Police have filed a case against more than 80 known and hundreds of unidentified persons for rioting and arson after a clash broke out between people of two communities outside a gurudwara in Uttar Pradesh’s Shahjahanpur district on Saturday, PTI reported. Police have also deployed forces in the area.
A row broke out on Saturday afternoon after the watchman of the gurudwara in Banda area of the district objected to a 14-year-old girl putting up a cart to sell rakhis outside the shrine, Additional Superintendent of Police (rural) Subhash Chandra Shakya said. The man also allegedly hit the girl with a stick on her leg.
Heated arguments between groups of people from the Hindu and Sikh communities followed. They indulged in stone-pelting and fired gunshots in the air, and over a dozen people – including two police officers – were injured, The Times of India reported. One police vehicle and two other vehicles were damaged in the stone-pelting.
“Three FIRs have been registered against more than 80 people from both sides and hundreds of others under various sections of the Indian Penal Code for rioting and damaging public property,” Superintendent of Police, Shahjahanpur, S Chinappa told PTI. “A heavy police deployment has been made in the area.”
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