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regular-article-logo Thursday, 09 May 2024

Haryana: VHP-led groups to take out ‘Shobha Yatra’, defy police orders

Haryana’s additional director-general of police (law and order) Mamta Singh said arrangements had been made to prevent any untoward incident

Imran Ahmed Siddiqui New Delhi Published 28.08.23, 05:26 AM
Local VHP leaders on Sunday announced that the yatra would start from the Nalhar Mahadev Mandir at 11am on Monday and head to several temples in the area before concluding at 4pm.

Local VHP leaders on Sunday announced that the yatra would start from the Nalhar Mahadev Mandir at 11am on Monday and head to several temples in the area before concluding at 4pm. File Photo

Hindutva groups led by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) on Sunday said that a religious procession would be taken out on Monday in Haryana’s Nuh district that witnessed large-scale communal violence last month in which six people were killed.

Haryana police have denied permission for the procession.

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In the wake of the call for the “Shobha Yatra”, the Haryana government had already ordered the suspension of mobile Internet for three days from August 26 to August 28, fearing the spread of rumours through social media ahead of or during the rally.

Local VHP leaders on Sunday announced that the yatra would start from the Nalhar Mahadev Mandir at 11am on Monday and head to several temples in the area before concluding at 4pm.

Haryana’s additional director-general of police (law and order) Mamta Singh said arrangements had been made to prevent any untoward incident.

Sources said 1,900 Haryana police personnel, besides 24 companies of paramilitary forces, had been deployed. “No outsider will be allowed to enter Nuh. All entry points to the district have been sealed. The road leading to the Nalhar temple has also been closed,” said a police officer.

As a precautionary measure, the district administration has ordered the closure of educational institutions and banks on the day, suspended mobile Internet and bulk SMS services and imposed prohibitory orders in the communally sensitive district. It has also imposed Section 144 of the CrPC, prohibiting the assembly of four or more people in an area, till Monday.

On July 31, six people, including a cleric and two home guards, were killed in the violence that broke out after activists of the Bajrang Dal and the VHP had taken out a procession in the Muslim-majority Nuh town, shouting abusive slogans.

The procession was later stopped by a group of young men and soon after, stone pelting started from both sides.

Several homes and shops of Muslim migrants were set on fire and vandalised by a mob, and they were threatened with violence unless they moved out of the area.

A former Intelligence Bureau director had slammed the local administration and the police for allowing a procession by the Bajrang Dal and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad in sensitive areas of Mewat in BJP-run Haryana.

A fact-finding committee formed by the NGO Janhastakshep had accused Hindutva groups such as the Bajrang Dal and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad of engineering the communal violence in Nuh during the religious procession.

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