Over 200 held for Vadodara riots, no fresh flare up

, Sep 29: Over 200 people have been arrested in Vadodara town in

after days of communal violence though no fresh incident was reported today, police said.

However, the situation in the city, 116 km from Ahmedabad, remained tense amid huge deployment of police personnel. Communal violence had erupted in Yakutpura, Panjrapole, Fatehpura and Kumbharvada in the city on Thursday after some posts about a religion, purportedly derogatory in nature, were put up on a social networking site.

"We have arrested more than 200 people from the city. Some of the arrests are a preventive measure," Joint Commissioner of Police, Vadodara City, D J Patel said. Tension flared up after a scuffle between some advocates and members of minority community on Thursday.

"No fresh incident of rioting was reported in the city today with the police maintaining a tight vigil," Patel said, adding that the mobile internet services remained suspended to check the spread of rumours. Three incidents of stabbing have been reported in the city in the last four days, mostly in Old City areas, besides cases of stone pelting, looting and arson in some places.

The administration did not impose curfew as the incidents were sporadic in nature, police said. 13 companies of the State Reserve Police (SRP), a company each of BSF, CRPF and RAF apart from the city police have been deployed.

A company comprises around 80 to 90 personnel. Six senior IPS officers, who had earlier served in Vadodara, have been stationed in the city even as top police and government officials are closely monitoring the situation.

Police had fired tear gas shells to disperse the mob on Thursday and opened fire in air on two occasions last week. Senior ministers Nitin Patel and Rajni Patel had visited Vadodara and asked the administration to bring the situation under control.

Meanwhile, internal transfers of police inspectors have been made to ensure that competent officers are in charge of the situation in areas which are still simmering with incidents of stone pelting.

PTI