Haryana Deputy Chief Dushyant Chautala on Tuesday said that the administration failed to assess the situation in Nuh where communal violence broke out last week, India Today reported.
Communal clashes erupted between Hindus and Muslims during the Brij Mandal Jalabhishek Yatra, a procession organised by the Bajrang Dal and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, on July 31, and quickly spread beyond Nuh, killing five persons.
Hindu mobs went on a rampage in Gurugram, torching a mosque in Sector 57, killing its deputy imam and setting fire to shops and shanties of Muslim migrant workers in Sector 70 the next day.
“Nuh superintendent of police was on leave since July 22,” Chautala said, reported The Indian Express. “The one who had additional charge could not assess it [the situation] properly and the officials from whom permission [for the procession] was taken, too could not assess it properly.”
The deputy chief minister reiterated that the organisers failed to give a proper estimate of the number attending the procession. He said that permission for a procession of around 3,200 people was granted and accordingly the police force was deployed.
“Had the organisers given higher numbers, more force could have been deputed,” Chautala said. “It is the organisers’ responsibility also to be accurate about their numbers.”
The deputy chief minister also denied allegations that a “one-sided” action has been taken against those behind the violence in Haryana, according to The Indian Express.
“Action is being taken irrespective of the accused’s caste or religion or community,” Chautala said. “People from only a particular community are not the ones who are targeted.”
Civic authorities in the Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled state had been demolishing allegedly illegal homes and shops, most of them belonging to Muslim migrant workers. The owners of several buildings that were demolished said that they did not receive any notices from civic authorities.
On Monday, Punjab and Haryana High Court had stayed the demolition drive and asked if the action in the violence-hit districts was “an exercise of ethnic cleansing”.
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