No fresh violence was reported in Jamshedpur on Sunday after the lynching of seven people on Thursday, though anger and anxiety were palpable in certain areas of the town.
“Prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure were imposed from 10 p.m. on Saturday to 6 a.m. on Sunday. The situation is under control, and there is adequate deployment of security forces,” Amit Kumar, District Collector, East Singhbhum, told The Hindu . Eighteen people have been arrested in connection with the lynching and the violence, the Collector said.
Tension broke out in the Jugsalai area when the last rites of Vikash Verma and Gautam Verma were performed. The brothers were lynched at Nagadih allegedly over rumours of child-lifting.
Meetings were organised by community leaders to ease tensions. Iswar Soren, a tribal leader, held a meeting at Karandi on the outskirts of the city.
Twin episodes
Four were lynched at Raj Nagar in Saraikela-Kharwawan district and three at Nagadih in the Bagbera police station limits. Those killed at Raj Nagar were Muslims, said to be cattle traders, while those in Nagadi were Hindus.
“Fourteen persons have been arrested from Mango in Jamshedpur town.
While 10 of them were involved in stone-throwing on Saturday, four were behind orchestrating the violence on Saturday,” Mr. Kumar said.
Violence broke out in Mango when members of the Muslim community called for a bandh protesting against the Raj Nagar incident. Certain shops were open in the area, leading to large-scale violence.
The police and the administration have appealed to the people not to believe rumours. The State government announced a compensation of ₹2 lakh to the kin of each of the victims.
Rumours of child-lifting gangs operating in certain parts of the State, including Jadugoda in East Singhbhum district, surfaced on WhatsApp on May 10.
Senior officials told The Hindu there seemed to be a chain from where the WhatsApp messages originated. The police were trying to ascertain if the rumours were systematically floated as part of a conspiracy to destabilise law and order or were just acts of mischief. The local people said parents in certain areas stopped sending their children to school following the rumours.
“While Facebook and other social media sites can be monitored it is difficult to keep a check on WhatsApp forwards,” a senior police official said.
