A view of a street during curfew in Saharanpur, after violent clashes between two communities over a land dispute.
Curfew was relaxed today in Uttar Pradesh's Saharanpur, where three people were killed and 24 injured in communal clashes on Saturday. (
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People queued up at petrol pumps, grocery stores and medicine shops as they rushed outside to stock up on essential supplies.
But the curfew was eased strategically, at different times, in the two parts of Saharanpur, which were earlier divided by a highway and recently torn further apart by the clashes.
In the relatively new part of Saharanpur, which includes the site of the clash and a sizable Sikh population, curfew was relaxed between 10 am and 2 pm.
Curfew was relaxed in the old city, predominantly a Muslim area, between 3 pm and 7 pm.
Security personnel continued to patrol the streets today. (
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"We have relaxed the curfew to give people a chance to get basic amenities, but we will be more alert now," said District Magistrate Sandya Tiwari.
But for families who have lived in this town for decades, the social fabric of Saharanpur has suffered a tear, though, they hope, not an irreparable one.
Gurwinder Singh, 42, is a resident of the new part of the city and one of those injured in the riots; a stone had hit him in the eye during Saturday's clashes.
His wife, 37-year-old Satinder Kaur, used to live in the old city before her marriage,
"I could not believe it that day, when I came out of my house and saw the violence," she says.
Gurwinder blames the administration to some extent. "They should have acted sooner and sent adequate forces when the tension started brewing," he says.
In spite of the curfew easing off, many residents of the old city chose to remain indoors today.
One of them is Nadim Askari, who is wondering how he will travel to Delhi on August 3. "The station falls on that side (of the town), so I am not sure how I am going to travel by that route," he says.
Residents on both sides of the highway know that it will take time for the situation to become normal, but they don't want the clashes to leave a permanent bruise.
They hope that they will soon be able to cross the road that divides them.