Madhya Pradesh: Curfew clamped in Jabalpur

Jabalpur, Jan 27: Indefinite curfew was clamped in six police station areas of Jabalpur town late last night due to mounting communal tension over removal of posters relating to a religious function.

District Collector Sanjay Dube said curfew was clamped as a precautionary measure since tension could not be defused even after imposition of prohibitory orders under section 144 CrPC for about one hour.

Mr Dube said members of two communities gathered in large number in Kamani Gate area and indulged in raising slogans against each other. Efforts by the civil and police officers to ease the situation tbrough talks with both communities failed, leading to imposition of curfew in Kotwali, Lordganj, Hanumantal, Gohalpur, Belbagh and Omti police station areas, he said.

No untoward incident has been reported since late last night, he said. However, all schools and colleges in the city were ordered closed today.

The Collector said the Jain community's Gajrath Mahotsav venue at Vijay Nagar would be out of the purview of curfew.

UNI