The Eid celebration in riot-hit Saharanpur was a sordid affair as a majority of people from the Muslim community preferred staying indoors even as curfew was relaxed for four hours in the morning.
Though there was no fresh clash on Tuesday; the administration has made it clear that the curfew would not be lifted for the next three-four days. The officials said that they are in mood to monitor the situation by giving relaxation in few hours for few days and if there would be no incident, curfew will be finally relaxed.
Ignoring the appeal of Muslim communities for relaxing curfew for the entire day on Tuesday, the administration lifted it partially in Muslim dominated areas between 7 am to 11 am.
The curfew was relaxed in old city area in the first segment except Ambala road from where Muslims approach for Idgah to offer pray. People, however, reached to pray from different route.
The curfew was relaxed in new city area, where Hindu resides in majority, between 3 pm and 7 pm. A lower turnout was witnessed in both areas as scared people choose to remain in house. No shop, institution was opened during these periods so far.
The Muslims, who had reached at Idgah early morning, claimed that less than five per cent people have reached the place while majority proffered to celebrate the function in their house.
People are also not enthusiastic as they have not purchased any thing before the eid. “As Saharanpur is a Muslim dominated area, massive celebration witnesses here every year. Generally over 70,000 people reach Idgah but this time it has reduced below 2,500 figure.
People are not in mood as riots have spoiled every thing,” said Shah Alam, a resident of Dolikhal area where massive loot, arson and vandalism had taken place on Saturday.
The fear among people was also judged from the fact that people disagree to open the opposite gate if Idgah, which falls in Hindu belt, when senior officials of UP Police reached the place to greet the people.
Although the district administration praised them selves for averting incident since couple of days, they admitted that situation is still uncontrolled. The officials revealed that they are not in mood to relax curfew permanently without assuring certain things.
“We are monitoring the situation after certain intervals but are not able to decide when we will relax curfew completely due to certain reasons. Once things will be normal, we will announce our move. Presently, we have been keeping close vigil on every suspicious movement without changing our plan,” said Sandhya Tiwari, District Magistrate (DM) of Saharanpur.
Rajesh Kumar Pandey, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) of Saharanpur, informed that the 22 named FIRs have been registered and more 78 people have been arrested under various sections. He claimed that more FIRs will be registered and arresting will be made once police will start massive drive by identifying the hooligans.
“We are taking all possible measures to normalize the situation with the help of SSB, ITBP, RRF, RAF, CRPF, Pac and state police force. The hoodlums will be penalized as we are identifying them with the help CCTV footages and by talking victims also,” said the SSP.