State stays calm on Ayodhya judgement day

The tensions of the Ayodhya verdict were palpable on Maharashtra’s streets with far less activity than usual. But, the state remained calm on Thursday with no reports of any major untoward incident.

The tensions of the Ayodhya verdict were palpable on Maharashtra’s streets with far less activity than usual. But, the state remained calm on Thursday with no reports of any major untoward incident.

HT Image

In Pune, the streets wore a deserted look once the verdict on Ayodhya became public.

Many information technology companies from the Hinjewadi and other areas preferred to work only in the first half of the day. Manufacturing units from Pimpri-Chinchwad areas also shut their establishments post-noon.

Police commissioner Meeran Borwankar told media persons that the police had detained 900 people as a precautionary measure.

The Mumbai-Pune expressway witnessed almost half the vehicular movement during the day, according to officials.

Nagpur, which houses the RSS headquarters, was relatively peaceful, barring a stray incident when a group of miscreants set a few tyres on fire near Raj Nagar in central Nagpur in protest against the judgement. Nobody was arrested. The streets of most towns in north Maharashtra including Nashik, Jalgaon, Dhule and Nandurbar were peaceful.

In communally sensitive Malegaon, the city was peaceful and schools functioned throughout the day unlike other cities where children were given a half-day or the day off.

The outskirts of Mumbai were also relatively peaceful Communally sensitive Rabodi which had witnessed two riots in 2008 was calm amidst heavy police presence. In Bhiwandi, which had witnessed riots in 1984, shops were closed and roads were deserted in the otherwise bustling town.

There were nearly 2.5 lakh security personnel deployed to maintain law and order in the state. “No untoward incident was reported. Security arrangements will continue for a few days,” said K P Raghuvanshi, additional DGP (law and order).