Amid a massive riot-like situation in Nuh, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Tuesday said that he suspected a “conspiracy” behind the communal clashes. Five people have been killed, including an Imam or a mosque and a home guard, in the violence that broke out after a mob tried to stop a Vishwa Hindu Parishad procession in the district adjoining Gurugram.
Calling the violence in Nuh “unfortunate”, CM Khattar told news agency ANI, “A Yatra was being organised during which some people conspired an attack on Yatris and the police. Violent incidents were reported at several places. There seems to be a big conspiracy behind this.”
Earlier today, Haryana home minister Anil Vij announced that a curfew has been clamped in Nuh district where the situation continues to be tense. Security has been tightened and some companies of central forces were deployed in Nuh. An alert has been sounded in other districts and the Indian Air Force is on standby, he added.
Vij also said that the situation did not appear to have happened all of a sudden. “The level of violence that took place and also occurred at different points, the way stones were collected, the way weapons were brandished, the way shots were fired, it does not appear to have happened all of a sudden,” the minister said.
The clashes that started in Haryana’s Nuh have spilled over to the neighbouring districts, including Gurugram where a 26-year-old Imam was killed and the mosque was set ablaze in Sector 57. In the city’s Badhshahpur area, a mob burned down a restaurant and a shop. In neighbouring Sohna, several vehicles were torched and shops were vandalised, according to officials.
Khattar has asserted that the "strictest action" will be taken against those responsible for spreading violence. “I appeal to all the people to maintain peace in the state. The guilty will not be spared at any cost, and the strictest action will be taken against them," read his tweet in Hindi.
Mobile internet services have been suspended in Nuh and Faridabad up to Wednesday, while educational institutes have been ordered shut today in Gurugram, Faridabad and Palwal districts as a precautionary measure.
