Soldiers on Tuesday started pulling out of Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh after being deployed there for the last one week following communal violence. “There is absolute calm and the district administration and police are in complete control of the situation. Hence the Army is being withdrawn,” Additional DGP Arun Kumar said. “The process will be completed on Tuesday,” he added.
Twenty-eight units of the Army were requisitioned to assist the district administration after communal clashes erupted in Muzaffarnagar city and the adjoining rural areas on September 7-9. More than 40 people were killed and scores injured in the violence, forcing the authorities to deploy the military for the first time in over two decades to quell communal clashes.
Police officer Kumar said it was time for the Army to withdraw. Sources said that while it was decided earlier to pull out the Army in phases, it was later felt that this would unnecessarily create an atmosphere of tension.