Communal tension continued in Vadodara on Friday as two mobs of different communities not only pelted stones at each other but also set vehicles on fire in Fatepura cross road area.
Keeping the ongoing Navaratri festivals in mind, police were already deployed in the area and as result of it cops were able to control the situation. However, they were forced to burst four teargas shells to disperse mobs. Now, police have increased patrolling in all the communally-sensitive areas. The State Government quickly deployed six companies of the State Reserve Police and two of Rapid Action Force to ensure things didn’t go beyond the control.
The police has detained four people in connection with stone pelting and allegedly trying to set vehicles on fire. Police also shifted four school children to safer places as they were tapped in the communally sensitive areas amidst stone pelting. Shops and other business establishments were closed down as soon as group clash started. Even people shut their businesses in other communally sensitive areas — Nava Bajar, Mandvi Darvaja and Mangal Bajar — despite cops were deployed there.
Communal unrest erupted in the city on Thursday following an image posted on the social media with picture of a one faith super-imposed on the religious place of other community. Nearly 20 vehicles were set on fire in the city on the first day of Navaratri.
The Sate home department has become extra vigilant over the controversy after Vishwa Hindu Parishad Bajarang Dal leaders diktat to ban Muslim youth at the Garba venues across the State. They had stated that if the Gujarat Govt did not do so, volunteers would ensure this.