By IANS
Sonepat (Haryana) : Tension prevailed in Haryana’s Gohana town Tuesday following the killing of a youth from the Valmiki community by three unidentified assailants.
Protestors from the Valmiki community clashed with the police at several places and hurled stones at them. Police had to resort to baton charging to disperse the mob at three places in the town in Sonepat district.
Sharat Kumar, inspector general of police (Rohtak range), said adequate police personnel had been sent to Gohana and the situation was under control.
“We have rounded up several people. The police had to resort to cane charge at some places,” Kumar said.
Section 144, banning the assembly of more than four peeople at one place, was imposed in the entire town, 250 km from state capital Chandigarh.
The tension followed Monday night’s killing of Rakesh Kumar alias Lara, a Valmiki youth, by three unidentified assailants at the Samata chowk.
Lara was one of the accused in the August 2005 murder of a Jat youth Baljit Siwaich. The killing then had led to violence against the Valmikis after miscreants set on fire nearly 100 houses belonging to the community.
The Haryana government had handed over the probe into both the incidents to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) as violence between the two communities spread to other parts of the state.
Lara was later acquitted of murder charges by a CBI court.
Shops and other business establishments remained shut Tuesday fearing violence between the two sides. Battalions of the Haryana police were rushed from Karnal Monday night.