After horrific reports of stone-pelting on the Hanuman Jayanti procession at Jahangirpuri in Delhi, similar news has come from Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh. On Saturday night, stones were pelted at a Hanuman Jayanti Shobha Yatra, organized by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) in Holagunda, Kurnool.
AP | 15 people sustained minor injuries. 20 persons taken into custody based on videos & are being interrogated. Situation is peaceful; adequate civil & armed forces deployed: SP Kurnool on incident of stone-pelting b/w members of two communities during Hanuman Jayanti procession
— ANI (@ANI) April 17, 2022
When a Shobha Yatra to mark the Hanuman Jayanti was being taken out in Holagunda, it irked the people present inside a local Mosque for an Iftar gathering. As the procession passed, people inside the mosque complained about the ‘loud’ music, which led to the violence. When the procession moved away from the mosque after a request by the Police, the organizers started playing the music again. Reportedly this led to stone-pelting and the procession came under attack.
Kurnool SP, Sudheer Reddy has however blamed the music played in the procession as one of the reasons for the violence. He said, “The VHP organized Hanuman Jayanti celebrations in Holagunda. They used the DJ sets against the advice of the police. When they went near the mosque, police asked them to shut down the DJ sets. But, they stopped in front of the mosque and started raising ‘Jai Shri Ram’ slogans. In response, the people from the Muslim community started shouting Allahu Akhbar.”
After the Police force was deployed in large numbers, the situation was taken into control and the crowd was asked to disperse. While 15 people suffered minor injuries in the incident, 20 have been taken into custody based on videos and CCTV footage. Section 144 is imposed in the area to control the situation.
Condemning the violence, Bhartiya Janta Party’s Andhra Pradesh state President Somuveer Raju has demanded the immediate arrest of those who attacked the Hanuman Jayanti procession.
