An uneasy calm prevailed in Meerut’s Old City on Monday after a communal riot in Guzri Bazaar area of the city last Saturday afternoon left one dead and several injured.
Residents remained huddled inside their houses as security personnel, deployed in huge numbers, kept a watch in the area. People of both Hindu and Muslim communities were unanimous in their opinion that the riots were instigated by some miscreants with the purpose to communally polarise voters in several parliamentary seats in Uttar Pradesh which went to polls on Monday.
Violence started after an argument between two groups over the installation of a “piyau” (a kiosk offering free drinking water) next to a well outside a mosque in Guzri Bazaar.
Those present at the spot claimed some Hindus objected to the minority community’s initiative to put up the water kiosk, alleging that it would later “encroach” the well which belongs to the adjacent Basanti Devi Girls School. This triggered a clash between two groups and soon tension spread to nearby areas of the Old City, where members of both the communities reportedly fired at each other, leaving many injured.
Even as security was beefed up in the city, the situation remained tense on the ground with rumours of eve-teasing and weapons distribution keeping people locked up in their houses.
Local Senior Superintendent of Police Om Prakash Singh said, “To restore peace and avert renewed clashes, patrolling has been intensified in the riot-hit areas and personnel from Provincial Armed Constabulary and Rapid Action force have been deployed.”
Members of the minority community on Monday alleged that local BJP leaders uploaded photographs of a youth who was critically injured in the clashes on social networking sites, aiming to spread communal tension in other parts of communally sensitive region of Western Uttar Pradesh, a claim which local BJP corporator Vijay Anand rejected.
Sitting few hundred meters away from the site of the clash, Suhail Zuberi, a Unani medical practitioner in his early 50s, said the “triviality” of the issue behind the clash makes it clear that riots are being triggered to make political gains.
“Clashes are sparked to hijack and consolidate votes and it is in this context that people here see this incident, which has once again highlighted how fickle is the centuries-old Hindu-Muslim relation in front of the onslaught of politics of communal riots,” said Mr. Zuberi.
Pointing towards prominent Hindi and Urdu dailies of the region, Mr. Zuberi said, “The news of communal riot has made it to the front pages of the vernacular press, which has only polarised people and consolidated votes in constituencies like Varanasi, and Gorakhpur, which went to polls today.”
Abhimanyu Singh, a fruit vendor in the Kagzee Market, (paper market) seconded Mr. Zuberi. “Meerut has learnt to move on with life. We have reached a stage when the conspiracy to create hatred among us gets defeated by our search for better livelihood.”
