Markets shut in Haryana’s Nuh amid new tension over stone pelting allegation

Local traders on Friday kept markets shut as fresh tension gripped Nuh district in Gurugram after three women were injured when unidentified suspects, said to be children, allegedly pelted stones at a religious procession organised by a family in Pandu Ram Chowk area of the town on Thursday night, police said.

Traders, a large number of them Hindus, did not open shops and commercial establishments on Friday in protest against the incident, demanding police action against the stone pelters.

Police said the procession was part of a ‘Kuan Pujan’ (well worship) ceremony, which was organised by a local resident Ram Avatar and his family. Avatar’s family and relatives had stepped out from their home to walk down to a nearby Shiv temple when the incident occurred.

Police said when the group of around 20 people was passing a local madrasa in the area, the suspects, mainly minors, allegedly pelted stones at them. It was soon after 8 at night. The procession broke up in chaos as the participants looked for shelter but not before at least three were injured. Investigators said that the three injured women were taken to Nuh’s community health centre for treatment.

A large number of police personnel were deployed in the area soon after as a precautionary measure. No incident has been reported from the area since then.

Narendra Bijarnia, superintendent of police, Nuh, who went to the spot to oversee law and order, said the cleric of the madrasa said a few students of the school were involved in the incident but denied they pelted stones.

Krishan Kumar, Nuh police’s public relations officer (PRO), said the madrasa staff accepted that a group of minors made a mistake but said they were playing with slippers.

“They (the madrasa staff) said that the children were playing and hurling slippers at each other, which (then) fell on the procession. But, those in the procession have alleged that stones were pelted, on the basis of which an FIR (first information report) was registered. We are looking into every aspect,” Kumar said.

On Avatar’s complaint, an FIR was registered against unidentified suspects under sections 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 149 (unlawful assembly), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 341 (wrongful restraint) of the Indian Penal Code and Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act at City Nuh police station on Thursday night. Officials said that no arrests have been made yet.

A meeting was held between local members of the Hindu and Muslim communities in the aftermath of the incident, Kumar said, adding that the situation remains under control.

The latest incident comes in the backdrop of the communal violence, which broke out in Nuh on July 31 in which at least six persons including two home guards were killed.

The earlier bout of violence had broken out when suspects had pelted stones at the annual religious procession taken out to mark the ‘Brijmandal Jalabhishek Yatra’. At least 88 persons including several police officers were injured in the violence.