Mobile internet services were suspended for 24 hours in Rajasthan’s Bhilwara district on Thursday a day after masked men attacked two residents, police officials told PTI.
On Wednesday night, two people were having a meal when the unidentified masked men beat them up in the Karbala road area of Sanganer. The accused men then set a bike on fire, the police told PTI.
Ajmer Divisional Commissioner Hanuman Sahay Meena ordered suspending mobile internet services from 4 am on Thursday till 4 am on Friday to maintain law and order, PTI reported. The decision came based on a report submitted by the Bhilwara District Collector Ashish Modi.
“We are also checking the nearby CCTV footage,” Modi told ANI. “One person has received very minor injuries while the other suffered minor head injuries and is in a stable condition.”
The accused men had allegedly arrived on three to four bikes, Bhilwara Superintendent of Police Adarsh Sidhu told PTI.
However, the situation is “completely under control”, the district collector said. He appealed to residents to not pay heed to any rumours and maintain peace and harmony, PTI reported.
Additional forces have been deployed in the area to maintain peace. The incident happened just two days after clashes broke out in Jodhpur on Monday night and the morning of Eid a day later.
On Monday night, at least five police officials were injured as members of the Hindu and Muslim communities threw stones at each other over the hoisting of a religious flag in the Jalori Gate area in Jodhpur. A mob also took down loudspeakers that had been installed in the area for Eid prayers.
Tensions erupted once again after Eid prayers on Tuesday after some men hurled stones near the Jalori Gate, the same site where the clashes took place on Monday. Some vehicles were damaged on Tuesday morning.
Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Thursday condemned the rising incidents of communal clashes in the state, saying that “politics is going on in the name of case and religion,” the News18 reported. He blamed the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Bharatiya Janata Party for instigating riots in Kaurali and Jodhpur.
On April 2, communal clashes had broken out in a Muslim-dominated area of Rajasthan’s Karauli city after a motorcycle rally passed through it, allegedly playing communally-charged songs, to celebrate the Hindu New Year.
In response, Muslims had allegedly thrown stones at the rally. The police had said that some people vandalised shops and vehicles in response to the stone-throwing. Thirty-five persons were injured in the violence.
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