MP Ram Navami violence: Curfew continues in Khargone, officials deny migration of families

Khargone: Curfew continued in violence-hit Khargone city of Madhya Pradesh for the third day on Wednesday and officials denied reports that over 100 families were forced to migrate from the city.

The situation is tense but peaceful, and nearly 100 people have been arrested so far for allegedly indulging in the violence which broke out after stones were pelted on a Ram Navami procession on Sunday in Khargone, Additional Superintendent of Police Neeraj Chourasia said.

After the violence, a curfew was imposed in the entire Khargone city on Sunday evening.

The curfew in continuing for the third day with relief being given only for medical emergencies, the police official said.

Asked about a memorandum submitted by Muslim clerics in Bhopal to the state director general of police alleging that religious flags were put up on the wall of a mosque during the Ram Navami procession, Chourasia denied that any such thing happened. A picture circulated on social media on the issue was not of Khargone, he said.

The official appealed to people to maintain peace and not pay attention to rumours.

The clerics had also alleged the Khargone district administration demolished many houses and properties belonging to members of the minority community in a hurried action without a probe, forcing over 100 Muslim families to migrate from the city.

However, sub-divisional magistrate Milind Dhoke on Wednesday said the reports that over 100 families were forced to migrate from different trouble-torn areas were ”not true”.

“Those whose houses were torched or damaged in stone-pelting have gone to their relatives’ place and the number of such families is only two-three,” he said in a statement.

Santosh Mali, a resident of the trouble-torn Sanjay Nagar area, claimed that a person, identified as Vasudev, put up his house ”for sale” after the violence and left the locality.

Divisional Commissioner and senior police officials were camping in the town to review the situation.

Around 100 people have been arrested so far for indulging in the violence and 89 of them have been sent to jail, Chourasia said.

On Tuesday night, 15 suspects were taken into custody from two hotels in the Mohan Talkies area when police and other officials went there along with bulldozers to demolish the illegal constructions there, he said.

The police are questioning the suspects, he added.