By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter,
Bettiah/Patna: Bihar Police is scaring people of booking them under serious criminal offenses and declaring them as ‘rioters’ for participating in Muharram procession, if that results in incitement of communal tension.
In a veiled threat, garbed as appeal, district police has said that once booked for such serious offenses of rioting, accused would remain under constant Intelligence watch and they may not be able to apply for any government job or contest elections.
It should be mentioned here that in the month of August, on the occasion of Nag Panchmi, Lathi-wielding men of Mahabir Akhada carried provocative placards that and incitement that resulted in communal clashes.
Bettiah police has hence issued public interest appeal urging people to not to carry any arms, fire sticks or inflammable materials in the Muharram processions, failing which they may be booked under sections 152, 153 (A), 153 (B), 188, 295 (A), 296 and 298 of the IPC, Bettiah police has made it clear.
To restrain people from participating in any such provocative processions, police has brought out appeals, pasted all over the places in the town and villages warning them of prolong judicial process, disqualification from jobs, not being able to marry in respectable families, and worst of all constant gaze of Intelligence Agency after being declared a ‘rioter’.
Bettiah police has further appealed to the larger public to not pay heed to rumors and to immediately inform the police if they find anyone spreading rumors.
Several processions that traditionally have been carried out during Muharram has been denied persimmon this year. There seems to be palpable anger amongst the youth for putting restrictions on the religious processions they have been bringing out every year.
Meanwhile, there was a communal skirmish in Bihar’s Gopalganj district after reports of some groups damaging the Muharram’s Tajiya. The clash took place in the Maniyara village under Khuchaekot police station, in which at least two persons have been seriously injured.