Muzaffarnagar:
The Uttar Pradesh government was today asked to report to the Centre every 12 hours on the situation in Muzaffarnagar after 31 people were killed and at least 40 injured in communal clashes that erupted on Saturday. Struggling to contain the simmering tension in the riot-hit villages, the Akhilesh Yadav administration arrested nearly 100 rioters and stopped political parties from entering Muzaffarnagar.
Here are the 10 latest developments in the story:
The police said today that swords, knives and guns have been recovered in searches from riot-hit villages (read), prompting the home ministry to ask for extra forces in those areas. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and asked him what he was doing to restore peace.
As parties like the BJP, BSP and RLD called for central rule, the Chief Minister's father Mulayam Singh Yadav held internal meetings and was reportedly scathing of how poorly the crisis had been handled.
UP Governor BL Joshi, in his report to the Centre, has reportedly blamed the state government for failing to check the riots.
The Chief Minister told NDTV that his government will show "no leniency towards those disturbing peace" and appealed to political parties to maintain restraint.
The government said it would not allow politicians to visit Muzaffarnagar. A BJP delegation and RLD leader Ajit Singh were stopped at Ghaziabad on the Delhi-UP border. A Congress delegation was also turned away.
The Army, which was called in on Saturday night and the police have been given shoot-at-sight orders.
The police have filed an FIR that lists four BJP state legislators, one from the Congress and two from the regional Bharatiya Kisan Union for stirring communal hatred largely through inflammatory speeches made on Saturday evening at a meeting of thousands of Hindu farmers in Kawal village, where three people were killed last month.
On August 27, a young girl was harassed in the village by a Muslim boy. Her brother and cousin, both Jats, allegedly killed him. They were then lynched by a mob, say officials.
After the mahapanchayat, the farmers were attacked as they were returning home, triggering an angry backlash. Clashes then broke out in neighbouring villages on Sunday.
A video posted online instigated the violence - it claimed to show men being lynched to death in Kawal. But police officials, who have blocked the video, say it is at least two years old, and is "fake." A BJP state legislator, Sangeet Som, is among 250 people listed by the police in a case for uploading that video and sharing it on social networks.
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