Recently communal tension ensued in Bhagat Singh Bazar area under Kotwali police station limits, Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, after a video showing some Muslim men beating up people inside a shop went viral on Social media, reports Patrika.
#मेरठ : थाना कोतवाली के भगत सिंह मार्केट में आधा दर्जन दबंगो ने दुकान में घुसकर कपड़ा व्यापारी को जमकर पीटा, दूसरे समुदाय के युवको ने दुकान में घुसकर बोला हमला, लोहे की रोड से व्यापारी और सेल्समेन को पीटा, 23 को मतगणना होने की वजह से पुलिस ने दबाया मामला. @meerutpolice @Uppolice pic.twitter.com/5nZrz5BFLs
— UttarPradesh.ORG News (@WeUttarPradesh) May 25, 2019
The incident took place when Sachin, who works in a shop named Dev collection in Bhagat Singh Bazar got into a verbal fight with a boy named Samar. The next day, Samar, along with few of his men went to the shop and attacked Sachin and the shop owner, Devraj.
As seen in the above video a group of men with skull caps entered a shop and attacked the shop keepers with rods and punches. The crowd is being seen dispersed after a few locals intervened.
The incident took place on May 22, a day prior to the Lok Sabha elections were declared. The video went viral on social media and this led to communal tension in the area.
BJP leader Kamal Dutt Sharma reached the Kotwali police station and demanded police intervention. Following this, police personnel have been deployed in the area.
Uttar Pradesh is not new to such episodes of communal clashes. Previously too Meerut and other areas in UP have been a witness to several such incidents. In another incidence of communal violence which ensued in between the Lok Sabha polls, three Muslim men shot at three Dalit men in Uttar Pradesh’s Bijnor district, over an argument between the two groups.
Similarly, in February, a minor conflict between some people belonging to the Dalit and the Muslim communities in Durveshpur village of Sardhana, Uttar Pradesh, escalated into communal violence.
Moreover, for reasons as trivial as cricket to dogs to demands of pending payments, Meerut has also frequently witnessed such communal disorders.