By IANS
Lucknow : A group of Shiv Sainiks thrashed young couples Thursday in Uttar Pradesh’s Barielly town, but the state police claimed there were no other untoward incidents on the Valentine’s Day in other parts of the state.
Police officials said a group of Shiv Sainiks not only beat up young couples in a public park in Barielly, about 250 km from here, they also made the girls hold own ears and apologise for celebrating the Valentine’s Day while the boys were forced to do sit-ups and crawl on the ground.
Vikram Singh, the state police chief, told IANS: “Other than Barielly, we have not heard of any untoward incident on this day from any other place. We have already made adequate security arrangements in all public places to keep a check on hoodlums creating nuisance on the Valentine’s Day.”
“Instructions have been issued to all policemen to ensure safety and security of citizens enjoying the festival and to prevent Shiv Sainiks from creating a nuisance. The police are there to tackle any case of obscenity in public, the Shiv Sainiks need not worry about that,” he added.
Police patrolling was visible at all public places here that drew large crowds of young people.
The local INOX multiplex came up with a new marketing strategy to draw larger crowds on the Valentine’s Day by screening only romantic movies like “Hum Tum” and “Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge”.
There was unusually big crowd around the movie theatre Thursday and a large number of young couples could be seen.
“We have sold three times the number of tickets that we do on other days,” said an INOX official.
Huge crowds were also seen at three of the four Lucknow malls as well as at the local zoo, which is one of the popular haunts of both the young and the old.
“We have been keeping a strict vigil at the zoo with the help of the police and some women constables have also been deployed. Fortunately, there has been no incident of vandalism,” said Zoo director Renu Singh.