Vehicles Set On Fire Amid Curfew In Khargone, 95 Held Over Ram Navami Violence

Additional Superintendent of Police Neeraj Chourasia told PTI that a mob set ablaze three buses, a car and a garage in the city's Mechanic Nagar area.

The Khargone district administration demolished many houses and properties of those involved in stone pelting on Sunday (Video screengrab)

New Delhi: Despite imposition of curfew in Madhya Pradesh's Khargone following violence during Ram Navami celebrations, miscreants set vehicles and a garage on fire on Tuesday.

Additional Superintendent of Police Neeraj Chourasia told PTI that a mob set ablaze three buses, a car and a garage in the city's Mechanic Nagar area.

Violence erupted on Sunday when a Ram Navami procession was crossing a mosque in Khargone. Stones were pelted on the procession that resulted in the flare-up, PTI quoted an eyewitness as saying. A stone-pelting incident was also reported during a Ram Navami procession in Sendhwa town of Barwani district.

READ | MP: Stones Hurled At Ram Navami Procession In Khargone Triggering Arson

So far, 95 people have been arrested in connection with the violence. Police said law and situation was under control in the city.

Meanwhile, a delegation of Muslim clerics met the state DGP in Bhopal and alleged their community members were selectively targeted by the state administration.

The clerics alleged the Khargone district administration demolished many houses and properties belonging to members of the minority community without a probe. They said over 100 Muslim families had left the city since Monday. 

"Atrocities are committed on the Muslim community by demolishing their houses and putting them in jails in a clear violation of the law of the land," a memorandum by the clerics to Director General of Police (DGP) Sudhir Saxena said.

"An attempt is being made in MP to create disturbance for quite some time. During the processions taken out on the occasion of Ram Navami festival in Khargone and Sendhwa towns, the members of the processions scaled walls of mosques and put up saffron flags on them besides raising inflammatory slogans," the memorandum said.

The memorandum alleged legislators of the ruling BJP were issuing provocative statements and urged the DGP to act in time to prevent a repeat of the situation elsewhere in the state.

Prominent Muslim body Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind sought Union Home Minister Amit Shah's intervention over the issue of alleged harassment of the minority community in Khargone and demanded a high-level judicial inquiry into the violence.