as groups started stone pelting and soon the situation was brought under control. Police is reportedly scrutinising the CCTV footage of the hotel to identify the culprits and have registered cases against 24 people. Two have been arrested though Nadeem is still on run.
Police has claimed that while people are angry, situation is under control and police deployment has been done to stop any further violence.
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