Stone-pelting mars peaceful tazia procession in Ahmedabad

Despite the deployment of nearly 15,000 policemen on the streets to ensure a peaceful tazia procession, trouble erupted in Shahpur and belied the city police's claim of providing solid bandobast to avoid any untoward incident on this Muslim festival day.

Once again two communities were engaged in a face-off — after unidentified miscreants pelted stones at the procession. The mob went on the rampage and destroyed many vehicles while venting their anger. The cause for this unexpected burst of violence was a minor dispute among some youngsters of
one community, but soon it turned violent when other members of the community joined in the matter.

Sources said the incident happened when a tazia procession from Shahpur Telephone Exchange near GPO was going towards Retiawadi and Khanpur.
"It was when the last tazia was passing that the tension started brewing. We have found that there was an internal dispute in the community. However, some members in the procession thought it was the handiwork of the other community. So they started pelting stones and destroyed one vehicle. However, police immediately got the situation under control. There was no retaliation from the other community," said Satish Sharma, joint commissioner of police, sector-one.

However, to control the mob, the police resorted to lathi-charge and hurled tear gas shells to disperse the crowd. According to SS Patel, inspector with Shahpur police station, both the communities got confused when the brawl started.

"People from both communities started running all across the streets. They flung stones even at the police and during this melee, some policemen including a DySP and a sup-inspector among others, sustained minor injuries," Patel told DNA.

Incidentally, this was the third incident in the last couple of weeks in Shahpur where two communities have fought against each other. The other two incidents had also seen stone pelting and damaging of vehicles over petty issues. The police say that in view of the tension, a large number of cops have been deployed in Shahpur to avert any further trouble.

On the other hand, the processions in other parts of the city went by peacefully. Police officials said no clash or dispute was reported from anywhere else.
As many as 93 tazias appeared in the procession on the holy day of Moharram, which is held in commemoration of the Battle of Karbala, in 680 AD, in Iraq.