Jaipur: Violence erupted in Jaipur’s Chomu town in the wee hours of Friday over removal of some stones outside a mosque, forcing the officials to fire tear gas shells to disperse the crowd. According to officials, they were trying to remove some stones outside the Kalandri Mosque when a crowd emerged and started pelting stones at them.
The incident, which happened around 3 am, left several police personnel injured. In a statement, the police said they were trying to remove the stones only after getting consent from the locals, but a mob suddenly attacked them, pelting stones at them. The situation, however, has been brought under control.
The police have also deployed extra personnel and temporarily suspended mobile internet and SMS services in the area for 24 hours till 7 am on December 27. Meanwhile, shops have remained closed in the area following the early morning clashes.
Senior police officials, including Additional Police Commissioner Dr Rajiv Pachar, Deputy Commissioner of Police (West) Hanuman Prasad Meena and Additional DCP Rajesh Gupta, have visited the area and urged people to maintain calm. They said that legal action will be taken against those who pelted stones at the police and were involved in the violence.
“There is a Kalandari Mosque here where a dispute over encroachment had been ongoing for quite some time. One party voluntarily removed the encroachment, but some people tried to re-establish it permanently by installing iron angles,” Meena said, while speaking to news agency ANI.
“We were removing these structures when some people pelted stones at the police. We will take strict action against all those involved. Currently, there is peace in the area,” he added.
Special Police Commissioner Rahul Prakash also visited the affected area and said the officials have detained dozens of people. “We have detained about half a dozen people for questioning. Internet services have been suspended. Sufficient force has been deployed to maintain peace,” he told ANI.
