Junagadh violence: One killed, 174 held in clash with police during eviction drive in Gujarat

One person was killed in a stone pelting incident reported in Junagadh when the local body attempted to remove an encroachment of a religious structure.

Junagadh:One person was killed and several others injured after a deadly clash broke out between the police personnel and a group of people from a particular faith who were against demolishing a religious structure which the local body declared "an illegal structure," on Friday night.

Police said tempers ran high in the Junagadh Municipal Corporation area ever since the local body issued a notice to the religious structure's administrators to present the land ownership and other permission-related documents connected to the building or to face eviction.

A protest erupted on Friday night when the civic body went to demolish the 'illegal structure' in connection with the eviction notice. The notice had sought documents from the religious structure's administrators within five days. As there was no response from the mosque after the five-day period, the Corporation proceeded with its action, as promised.

When the people of the said religious group learnt about the arrival of the demolition team, the former ganged up against the anti-encroachment drive. A mob of about 500 to 600 people were gathered at the spot. Despite repeated pleas from police to disperse from the spot, the crowd stood its ground.

Miscreants from the crowd attacked the police with stones. The situation escalated with the mob turning unruly. They also set police vehicles on fire besides resorting to vandalism in the locality. The religious structure - a dargah was located at Majewadi Gate.

According to Superintendent of Police (SP) Junagadh Ravi Teja Vasamsetty, a mosque near Majewadi Gate was given notice by the civic body, which sought a reply within five days. Around 500-600 people gathered there yesterday. The police were trying to convince protestors not to block the road, the SP said.

The SP said stone pelting occurred after 10.15 pm. Police were attacked. We carried out a lathi charge to disperse the crowd. A few police were injured in this incident. We have so far rounded up 174 people. One of the civilians wounded in the attack died in stone pelting. We will get to know more about what led to the casualty when the postmortem report, the SP said.