According to reports, communal tensions flared up in Fatehpur town in Sikar district, Rajasthan on Monday after a group of people alleged that some Kanwariyas taking out a procession through Luharon Ka Mohalla on Churu Road in Fatehpur were attacked by members of the Muslim community. Currently, section 144 of CrPC has been imposed in the town.
The conflict began when the procession was passing by a mosque and a group of Muslim youths demanded that the music, which the Kanwariya’s were playing along, is minimized, an official reportedly said. Soon after a heated argument broke out between the two group which turned into an altercation, leading to eight Kanwariya’s being injured. The police have arrested three Muslim youths.
Demanding further arrests of the other assaulters, Hindu organization called for a bandh in Fatehpur town following which the markets remained closed on Monday. Several people are reported to have been injured in the incident.
In a similar incident of religious intolerance, clashes had broken out in the Nawada district of Bihar in March 2018, following the desecration of Lord Hanuman’s idol in the district’s Gondapur village. As per local reports, the discovery of this desecration had resulted in irate locals blocking the Patna-Ranchi highway, which had later escalated into a clash between two communities.
This news of communal violence in Bihar came days after parts of the state was engulfed in communal strife following attacks on Ram Navami processions.
We had reported that the state’s Aurangabad and Kaimur districts had seen intense violence. In Aurangabad, stones were pelted on a bike rally at Nawadih area, which caused tensions in the area.
In Kaimur district’s Malikasray village, a bike rally was taken out, during which property belonging to “another group” was accidentally damaged. Hence when Ram Navami’s Shoba yatra started in the village, the “other group” stopped it by alleging that they had taken a wrong route. This resulted in the clashes.
Almost at the same time, similar incidents of communal violence were also witnessed in Samastipur, Nalanda, and Munger regions of the state.