Curfew relaxed for 7 hrs

Vadodara, May 7 : After a week-long tense communal situation, normal life was virtually restored in Vadodara city for the first time today with the authorities lifting curfew between 0900 hrs and 1600 hrs simultaneously in all six police stations areas.

Talking to UNI, police commissioner Deepak Swaroop said a decision with regard to total withdrawal of Army would be taken at a high-level meeting to be held this evening as no major incident of violence had been reported during the last four days.

Army had already been pulled out from Raopura and Karelibaug police station limits.

The six police station areas where curfew was relaxed for seven hours are Raopura, Navapura, Karelibaug, City, Wadi and Panigate where six people were killed since the violence broke out on May one.

Soon after the curfew was lifted at 0900 hrs today people, including women and children, moved out of their houses in large number for shopping.

Reports said a shoe shop located in the third and fourth floors of a multi-storey building near the historic Raopura tower was gutted this morning.

Firebrigade personnel fought for nearly two hours to control the blaze.

In another similar incident, some miscreants set ablaze a garment shop on the M G Road in the walled city area last night. The fire was however, put out by some local residents and policemen before the firemen could reach the spot. Police said barring this two cases of fire, there was no other incident.

Claiming that situation was well under control, the police chief said about 500 people had been arrested so far in connection with violence-related incidents and the figure would increase further as combing operation was on in several cases.

Meanwhile, a Special Absconder Squad of the city police had arrested one Nilkanth Garagewala, one of the 12 persons accused in the brutal killing of Md Rafiq Vora, who was stabbed and burnt alive in his car during a fierce mob violence at Ajwa Road on Tuesday night.

Nilkanth, who was nabbed from his Ajwa road residence yesterday, was remanded to four days police custody by a local court. Eleven other accused in the case were still absconding.

UNI