The Circle Officer (CO) of Sambhal, Anuj Chaudhary, has been cleared of any wrongdoing regarding his controversial remarks about Holi and Jumma (Friday) prayers. Chaudhary had previously stated that those uncomfortable with Holi celebrations should stay indoors, sparking criticism from some sections of the community. The police investigation was launched following a complaint by former IPS officer Amitabh Thakur.
Akash sustained a bullet injury while covering the communal clashes in Maujpur locality. NDTV said its journalist Arvind Gunasekar was hit by rioters while he was at one of the spots in northeast Delhi and lost a tooth. His fellow reporter, Saurabh, who tried to shield him, was punched.
Five accused wanted in connection with the July 31 communal violence were "handed over" to the police by residents of Singar village following repeated appeals by the police and administration, an official said on Monday.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar asserted that the NDA government, led by him, put an end to frequent Hindu-Muslim clashes in the state by taking measures such as fencing graveyards and bringing to justice those involved in communal riots. He also criticized the opposition, particularly Tejashwi Yadav, accusing them of lacking understanding and experience. Kumar's claims were met with anger and walkout by the opposition members.
With normalcy returning to riot-hit areas of the district, curfew was relaxed for seven hours on Thursday.
Haryana Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala on Tuesday indicated that there were shortcomings by the administration in assessing the situation in Nuh, where a communal violence erupted on July 31 during a religious procession.
The clash broke out on Saturday night in the sensitive Old City area of Akola over a religious post which went viral on a social media platform, a senior police official earlier said.
Markets are now open in the violence-affected areas and people are visiting them.
Hindu outfits that took out a march in Kullu demanding the demolition of the mosque were involved in a scuffle with the police on Monday.
A delegation from the National Commission for Women (NCW) visited a relief camp in Malda, West Bengal, and reported that women were being harassed and threatened by police. The NCW team, led by chairperson Vijaya Rahatkar, met with those displaced by riots in Murshidabad and alleged that the women were being coerced to return home without proper safety measures. The team is scheduled to travel to Murshidabad and Kolkata to continue their investigation.
According to the police, the trouble erupted in the Bhagwan Bazar locality of Chhapra, which is the headquarters of Saran district, when a procession for immersion of Goddess Durga's idols was being taken out.
Hindustani surrendered before the police in Una on Sunday morning following which she was arrested and produced before a court which remanded her in judicial custody, a police officer said.
The Hyderabad police have registered a case against a Hyderabad Member of Parliament for defying curfew orders, even as it arrested 165 people in connection with communal clashes that broke out in Old City area last week."A case has been registered against Hyderabad MP and MIM Chief Asaduddin Owaisi and seven others for staging a protest in front of the Charminar police station on Sunday by defying curfew orders," ACP (Coordination) Dwarka Thirumala Rao said.
A potato with what is believed to be a divine image has appeared at the Tulsi Manas Temple in Sambhal, Uttar Pradesh, drawing devotees from near and far. The image is seen as a sign of the impending arrival of Lord Kalki, who is believed to be taking his incarnation in Sambhal. The appearance of the image has added to the celebrations of Holi, which falls on March 14th.
'The situation in Nuh could have easily returned to normalcy if the trader class wished so, but they didn't.'
The contents of the FIR itself show that officials were "accompanying the said illegal procession" on its route instead of stopping it.
The deceased, Ibresh Khan, a sanitation worker, became the first fatality of the violence in Khargone.
An indefinite curfew was on Sunday clamped in some parts of the walled city in Hyderabad, following communal clashes over alleged desecration of a religious place.
At least 11 criminal cases, including arson, stone pelting, and violence, were registered against Khan during the April 10 communal riots, he said.
Noting that Muzaffarnagar riots have underlined inadequacies in existing laws to deal with such clashes, Minority Affairs Minister K Rahman Khan on Monday pitched for introduction of the Communal Violence Bill in Winter Session of Parliament.
Such an incident has never occurred in the history of the state, he said.
The Act prohibits conversion of any place of worship and provides for the maintenance of the religious character of any place of worship as it existed on August 15, 1947.
This is the first time after Nitish Kumar dumped the BJP in August 2022 that violence has broken out across the state, reports M I Khan.
Samajwadi Party leader and Kairana MP Iqra Choudhary has moved the Supreme Court seeking effective implementation of the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991. This move comes amidst several petitions challenging the law's validity, including those filed by the Akhil Bhartiya Sant Samiti and lawyer Ashwini Upadhyay. The Supreme Court, in December 2022, had restrained all courts from examining fresh suits and passing interim orders in pending cases seeking to reclaim religious places. The Act aims to maintain the religious character of places of worship as they existed on August 15, 1947, but the dispute relating to Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid at Ayodhya was kept out of its purview. The court has listed Choudhary's plea with other pending pleas for February 17.
Himmatnagar town witnessed communal clashes and arson during Ram Navami celebrations.
Nagpur Guardian Minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule said social media was used to vitiate the atmosphere, and appealed to the opposition not to politicise the matter.
A special investigation team will be formed to probe all cases of violence. If there was any conspiracy, it will also be investigated and the guilty will not be spared. The role of Bajrang Dal's Monu Manesar is also being investigated, Agrawal said.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar also indicated that it may not take up the pending scheduled petitions, heard earlier by a three-judge bench, during the day as it was sitting in a combination of two judges.
There are challenges galore before him, and it is not going to be easy. In the next four years, he has to conjure a system that changes the optics about him and the BJP both nationally and internationally so that he can ride back on his own, claim the top slot, and not have to lean on a coalition, asserts Ramesh Menon as Modi 3.0 completes a year in power.
A delegation of the National Commission for Women (NCW), led by its chairman Vijaya Rahatkar, met with riot-affected women in Murshidabad district of West Bengal, assuring them of safety and demanding an NIA probe into the recent communal clashes. The women narrated their harrowing experiences and demanded permanent BSF camps in select areas of the district. The NCW team also visited relief camps in Malda district and assessed the condition of women affected by the violence.
Temples across Uttar Pradesh were packed with devotees on Sunday for Ram Navami, with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath leading prayers at the Gorakhnath Temple. Heavy crowds were witnessed at temples in Lucknow, Gorakhpur, and Varanasi, where security was heightened. In Gorakhpur, Adityanath performed the traditional kanya pujan ritual, while in Varanasi, a 51-foot statue of Lord Ram has become a major attraction. The festival was celebrated with enthusiastic fervor across the state.
Violence erupted in central Nagpur at around 7.30 pm om Monday with stones hurled at police amid rumours that the holy book of a community was burnt during an agitation by a right-wing outfit for the removal of Aurangzeb's tomb, leaving six persons and three policemen injured, officials said.
Some unidentified people allegedly vandalised a shop in Haryana's Panipat which was located near the house of a man killed in the Nuh communal clashes, the police said on Friday.
As per police, some miscreants travelling in an autorickshaw threw stones at the Ganesh pandal, damaging the idol.
Defining hate speech is complex but the real problem in tackling them lies in the implementation and execution of law and judicial pronouncements, the Supreme Court said on Friday, days after parts of Haryana were rattled by communal violence.
Trouble erupted in Godapur village under the Town police station area, where an idol was found vandalised, following which the members of two communities indulged in heavy stone-pelting, District Magistrate Kaushal Kumar said.
Nuh Superintendent of Police Varun Singla, who was on leave when the communal clashes broke out in the district, has been transferred, an official order said on Friday.
More than 1,000 arms, including handguns, machine guns, grenades, mortars, and INSAS and AK-56 rifles, were surrendered by people in Manipur during a two-week amnesty period for voluntarily giving up looted and illegally held weapons. The surrender of arms comes as Manipur grapples with ethnic violence that has left hundreds dead and thousands displaced.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the chief secretary of Jammu and Kashmir to file a detailed affidavit on the communal clashes in Kishtwar district and subsequent steps taken by the state government to control the situation.
The Hindu-right group carried out its demonstration despite the imposition of CrPC Section 144 in the city.
