Communal tension broke out in Ramnagar of Nainital district after pictures hurting the religious sentiments of a particular community were uploaded on a social networking site. This was confirmed by Nainital SSP Vimmi Sachdeva while talking to The Pioneer on Saturday.
Pictures with objectionable content were uploaded by a youth on Facebook, triggered tension on Friday late night in Ramnagar as the members of one community gathered outside the Kotwali and hurled stones at the police, Sachdeva said.
light clashes between members of two separate communities were also reported in the Ramnagar-Shiv lalpur areas. However, there has been no report of any injuries so far in the clashes.
A 26-year-old youth, identified as one Rajeev Sharma, has been arrested for having allegedly uploaded the pictures on the social networking site on Saturday early morning. As the matter was related to one community and accused belong to another community so large number of police personnel were deployed as part of precautionary measure, the SSP added.
The situation is under control in the area with prohibitory orders in place. The Provincial Armed Constabulary was deployed to control the situation.
On Saturday they had gathered in large number and were demanding the person should be hand over to them. Although the allegedly accused belong to different community so we did not accepted their demand. Initially we try our best to convince the agitator but they were adamant on their demand. To avoid any untoward incident police had to resort mild lathicharge to disperse the crowd. Although the matter is under control but PAC were deployed to thwart any exigency.
Talking to The Pioneer a senior officer said that in view of upcoming General Election police were on high alert and even IG level officer was deployed to handle the situation.
"Our priority as of now is to restore order. We shall later start a search for those who engaged in stone pelting at the Kotwali and at some 'chaurahas'," DIG (Nainital range), Anand Ram Chauhan, meanwhile, said.