Internet Shut, 4-Day Curfew in Maharashtra's Amravati Amid Fresh Violence

The internet services in the area have also been cut to avoid the spreading of rumours, the home minister said.

Amravati: Policemen try to douse a fire in a shop, after a mob went on a rampage during a bandh allegedly organised by BJP, in Amravati, Saturday.

(Photo: PTI)

The Maharashtra government on Saturday, 13 November, clamped prohibitory orders in Amravati town, which was rocked by violence during a Bharatiya Janata Party-sponsored bandh, officials said.

The orders were issued by in-charge Police Commissioner Sandip Patil under CrPC Section 144 (1), (2), (3), to ward off any untoward incident.

The BJP had called the bandh to protest against the violence that broke out in Nashik, Amravati, and Nanded on Friday, 12 November, during the state-wide demonstrations and rallies by Raza Academy and other Muslim organisations.

Speaking to reporters on Sunday, 14 November, Maharashtra Home Minister Dilip Walse Patil said, "We'll investigate the rallies that were taken out in Maharashtra over the incidents that may or may not have taken place in Tripura, we will also assess the damages."

"The curfew has been imposed for four days, it has also been ordered to shut the internet services so that rumours are not spread," Walse Patil said, according to news agency ANI.

Amravati: Policemen use tear gas to disperse protesters after Amravati Bandh turns violent, in Amravati, Saturday, 13 November 2021.

(Photo: PTI)

Saturday morning, 13 November, saw massive crowds surging onto the roads waving flags, carrying banners, and shouting slogans amid tight police security deployed in the town.

Shortly afterwards some sections took to pelting stones at private or public vehicles, shops and establishments and the police caned the miscreants to curb the violence.

The Muslim groups' action on Friday, 13 November, was to register their protest at the recent bout of communal violence in Tripura state, which had repercussions here, and virtually caught the Maha Vikas Aghadi government unaware.

After the violence reported from Nanded, Amravati and Malegaon (Nashik) on Friday evening, Walse-Patil made a late-night video appeal for restraint from all groups.

"Please maintain calm... I appeal to all Hindus and Muslim brethren to maintain peace," Walse-Patil urged, and discussed the matter along with other MVA leaders.

Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut, Ministers Abdul Sattar, Ashok Chavan and Yasomati Thak (Congress), Nawab Malik (NCP), AIMIM MP Syed Imtiaz Jaleel, farmers' leader Kishore Tiwari from Vidarbha accorded MoS status, and others slammed the BJP accusing it of fomenting the violence in Saturday's bandh.

Maharashtra BJP president Chandrakant Patil and Samajwadi Party's Maharashtra unit president Abu Asim Azmi and other leaders urged the state government to ensure law and order is maintained in Amravati and condemned the violence that erupted on Friday in three towns, though the protests were peaceful in the rest of the state.

(With inputs from IANS.)