Ranchi clash: City tense but no untoward incident

By TCN Special Correspondent,

Ranchi: The Jharkhand capital is tense but peaceful as no untoward incident has occurred since last night when members of two communities clashed over use of loudspeaker at a function for Janamashthami near a mosque, leaving at least six people injured.

The Hindpidhi area where the incident took place last night wore about deserted look this noon with few shops open in this market place while jawans of Jharkhand police and Rapid Action Force patrolling the streets. No untoward incident, however, has been reported since last night.

According to locals, the incident took place when namazis of a mosque in Hindpidhi area requested organizers of a Janamashthami function nearby to slow down loudspeaker at least during the Travih, but rather than listening to the request the sound volume was raised leading to clashes and stone pelting from both sides. Immediate enforcement of police forces controlled the situation from worsening.

A senior journalist living in the area told TCN that the clash erupted due to some lunatics from both sides. He futher said one Ram Singh who was recently released from jail is trying to emerge as a local Hindu community leader. He alleged Singh played key role in instigating the violence in which bullets were also fired. The police have confirmed fire but said they are probing from where the bullets were fired.
No arrest has been made so far in the connection.

In a bid to establish peace, a peace committee meeting was held at town Kotwali at 10 am today. The meeting was attended by top police and civil officers besides representatives from both communities.

Besides DIG and SSP the prominent personalities from both communities who attended the meeting included: Uday Shankar Jha, Jai Singh Yadav and Rajiv Ranjan Mishra from Mohan Mondal, Ajit Sahay of Durga Puja Samiti, Mohd Saeed from Idara Sharia, Haji Idris of Idrisi community and Aqueelur Rahman of Central Muharram Committee.