Hindu groups have said they will go ahead with their "shobha yatra" in Haryana's Nuh today, despite the authorities denying permission for any rally in the communally sensitive district.
Six people were killed in clashes that broke out in Muslim-majority Nuh on July 31, when a Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) procession was attacked by mobs. The dead included two home guards and a cleric.
In response to the defiance, the Haryana government has tightened security in the district by deploying 1,900 Haryana Police personnel and 24 companies of paramilitary forces at inter-state and inter-district borders.
"The situation is normal in the area. Force deployment has been done in the area to maintain a peaceful environment...The Internet services have been suspended in the area. We will remove all restrictions once everything is normal in the area," senior police officer Mamata Singh said, as quoted by news agency ANI.
The state administration denied permission for the yatra due to the G20 Sherpa Group meeting in Nuh from September 3 to 7 and the need to maintain law and order after the July 31 violence.
As a precautionary measure, prohibitory orders have been clamped in the district. Outsiders are banned from entering, educational institutions and banks are closed and mobile internet and bulk SMS services have been suspended. An assembly of four or more people has also been banned in the district that saw communal clashes in July.
Police personnel are conducting thorough checking of vehicles at the Sohna toll in Gurugram. Every vehicle passing through the toll is being stopped and searched by the Haryana Police as part of the administration's security arrangements.
Two seers from Ayodhya have alleged that they were stopped at a toll plaza on their way to Nuh.
"I have come here from Ayodhya...The administration has stopped us here, they are not allowing us to move ahead nor they are allowing us to go back. So I am doing fast until death. If they (the administration) will shift me somewhere else, I will do fast until death there also," said Seer Jagadguru Paramhans Acharya Maharaj, as quoted by news agency ANI.
The 'Sarv Jatiya Hindu Mahapanchayat', on August 13, called for a resumption of the yatra today after it was disrupted by communal violence in July.
Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Sunday advised people to visit nearby temples and offer prayers instead of participating in the procession that has been denied permission by the authorities.
According to the Hindu calendar, August 28 is the last Monday of the holy month of Shravan.
"Instead of a 'yatra', people can visit temples in their areas for 'jalabhishek'," Chief Minister Khattar said.
So far, 393 people have been arrested and 118 have been taken into preventive detention in connection with the communal clashes.
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