Days after clashes, houses on encroached land demolished in Nuh; most offer Friday prayers at home

Authorities bulldozed about 250 shanties on encroached government land in Tauru town and other areas in neighbouring Nuh district, with Home Minister Anil Vij indicating on Friday the demolitions were part of action against those involved in the recent communal clashes.

Police said there was no violence in Gurugram, which witnessed stray incidents of clashes earlier this week after riots in Nuh, while Friday namaz was not held at the city's Jama Masjid and the smaller mosques saw thin attendance.

"The Jamiat-e-Ulema and other Muslim organisations had called upon people to offer namaz at home," Assistant Commissioner of Police, Crime, Varun Dahiya said.

The government, meanwhile, transferred Nuh Deputy Commissioner Prashant Panwar and Superintendent of Police Varun Singla.

Also Read: Nuh: Markings of a made-to-order riot

ADGP (Law and Order) Mamta Singh and IPS officer Hemendra Meena organised a meeting of the Peace Committee at Punhana police station Friday evening. Prominent people of the area including Punhana MLA Ilyas Khan and former MLA Rahish Khan participated in the meeting which was attended by about 80-100 people.

Police said three motorcycles parked outside Rashid Auto Works near Chungi no. 4 were set on fire on Thursday night in Pataudi area of the city.

Six people, including two home guards and a cleric, died in the clashes that erupted in Muslim-dominated Nuh when a Vishva Hindu Parishad procession was attacked by mobs on Monday.

Home Minister Vij said on Friday 202 people have been arrested so far and 80 taken into preventive detention in connection with the communal clashes in Nuh.

He also said the way bullets were fired from hillocks and stones collected on rooftops of buildings indicates that Nuh violence was pre-planned. In all, police have so far filed 102 FIRs in the matter.

"I want to assure you that anyone involved in the violence won't be spared," Vij told reporters in Ambala, adding, the detainees are being questioned. "It is a big gameplan… every person had a lathi in his hand. Were these being distributed for free? Someone must have arranged these. Bullets were being fired. From where did weapons come …? We will go to the depth of the matter," he said.

The minister had earlier on Tuesday too said the violence was engineered and had a mastermind behind it.

Nuh SP Narendra Singh Bijarnia said the investigation so far has suggested involvement of disparate elements, which are being identified and arrested.

The structures razed during the government action include shanties in Tauru town demolished on Thursday evening and seven houses on Friday which were along the route on which the VHP procession was attacked earlier this week.

Outgoing Nuh Deputy Commissioner Prashant Panwar denied the demolition was linked to the recent violence, but Vij later hinted otherwise.

"Ilaj mein bulldozer bhi ek karavayi hai (bulldozer is part of the treatment)," the minister said at a press conference in Chandigarh.

Nuh officials said most of the houses demolished on Friday were on the way to the Nalhar Shiv temple where the violence occurred during the procession.

Deputy Commissioner Panwar said the demolition action against the illegal structures was taken on orders of Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar.

The official said five acres of forest department land behind the Nalhar Shiv temple was freed of encroachments, besides six acres of forest land in Punhana, one acre in Dhobi Ghat and two acres of land in Nangal Mubarikpur.

Temporary sheds and houses illegally built on the encroached land were razed, he added.

The action on Thursday evening was against jhuggis belonging to illegal Bangladeshi immigrants in Tauru town allegedly encroaching upon Haryana Shahari Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP) land.

According to the police, 141 people have been arrested and over 55 cases registered in Nuh in connection with the violence.

Hindu organisations, meanwhile, took out a protest march against the Nuh violence in Gurugram's Pataudi area on Friday and called for a bandh. Markets of Pataudi, Jatauli and Bhora Kalan remained closed as a result of this.

The organisations submitted a memorandum through the Pataudi sub-divisional magistrate to the President, the governor of Haryana and the chief minister, demanding strict action against those behind the Nuh violence.

"Those who have tried to spoil mutual harmony and brotherhood in Nuh should be punished severely. This heinous act is condemnable," said Ajit Yadav, district president of the VHP.