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| A Durga idol floats after immersion on Vijaya Dashami in Dhubri on Wednesday. Picture by UB Photos |
Dhubri, Oct. 25: As many as 83 Durga idols in this town were immersed today, a day after Dashami, as community Puja organisers neither took out processions with idols nor immersed the deities yesterday in protest against an incident of stabbing of an electrician on Tuesday night on IG Road.
The Puja organisers demanded the arrest of the culprits. They had declined to immerse idols despite repeated announcement of the district administration through loudspeakers yesterday.
Police resorted to a lathicharge, burst tear gas shells and opened fire in the air when protesters staged a blockade to stop a truck carrying Durga idols of Dhubri Police Reserve on Guru Teg Bahadur Road near Netaj More around 2pm yesterday.
In view of deteriorating law and order in the town, the Dhubri administration clamped a curfew from 5pm to 5am.
The police also had to resort to a lathicharge, burst tear gas shells and opened fire in the air again at number 3 Balurchar when protesters, alleging police inaction, hurled stones at a police convoy last evening around 7.30.
Kamal Ghose, an electrician, sustained multiple injuries in the attack and was soon admitted to Dhubri civil hospital. Ghose alleged that he and his companion were attacked by four persons with sharp weapons when they were returning home on the night of Navami.
A police source in Dhubri claimed to have arrested Habibur Rahman and Saddam and said they were looking for the other attackers.
The president of Dhubri Durga Puja Coordination Committee, Bipul Sarkar, said they had to defer the immersion of idols as most of the Puja organisers were demanding the arrest of the culprits first.
“Moreover, officials of district administration also responded very late. So, it was not possible to take out immersion procession yesterday,” Sarkar added.
Additional superintendent of police, Dhubri, Prasanta Dutta, said processions and immersions of idols passed off peacefully today.
“No untoward incident was reported from any part of Dhubri town today. I hope the situation will now improve and become normal soon,” Dutta said.
Dhubri district magistrate re-imposed curfew in Dhubri town with immediate effect from 9pm for an indefinite period today following the number of incidents of clashes on IG Road. Commercial establishments of Gauripur town remained closed in protest as boatmen refused to turn up yesterday to ferry idols during immersion.
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