RAF stages flag march in riot-hit Vadodara city

Vadodara, Sep 22 (UNI) The Rapid Action Force (RAF) today staged flag march in the communally sensitive and riot-hit areas of Vadodara city, which witnessed sporadic incidents of violence during the immersion of Ganesh idols on the seventh day of the 10-day Ganesh Utsav yesterday.

In view of last night's communal flare up in which about 50 people, including 30 policemen, were injured, the authorities had sought immediate deployment of Central forces to help the police maintain law and order, a senior police official said. The injured policemen included city police Commissioner C P Thakur and his deputy B K Srimali.

The authorities today received one company of RAF and another company of Border Wing. The RAF staged the flag march this evening in four police station areas of Panigate, City, Wadi and Raopura that were hit by communal violence. Yesterday, trouble started after an immersion procession taken out by Junighadi Yubak Mandal was pelted with stones near a mosque at Madar market under Panigate police station area.

Even as no untoward incident had been reported from the walled city areas since last night, tension prevailed in the area as police conducted combing operation to round up about 100 suspected miscreants who were believed to have had participated in yesterday's violence, sources said.

Security had been further tightened in the trouble-prone areas as several Ganesh idol immersion processions were scheduled to pass through the riot-hit areas tonight for immersion in the Sursagar lake.

UNI