Curfew has been re-imposed in Rajouri following fresh clashes in the frontier town of Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday, a day after round-the-clock restrictions had been lifted.
The town has been in the grip of communal tensions since March 4 in the aftermath of VHP leader Pravin Togadia’s delivering a hate-speech at a rally.
More than a dozen people were injured in Thursday’s clashes between groups of Hindu protesters and policemen who swung bamboo sticks and also fired teargas canisters to break up their march towards the district magistrate’s office. Among the injured are seven policemen, said the officials adding that the condition of one of the injured policeman was critical and that he has been airlifted to winter capital Jammu for specialised treatment.
The police has, meanwhile, detained pro-independent Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) leader Muhammad Yasin Malik and his associates who were on way to Rajouri from Srina-gar. Regional National Panthers’ Party leaders were also stopped from relocating to Rajouri from Jammu. BJP me-mbers staged a protest walkout over the Rajouri situation from the Assembly, now in its Budget Session. Protests had been called by a Hindu outfit in support of the demand that those involved in targeting a Bharoin procession in the town on the eve of Holi with stones should be arrested and brought to justice.