Pages that triggered the controversy yet to be seized

Even as the administration and police officials on Saturday were engaged in restoring normalcy after violence in Ghaziabad, the desecrated pages of a religious book which triggered the incident were yet to be traced.

Even as the administration and police officials on Saturday were engaged in restoring normalcy after violence in Ghaziabad, the desecrated pages of a religious book which triggered the incident were yet to be traced.

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Though witnesses claimed that the local residents had the pages with abuses and mobile phone numbers written on them, senior police and district officials declined that they have seized the pages — which are of prime importance to investigation.

Gateman Gopinath, posted at railway-crossing near Adhyatmik Nagar railway halt at Ghaziabad, was the first person who was informed by local residents that some pages had been found.

Later at 6.30 pm some people, led by complainant Abdul Qadir from Rafiqabad locality, arrived at Masuri police station and demanded an immediate identification of mobile number allegedly written over the pages. "They had the pages and area elders tried hard to pacify them. But they remained adamant on immediate identification," said Dasna Nagar Palika Chairman, Sajjad Hussain.

Hussain was among the 25 people, including administrative and police officials, who were trapped inside Masuri police station and saw the alleged pages.
"We tried to take the pages, but people did not allow us to touch them. I could not understand the language written over them. We maintained restraint and waited for reinforcements to arrive, but suddenly some miscreants opened fire over us," said Masuri station officer PK Singh, who was also trapped inside the police station after violence started.