Chandigarh: A day after communal clashes broke out in Haryana’s Nuh district at a religious procession — the Braj Mandal Yatra — organised by Hindutva outfits Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Matru Shakti Durga Vahini, an uneasy calm prevailed in the area Tuesday. The violence over Monday and Tuesday in the Muslim-majority district reportedly claimed six lives, left over 60 injured and damaged property worth crores.
Now, with paramilitary forces deployed in the area and additional police presence, some semblance of normalcy seems to have returned. However, the burnt cars, looted shops, and stones and burnt tyres scattered on the roads give an idea of the magnitude of the incident that has left the two communities divided.
Amid all this, the question the police are trying to find answers to is how the people who attacked the procession — which was on its way to Ferozepur Jhirka via Nuh — organise it at such a large scale. Where and when did they meet to plan their strategy and its execution?
Speaking to ThePrint Tuesday, Bhiwani Superintendent of Police (SP) Narendra Bijarniya said the police have rounded up over 100 people on suspicion and formally arrested nine to 10 people. Bijarniya was asked to take command in Nuh since the district’s SP Varun Singla is on a leave of absence. ANI Wednesday posted a video of Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Twitter stating that 116 people had been arrested so far.
“Once the identification process of the culprits is complete, the next course of action for us will be to find answers to all these questions by interrogating them as well as studying their call records,” said Bijarniya.
In Nuh town, members from both communities stand around in small groups near shuttered shops, but claim to know nothing about the events of Monday.
“We don’t know anything,” said a Muslim youth at a bus stand where several vehicles were torched Monday. “We were sleeping at home. When we woke up and looked outside, we noticed that all this had happened.”
According to a Congress worker ThePrint met when it visited the residence of Aftab Ahmed, MLA from Nuh Assembly, “Muslims don’t want to come on record because the police are in the process of rounding up people.”
A woman lawyer who spoke to ThePrint on condition of anonymity, said there was an atmosphere of tension in Nuh even before the yatra passed through here.
The lawyer had come to visit the Nalhar Mahadev Mandir but was denied entry by the paramilitary force jawans stationed at its entrance. This was the temple that had become a refuge for over 3,000 devotees Monday who came for the yatra from across the state.
Stuck inside for hours, reportedly surrounded by rioters, they were rescued by the Additional Director General of Police (ADGP), Recruit Training Centre, Bhondsi, late in the evening.
The lawyer said, “While riding my scooty to the district court, I noticed suspicious-looking youths standing in groups of five to 10 along the road through which the yatra was to pass.”
“While in court, I got to know that the yatra had been attacked near Tiranga Chowk where it was coming from the Mahadev temple. I rushed home quickly, but when I reached the Nalhar T-point, a youth with an iron rod in his hand charged at me. I somehow escaped and sped toward my home. If even I could feel that things were not normal Monday morning, how did the police not pick up on it and take precautionary measures?” she added.
According to her, those who pelted stones and torched vehicles were not from Nuh alone, there were many outsiders, particularly from the neighbouring Alwar and Bharatpur districts of Rajasthan.
Nuh Congress MLA Aftab Ahmed, however, said that he and his team had warned the police ahead of the yatra about possible conflict.
“I feel that before this yatra, an atmosphere (of tension) was built by posting videos on social media,” he told ThePrint. “Challenges were thrown by each side. Provocative statements were made. We understood the underlying danger and approached the district authorities and drew their attention to all this. We told them that we don’t want our area to face any untoward incidents. But unfortunately, the district administration and the police did not take steps that were required to stop those making provocatory statements.”
The Congress MLA said that those who attacked the yatra, torched vehicles, and looted shops must be dealt with sternly under the law of the land. He added that the police and the district administration cannot be absolved of their “negligence and ineffectiveness”.
Ahmed said that he has been working with the district authorities by bringing people from both communities together now to ensure that normalcy returns soon.
Also read: Two Haryana home guards killed as communal clashes erupt during religious procession at Nuh
What happened on Monday
Nuh, the district headquarter of Haryana’s district by the same name, is part of the larger Mewat region that includes parts of the Palwal district of Haryana, and neighbouring Rajasthan’s Bharatpur and Alwar districts.
The Mewat region is inhabited by Meo Muslims, or Mewati Muslim, who self-identify as a distinct socio-cultural ethnic community and are a dominant community in the region.
Monu Manesar, a face of the Gau Rakshaks across Haryana, and Bittu Bajrangi, another purported cow vigilante, had allegedly posted videos addressing the Meo Muslims in the area, almost warning them about their presence at the Braj Mandal Yatra, alleged Aftab Ahmed as well as several members of the Muslim community ThePrint met.
In February, Monu was named by the Bharatpur police in an FIR after the charred bodies of two men named Junaid and Nasir — both from the Meo Muslim community — were found in Bhiwani, Haryana.
The Braj Mandal Yatra started from the Nalhar Mahadev Temple at around noon and was to reach another Mahadev temple in Ferozepur Jhirka, also in Nuh district, after covering a distance of 40 km.
However, the yatra had hardly covered even 5 km when it was attacked by people, allegedly from the Muslim community, with stones, leading those participating in the yatra to retaliate similarly.
Soon after, the attackers reportedly began torching the vehicles of devotees. A number of vehicles were burnt in the process. These charred vehicles, which include police cars, trucks, buses and private cars, now sit in the new bus stand in Nuh.
Vikas Garg, whose café and confectionery shop was looted during Monday’s violence, told ThePrint: “I have incurred a loss of Rs 20-25 lakh. I had left Rs 7.5 lakh in cash in the shop which was brought for a property deal. They have taken away the money. Seven refrigerators and glass furniture have been smashed; all eatables have been taken away.”
Similarly, Imdad, a salesman working with Sunil Automobile, said that nearly 150 motorcycles were stolen from their godown by miscreants. “Some were found abandoned in the surrounding areas,” he told The Print.
Nuh Deputy Commissioner Prashant Panwar and SP Bijarniya Tuesday held a meeting with people from both communities and sought their cooperation in bringing normalcy to the district. The DC has also constituted a committee comprising 20 members each from both communities.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)
Also read: Shops burnt, imam killed, mosque torched — how Nuh clashes spawned targeted violence in Gurugram