NCM recommends judicial probe into Aligarh riots

A one-man NCM probe into the violence had also found that all the injured 20 people, all Muslims, had suffered above-waist gunshot wounds from police firing.

The National Commission for Minorities (NCM) has recommended a judicial probe into the April 6 Aligarh violence after an enquiry by one of its members "found" that the local administration did not take preventive steps despite clear signs of religious tension a day before the Ramnavami rioting.

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The one-man NCM probe into the violence had also found that all the injured 20 people, all Muslims, had suffered above-waist gunshot wounds from police firing, reliable sources in the commission said.

The report, sent to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh along with a recommendation for a judicial probe by a sitting High Court judge into the rioting, also named a local Sangh Parivar leader, who, it alleged, had provoked an angry reaction by leading a slogan-shouting procession to a disputed water tank, the sources said.

The state administration took no preventive steps when signs of tension erupted a day before Ramnavami in Aligarh and remained passive during the tense procession on the festival day, sources said quoting the report.

Police ordered firing when tension exploded into full-fledged violence, according to the 20-page NCM report.

Of the seven people dead, five were killed in police firing, the report said.