U.P. police sound alert ahead of Friday

LUCKNOW: In the wake of violence on two consecutive Fridays after prayers, the state police have sent an alert to all district police chiefs to intensify vigil around mosques and make necessary deployment of police force to avert any law-and-order trouble.

Police and district administration said Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) was imposed in several districts, including Kanpur and Lucknow, to not allow public gathering on roads and at public places.

The alert has been issued after the violence reported after Friday prayers in several districts on June 10 and in Kanpur on June 3, against the insulting comment for Prophet Mohammed. A police official at DGP headquarters in Lucknow said extra vigil would be kept in sensitive districts this Friday and heavy police deployment would be made to avert any trouble. He said 130 companies of Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) and over 1.25 lakh civil police personnel would maintain law and order in different districts for peaceful conduct of Friday prayers.

The official said the sensitive districts included Firozabad, Shamli, Saharanpur, Moradabad, Hathras, Aligarh, Agra, Ayodhya, Varanasi, Gorakhpur, Kanpur, and Lucknow. He said the police force carried out a riot control drill in some districts.

“The state police social media cell is monitoring different social media platforms round the clock to check content inciting communal sentiments and action is being taken against those involved in such things,” he said and added, “Over 20 people were arrested from different districts for inflammatory posts last week.” He said a lot of wrong information had been circulated so the local police and district administration had been asked to keep a check.

Intelligence sleuths had been deployed to collect details of each and every activity before Friday prayers, another police official said. Moreover, some leaders of Hindu right-wing groups and Muslim groups could be placed under house arrest to ensure that they did not get involved in gathering people and disturbing peace.

Notably, as many as 350 people have been arrested and 13 FIRs lodged in nine districts in connection with violence in the state on June 10.