Senior police officers, including Director General of Police Sunil Bansal, on Saturday visited communal violence-hit localities in the western Odisha town of Sambalpur as confidence building measures after the situation worsened following the murder of a person and large-scale arson.
The State government had earlier imposed curfew for an indefinite period and extended the suspension of Internet services for another 48 hours to prevent the spread of rumours. The Sambalpur district police relaxed curfew for two hours each in the morning and evening for people to procure essential commodities.
Mr. Bansal visited the sensitive area of Motijharan and said he would camp at Sambalpur on Saturday to monitor the security arrangements. “People should cooperate with police and district administration. If they do so, the situation could hopefully be brought under control in a day,” Mr. Bansal said.
A person identified as one Chintamani Mirdha was stabbed to death in the Outer Ring Road area of Sambalpur, while his friend Biswanath Sikka sustained severe injuries in a stabbing incident. There were attacks on two other persons in the late evening. At least 12 shops were set on fire.
B. Gangadhar, Sambalpur Superintendent of Police, said the stabbing incident should not be linked to communal violence. “We are intensifying our investigation to ascertain the cause behind the murder,” he said.
A delegation of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLAs led by Lalitendu Bidyadhar Mohapatra on Friday said it appeared absurd that Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik was maintaining a stoic silence “even as Sambalpur was burning and people felt threat to their lives”.
Mr. Mohapatra alleged that while the Hanuman Jayanti Samonyoya Samiti (HJSS) had informed the police administration of the April 12 motorcycle rally well in advance, there had been no strategy in place to protect the motorcyclists from “unprovoked” attacks.
The violence occurred when a massive motorcycle rally was allegedly pelted with stones while it was passing through areas dominated by a minority community on April 12 evening. Ten police personnel sustained injuries in the attack. The HJSS later called for a 36-hour bandh in Sambalpur, which was backed by the BJP. Meanwhile, posters urging people to ban Muslim traders surfaced at some places in Sambalpur. The police swiftly removed these posters.
Published - April 15, 2023 09:27 am IST
