The simmering tension between Jats and Muslims, who constitute over 25% of Kosi Kalan population, busted into riots leaving four persons including a woman dead.
While chief minister Akhilesh Singh Yadav was showering sops setting aside over Rs 2,000 crore for the welfare of minorities, Samajwadi Party district president Govind Singh was allegedly teaming up with Bahujan Samaj Party leader Chaudhry Laxmi Narain Singh, leading a Jat fury on Muslims in Kosi Kalan, a township in Mathura district on Delhi-Agra highway, 100 kms form Delhi.
The simmering tension between Jats and Muslims, who constitute over 25% of Kosi Kalan population, busted into riots leaving four persons including a woman dead, reviving the bloody communal history of Uttar Pradesh. Two of the dead were reportedly burnt alive.
During last assembly polls, against the state-wide trend, Muslim in this region favoured Congress-Rahstriya Lok Dal combine and helped RLD’s Takhur Tejpal Singh to sail through.
The industrial development has led real estate prices hitting the roof in this small town situated at tri-junction of UP, Rajasthan and Haryana. Locals allege that Laxmi Narain Singh has encroached upon 1,000 acre graveyard land on the banks of national highway.
“He had apparently decided to teach us a lesson, as we had been petitioning authorities against this encroachment and his other misdeeds," says Shamsher Ali, a political activist from Kosi Kalan.
Jat leaders were also incensed at Muslims for fielding two candidates for the post of chairperson of local bodies going to polls later this month.
Already being accused with failing to impose law and order, the Kosi Kalan communal riots, where his own party leaders are alleged to have taken active part, will be the biggest challenge for the two-month-old Akhilesh Yadav government.
The opposition parties have already put the CM on mat over rising incidents of crime. Now, Shamsher Ali has said a vehicle of the son of SP’s Govind Singh was allegedly used to ferry arms during the riots.
An indefinite curfew continued on Saturday in the town. But the locals say, police was enforcing it only in Muslim majority areas.
SDM Rajesh Kumar, however, denied that impression. He admitted that though there was an initial delay to tackle the situation, now administration has geared up to handle the miscreants. He confirmed the death of two people but locals say they have received four bodies, two of them charred.
Goods worth Rs50 crore have been looted or burnt form furniture, electronic and textile shops.
Khalid Ali, an eyewitness told DNA that the incident started when a Jat shopkeeper after attending nature’s call, washed hands in a tub containing water for Muslims, preparing for prayers.
On being by a Muslim youth, he alongiwth other shopkeepers apologised. But, miscreants had a field day, taking advantage of the fight, surrounded mosques, throwing stones and bottles.
The state which has witnessed bloody riots in the past, had been by and large peaceful over past one decade.
Former RLD MP and Jamiat-e-Ulema leader Maulana Mehmood Madani said repeat of such incidents was bound to jeopardise the Akhilesh Yadav government.
He said, he had told both Mulayam Singh Yadav and union minister Ajit Singh that it could be a conspiracy to defame the secular government.
The area has seen attacks on Christian institutions, particularly on St Theresa’s School in April 2000. Again in October 2007, violence broke when a shopkeeper refused to sell a mobile SIM to a Muslim boy.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}