Curfew continues in Odisha's Bhadrak after inflammatory post on 'Ram' sparked communal violence

Curfew continues to be in effect in Bhadrak town of Odisha after incidents of communal flare up on Thursday and Friday. What started off as a protest by pro-right activists on Thursday triggered by abusive posts on Lord Ram on facebook by those from the minority community turned into a communal flare up. Police vehicles were also torched by the angry mobs. The curfew that was imposed for an indefinite period is likely to continue until Sunday morning.

While the curfew was in place, the situation remained tense with heavy deployment of security personnel. Police staged flag marches in the town reminding people to stay indoors. "Situation is by and large peaceful on Saturday. There has been no report of any violence from the town," said K B Singh, the Director General of Police who visited the town.

Bhadrak saw communal violence with hundreds of shops belonging to Hindus and Muslims being torched by the angry mobs after abusive posts on Hindu deities were posted on social networking sites. Properties belonging to both communities were torched along with police personnel being targetted.

Meanwhile, the Odisha government removed Bhadrak District Collector LN Mishra. 35 people have ben detained for vandalism and rioting so far and the police are in the process of identifying more miscreants. 35 platoons of the police force have been deployed in Bhadrak town. Police forces have been mobilised from Bhubaneswar to keep the situation under control.

OneIndia News