46 Arrested, 7 Detained After Procession in India's Rajasthan is Pelted With Stones

Police in India's Rajasthan state on Monday arrested 46 people and detained seven others for questioning after a religious procession in Karauli city on Saturday was pelted with stones, Shri Prashan Kumar Khamesra, Bharatpur Division's Inspector-General of Police, said.

Khamesra added that 13 of the accused have been arrested in connection with the incident and registered at Karauli Police Station, and 33 have been arrested for violating a curfew order.

The Inspector-General said that a total of 21 two-wheelers and four-wheelers were also seized by the police.

He also said that the situation is being closely monitored by the police who are patrolling various places.

According to media reports, the Popular Front of India (PFI), which calls itself as a social Islamic movement in the country, had warned Rajasthan's state government that the Hindu New Year celebrations in Karauli would be accompanied by violence.

PFI issued a press release, warning that communal tensions would probably flare up and PFI’s Rajasthan state president, Mohammad Asif, wrote a letter to state chief Ashok Gehlot to this effect, media reports said.

Reacting to media reports, the state's opposition party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has accused Rajasthan's government of doing nothing despite having been alerted about the violence.

Hindu Sena, a Hindu organisation, has accused the state's branch of Congress of plotting a conspiracy against it.

In a series of tweets, the organisation said that the peaceful rally organised by state president Sahab Singh was pelted with stones, and instead of arresting “Muslim perpetrators” the local police have harassed Singh at the behest of the Congress government.

The organisation also said that Singh's life has been threatened by both the Congress government and local Muslims.

Tensions were at snapping point in Karauli city on Saturday when members from Hindu and Muslim communities engaged in violent confrontation during a motorbike rally organised by members of the Hindu community to celebrate their new year.

It was alleged that when the rally was passing through a Muslim dominated area of the city, stones were pelted at it. It left at least 36 people injured and many shops were set on fire and ransacked.

A video of the incident also went viral on Sunday.

Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) was imposed in Karauli and the internet was shut down after stones were thrown at the procession that day.

Additional Director-General of Police, Sanjeev Kumar, Inspector-General, Bharat Lal Meena, Deputy Inspector-General, Rahul Prakash, and Deputy Commissioners of the state's Police Mridul Kachawa and Narayan Togas, have been sent to Karauli to monitor the situation closely.

Reacting to the incident, the state's chief, Gehlot, accused the BJP-led federal government of such communal incidents.

He said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should appeal to the people of the country to shun polarisation based on religion and caste.

"[In view of] the environment which has been created in the country after the [BJP-led] National Democratic Alliance government came to power in the country, I believe that the prime minister himself should appeal to the people of the country that this polarisation in the name of religion and caste is not justified and is not in the interests of the country," Gehlot said.

"Unfortunately, violence occurred both on Saturday in Karauli, and on Sunday, when a fight in Beawar over some trivial issue left one person dead. If the religions [of the persons involved] are different then, in the name of religion, people polarise and make it an issue," he told reporters in Barmer on Sunday.

Former Rajasthan state chief and BJP politician, Vasundhara Raje Scindia, blamed the state government for the incident in Karauli.

Demanding strict reprisals against the culprits, she said that the incident could have been averted if the administration had been vigilant.