‘Police Station Empty': Driver Recalls Attack on Bus While Taking Yatris to Nuh
“We reached a police station, but it was empty. We called 112 but did not get any assistance,” said the bus driver.
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“I went for the Brajmandal Shobhayatra in Nuh with 40 devotees. When we found out what’s happening, we took a different route to save ourselves but then, men started pelting stones at us standing from both sides of the road,” said Mashesh Hansh, a bus driver who plied 40 passengers to the temple in Nuh that became the centre point of the communal violence marring Haryana for four days now.
Describing the journey to the temple and back, Hansh said that nobody came to their rescue for a long time. The bus was a part of the 'Brij Mandal Jalabhishek Yatra', a religious procession by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad which was flagged off from Gurugram’s Civil Lines.
The bus started from Haryana's Fatehabad at 5:00 am and reached Nuh at 11:00 am. Hans said that the passengers were stuck inside the temple for a long time till they decided to leave and he dropped everybody home.
“We spotted a police station on the way but there was nobody there. We immediately called 112 but did not get any assistance, so I dropped them home.” he added.
“Jitni bhi raaste mei gaadiya khadi thi, unn sabko toda gaya tha… (All the cars that were there were damaged)," Anil Mohania, a freelance journalist, and an eyewitness who was present when communal violence broke out, told The Quint.
Mohania recalled, “The violence in Nuh district lasted more than four hours. Around 30-40 police officials were standing near me. They were trying to save themselves from the mob…”
“We (the crowd) and the police did not know from where we were being attacked. The mob pelted stones at us from all directions. While some were hiding behind cars, a few people were hiding under a tree. It was very disturbing to see," added Mohania.
A day after communal clashes erupted in Haryana’s Nuh, the violence spread to Gurugram, Badshahpur and Palwal areas on Tuesday, 1 August, where mobs vandaised and set shops in the area ablaze.
The clashes have claimed the lives of six people including two home guards.
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