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VHP Nuh yatra: Drones, paramilitary forces deployed, entry, exit points sealed
Vishwa Hindu Parishad vowed to go ahead with the yatra to Malhar Temple despite Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar’s appeal against doing so
Surveillance drones, over 2,000 Haryana Police, and around 3,000 central paramilitary forces were deployed even as entry and exit points to Nuh were sealed ahead of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP)’s Braj Mandal Jalabhishek Yatra a month after its first iteration triggered communal clashes and left six people dead.
VHP vowed to go ahead with the yatra to Malhar Temple despite Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar’s appeal against doing so. The local administration has denied permission for the procession.
The main road leading to the temple was among those sealed. The Nuh administration earlier suspended internet services and bulk SMSs as a precautionary measure besides imposing prohibitory orders. Schools, colleges, and banks have also been closed.
Former Gurugram Bar Association president Kulbhushan Bhardwaj, who is also part of the VHP, claimed he along with other prominent leaders of the organisation were prevented from leaving their homes and taking part in the procession. “There is police outside my house right now. They are not allowing me to go to the temple,” he said.
The Haryana Police denied any preventive house arrests have been made.
On Sunday, Khattar cited the violence last month and said it is the responsibility of the government to maintain law and order. “That is why the permission to carry out this yatra was not given.”
On Saturday, Nuh deputy commissioner Dhirendra Khadgata and police superintendent Narendra Bijarniya held a meeting with peace committees ahead of the yatra. The Haryana Police have been coordinating with officers from the bordering states of Punjab, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Chandigarh.
On Sunday, hundreds of police personnel manned entry and exit points to the National Capital Region as the region braced for the re-run of the yatra. On July 31, the yatra triggered clashes between Hindu and Muslim groups, killing six people and injuring another 88 in violence that spanned two days in the fringes of the Capital.
Police in Gurugram briefly detained two VHP leaders for questioning on Sunday, even as officials said that all district borders were sealed, and sensitive areas, including religious places, turned into virtual fortresses.
Police said they will not allow anyone to enter Nuh if they are not residents. Police teams were checking IDs and turning away those carrying IDs from Gurugram, Faridabad, and Palwal on Sunday.
Officials said no gathering of five or more people with any kind of weapons including lathis will be allowed.
Bhardwaj on Sunday said that they have enough devotees gathering in Nuh to take out the procession. He vowed to take out the procession no matter what.
Cow vigilante Raj Kumar or Bittu Bajrangi and his associates were among 292 people arrested for the violence last month for brandishing illegal weapons and rioting. One of the prime accused, cow vigilante Mohit Yadav or Monu Manesar, remains at large. Bajrangi and Manesar are also accused of releasing provocative videos a day before the July 31 procession inflamed communal tensions.
Village chiefs across Nuh, where Muslims account for nearly 80% of the population, asked local residents to stay indoors all day.
Posters threatening Muslim migrant workers to leave and warning that their hutments would be set on fire triggered panic in Gurugram on Sunday. Police have promised action.
