By TwoCircles.net staff reporter
Khamgaon : The situation as a whole is coming back to normalcy since a communal flare-up erupted here, around 550 kms from the state capital Mumbai,
Tuesday last. However, owing mainly to the alleged partisan role of the police, the communal and fascist marauders and rioters are still ruling the roost. The cases of looting and torching of Muslim shops and business enterprises in Athwadi Bazar here during the ongoing curfew and that too in the very presence of police officials tells a telltale story of police role in aiding and abetting communal rioters.
Khamgaon, a place well known for Hindustan Lever Limited (HLL) factory and for cotton, witnessed a communal flare-up Tuesday following stone pelting during a Ganpati procession in front of Mastan Chowk Masjid at Iftar time. Around 100 people have been arrested for creating communal tension and the police are in search of those who left their residences.
The four-day long curfew was relaxed from 5 a.m.
to 3 p.m. Saturday when Muslims came out in large numbers to offer prayers in mosques and buy necessary articles amidst heavy presence of police force everywhere especially in Muslim concentration areas.
President Jamiat Ulama District Buldhana Maulana Muhammad Imran Khan said, "During the curfew Yusuf Memon’s cloth shop named ‘Variety’ situated in Athwadi Bazar, Kaleem Shaikh’s fruit shop near Bus Stand and Hayat Khan’s fruit shop in front of Civil Court were all set to fire while Shaikh Qasim’s fruit shop near Bus Stand was looted."
He alleged that when the rioters were on the loot and arson spree, the police were very much present there and looking the other way as silent spectators.
Maulana Imran also informed the presspersons that he has heard people saying, "As the situation has been turned tense during the Ganesh procession, we would also disturb the situation on the occasion of Eid and won’t let the Muslims celebrate it."