Ram Navami was celebrated with huge pomp and show by millions of Hindus this Sunday, but a section of them was unfortunately at the receiving end of serious violence while expressing their devotion to Lord Ram.
As per reports, the Shoba yatras that were taken out to mark the occasion in Bihar’s Aurangabad and Kaimur districts resulted in communal tensions between “two groups”. The report claims that stones were pelted on a bike rally at Nawadih area of Aurangabad, which caused tensions in the area.
The resultant violence saw about a dozen shops getting set ablaze and the attackers even pelted stones on a police van. After getting the news, District Magistrate Rahul Ranjan Mahiwal and Superintendent of Police Satyaprakash Ramesh reached the spot along with a police force and disbursed the attackers. In total, about 50 people have been arrested. Section 144 has also been imposed in the region which now has been put under a heavy police and CRPF presence.
Another report which has covered the violence in Aurangabad claims that the arson was prompted by the stone pelting on the bike rally when it reached Navadih. Here the heavy stone pelting resulted in injuries to six youths who are now been treated in a hospital.
One Jagran report claims that communal tension was also reported from the Malikasray village in Kaimur district of the state. As per the report, a bike rally was taken out on Saturday during which property belonging to “another group” was accidentally damaged. Hence when Ram Navami’s Shoba yatra started in the village on Sunday, the “other group” stopped it by alleging that they had taken a wrong route.
This resulted in a clash between the two groups causing injuries to eight people. This report also claims that a similar violence was reported from the Siwan district of the state, where too a Shobha yatra was stopped.
In Jharkhand’s Khunti region, villagers of Sonpur imprisoned Bajrangi Dal workers for about three hours on Sunday evening. Reports claimed that the villagers were irate about the Ram Navami procession entering their village. This resulted in clashes between the groups where the villagers allegedly even attacked the Ram Navami participants using arrows. Later about 30 people were imprisoned by the villagers, who were only released after the BDO got involved in the matter. In total, about 10-12 people have been injured in the clashes.
As per reports, the villagers have alleged that the procession participants behaved inappropriately with the village women, while the latter has alleged that the villagers tried to stop them from playing music and chanting Jai Sri Ram.
These violent incidents from Bihar and Jharkhand come after another such instance was reported from West Bengal.
As per reports, a Ram Navami stage erected by the BJP was attacked and set on fire in the town of Burdwan on Saturday by alleged TMC goons. Union Minister Babul Supriyo, pinned the entire blame for the Burdwan incident on Trinamool Congress and alleged that Mamata Banerjee was deliberately “antagonising” Hindu sentiments for votes. Besides Burdwan, violence was also reported from the state’s Birbhum district.