Headlines
Communal clash in Lucknow, security beefed up
Lucknow, May 29
A communal clash broke in the
state capital on Friday night after a minor spat between two communities
over use of a loudspeaker during Friday prayers snowballed into pitched
battles and incidents of vandalism, officials said.
The violence
took place at an area under the Bazarkhala police station in old city.
Both sides pelted stones at each other, and fired blanks in the air.
Deputy
Inspector General of Police, Lucknow Range, R.K. Chaturvedi told IANS
that in the afternoon, a Hindu community meal had been organized at
Master Kanhaiyya Lal road and a loudspeaker was being used here at the
same time, when Friday prayers were beginning. There was a verbal spat
at that time but the situation was defused after intervention of
community elders, the police official informed.
However the
simmering anger spilled out in the open late night and both sides fought
pitched battles and pelted stones at each other as well as vandalising
public property. After the handful of police men on picket duty were
outnumbered, police reinforcements were rushed to the scene. Provincial
Armed Constabulary (PAC) has also been deployed.
District
officials conceded that the situation was tense and that intermittent
sloganeering was being heard from the lanes in the area but said the
situation was "largely in control".