Tension prevailed Thursday in a Bihar village where angry residents went on the rampage a day earlier to protest the placing of an idol of a Hindu god in a Muslim graveyard, police said. A strong contingent of policemen was deployed in remote Malepur village in Samastipur district and senior police officials were camping there to maintain communal harmony on the first day of the New Year.
| Sounds like it's too late for that... |
Sources in the police headquarters here said personnel of the Rapid Action Force, which deals specifically with sectarian violence, had been sent to the village. Angry villagers torched three government vehicles on Thursday morning and demanded action against police officials responsible for an incident of firing Wednesday that injured three people. Police had opened fire Wednesday to control an unruly mob that was protesting the discovery of the Hindu idol in the graveyard. "Police opened fire when some anti-socials began pelting stones, injuring the district superintendent of police," a police official said.
| Yeah, but they couldn't control themselves. Shucks, they'd probably been seething for years... |
The mob later set three bogies of the Darbhanga-Amritsar Jannayak Express on fire and removed fishplates on railway tracks to protest the firing. This disrupted train services in the area. Senior police officials said tension had been brewing in the village since last month when a Shivaling, or an idol representing the Hindu god Shiva, was reportedly found in a graveyard. A police investigation into the matter revealed that some miscreants had apparently planted the idol as part of a scheme to grab the land of the graveyard. "It was part of a conspiracy by vested interests to destroy communal harmony in Samastipur," said Rajendra Singh, deputy inspector general of police for Darbhanga range. Bihar strongman Laloo Prasad Yadav has charged communal forces backed by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh of being behind the incident to disturb communal amity in Bihar. |