Communal flare-up spreads to Haridwar

The communal tension that affected the Raiwala-Rishikesh belt for past three days spread to Haridwar on Friday night, as a group of unidentified people ransacked shops of some Muslim traders at Kankhal market. A case was registered against 15 unidentified people at the Kankhal police station, and police have identified three people from CCTV footage, SP Mamta Vohra said.

HARIDWAR: The communal tension that affected the RaiwalaRishikesh belt for past three days reached Haridwar on Friday night as a group of unidentified people ransacked shops of some Muslim traders at Kankhal market.

Haridwar last saw such tension in June 2016 when the Khanpur legislator Kunwar Pranab Singh’s relatives forcibly evicted a tenant at Landaura market. A mob had torched vehicles and pelted stones, prompting the police to go for lathi charge.

On Saturday, the district administration deployed a large number of police and provincial armed constabulary personnel at Kankhal and other sensitive pockets in Haridwar.

Later, Section 144 of CrPC was imposed in the evening.

Armed with hockey sticks, baseball and cricket bats, a group of masked people on twowheelers on Friday night raised slogans and vandalised a dozen odd properties of Muslim shopkeepers and vendors, the police said.

Some locals, who tried to intervene, also came under attack.