Foreign tourists face hardships as Agra burns

Lucknow, Aug 29 (UNI) Foreign, as well as local tourists who had thronged the city of Taj for a memorable holiday are held up in their hotel rooms as violence rocked Agra today.

Most of the tourists are staying in the Taj Ganj and Sadar area near the 17th century monument of love. Curfew was clamped in Agra this morning following violence over the death of four youths of a particular community in a road accident.

Principal secretary (Home) J N Chamber said here that tourists have been advised to stay in their hotels till the time they are evacuated to safer areas. ''The process is on to pull out stranded tourists,'' he added.

''The National Highway has reopened...it will help us move the tourists away,'' he said.

Over 20,000 national and international tourists throng the city of Taj every day. Police officials said that as the violence erupted early in the morning, no tourists were in the Taj Mahal. ''Tour operators in Delhi have been advised through their local counterparts to postpone tours to Agra for the next few days,'' a senior police officer in Agra told UNI.

Trouble started when a mob torched 20 vehicles and several shops after four youths, who were returning from a nearby graveyard in connection with Shab-e-baraat, were mowed down by a truck near Subhash Park area on the Mahatma Gandhi Road in the city in the wee hours today. Of the four deceased, two were on a motorcycle and other two on a rickshaw.

UNI