Two home guards, identified as Neeraj and Gursevak, were killed and more than 200 people were injured and dozens of vehicles were set on fire as mobs in Haryana’s Nuh and Gurugram districts tried to stop a religious procession by the Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad on Monday, officials said.
Deputy superintendent of police (Hodal) Sajjan Dalal was shot in the head and is undergoing treatment at Medanta Hospital with inspector Anil Kumar of Gurugram police, who has also sustained a bullet injury in his abdomen, a police official told HT.
As news of the clash in Muslim-dominated Nuh spread, mobs in Sohna in Gurugram pelted stones and set ablaze four vehicles and a shop, belonging to people from that community. Protesters there blocked a road for hours.
What triggered the Nuh violence?
Police officers said the violence began 10 minutes after the procession, of around 200 people, began to walk from Edward Chowk in Nuh town around 2pm. As the group walked down the main road, it was allegedly pelted with rocks by a large crowd. The Hindu side initially fled, but then allegedly regrouped and retaliated.
An officer said the trigger for the violence was a rumour that Bajrang Dal member and cow vigilante Monu Manesar, who was booked for the murder of two Muslim men whose charred bodies were found in Bhiwani district in February, would also be a part of the procession.
{{/usCountry}}An officer said the trigger for the violence was a rumour that Bajrang Dal member and cow vigilante Monu Manesar, who was booked for the murder of two Muslim men whose charred bodies were found in Bhiwani district in February, would also be a part of the procession.
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This was preceded by a video of Manesar that began circulating on social media on Sunday.
Manesar, however, told news agency PTI that he did not participate on the advice of the VHP, which feared that his presence would create tension. There were also threats on Twitter daring him to come to Nuh.
On the other hand, Nasir Ahmed, a resident of Punhana neighbourhood in Nuh, accused people in the procession of raising provocative slogans.
Iqbal Khan, a resident of Firozpur Jhirka, alleged that people in the procession first attacked passersby.
Schools, colleges shut in Gurugram, Faridabad, Palwal districts
Prohibitory orders banning the assembly of people were clamped in Nuh and Gurugram districts. Mobile internet services were suspended in Nuh and Faridabad up to Wednesday. Educational institutes were ordered closed on Tuesday in Gurugram, Faridabad and Palwal districts as a precautionary measure.
Meanwhile, about 2,500 men, women and children at a Shiva temple in Nuh were evacuated by police, Haryana home minister Anil Vij said. These apparently included devotees and those who had taken shelter there as the two sides clashed.
(With inputs from Leena Dhankhar and Debashish Karmakar)