(rptg, adding new information in last para)

Lucknow/Kanpur, Apr 1 (UNI) Communal tension today gripped the state capital, Lucknow and industrial city of Kanpur following violence during Barawafat with one person killed and several others injured in Kanpur as police opened fire to control a violent mob.

The injured included several district and police officials in Kanpur where the police resorted to firing on the violent crowd which attacked Armapur police station. One person was killed and several others injured in the firing. The condition of five persons is stated to be serious, Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG), Kanpur Range Daljit Singh Chaudhry said.

Meanwhile, the station officer of Armapur has been suspended.

About ten persons were injured when two groups of the same community indulged in heavy stone pelting near a mosque in Musahibganj area under Thakurganj police station in old city area of the state capital.

Police had to fire in the air and use tear gas to disperse agitated mobs of both the groups. Several persons have been reported to be injured, few of them seriously.

Lucknow District Mgistrate Ramendra Tripathi told UNI that the situation was tense but under control. Curfew has been imposed in the Thkaurganj police station area, while Section 144 of the CrPC has already been enforced in the old city. Efforts were on to prevent the violence from spreading to other areas, the DM said.

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