Friday prayers, Rath Yatra held peacefully

HT Correspondent

UDAIPUR: The annual Jagannath Rath Yatra and Friday prayers were performed peacefully in Udaipur amid heavy security, days after a Hindu tailor’s brutal murder triggered stray cases of violence in the area.

The curfew, in place across Udaipur since the June 28 murder, was also relaxed along the 8km route of the yatra. Nearly 10,000 people attended the procession in the presence of about 2,000 police and paramilitary personnel.

The annual yatra is being organised after a gap of two years as it could not be held due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

As the procession coincided with Friday prayers, police security in the sensitive regions was bolstered. On Thursday, the district administration held a meeting with key representatives from both communities. “Usually, some 600 police personnel are deployed for this event. But this year, we roped in 2,000 personnel to ensure that the event happened without trouble,” said Dinesh MN, inspector general of the anti-corruption bureau (ACB), Jaipur. The police also deployed drones and roped in an additional 1,000 volunteers of the rath yatra committee to keep a vigil. On Friday, most Muslims performed their prayers at home to avoid any untoward incident.

“We obeyed the administration’s request to stay indoors. We offered our Friday prayers at home. We just want the city to return to normalcy soon,” said Mujeeb Siddiqui, chief of Udaipur chapter of Anjuman Talimul Islam. The curfew will be reimposed along the route after the event, a statement by the district administration said. On June 28, Riyaz Akhtari and Gaus Mohammed murdered Kanhaiya Lal with sharp knives because the latter had backed controversial comments by BJP member Nupur Sharma on Prophet Mohammed. Later that evening, the Rajasthan government snapped the internet services in the state and imposed Section 144 of CRPC in Udaipur.