The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday demanded the dismissal of the Uttar Pradesh Government following the riots in Muzaffarnagar, where atleast 40 people have died and more than three dozen were injured in communal violence over the weekend.
"BJP wants peace in Uttar Pradesh, but unless and until Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav is there, there cannot be any kind of peace," BJP spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain said.
Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Naresh Aggarwal said the situation was under control in the riot struck areas.
"I think instead of spreading rumours people should handle the situation with courage. Let the situation calm down after that we can discuss the details of the situation," he said.
SP President Mulayam Singh on Tuesday defended the Akhilesh Yadav-led Uttar Pradesh Government, and said that it took stringent measures in the Muzaffarnagar riots and the situation was brought under control within two days.
"The government did everything to control the violence. The situation was under control within two days. We couldn't have opened fire as innocents could have died. What happened in Muzaffarnagar was very unfortunate. The security forces dealt with the problem very effectively," he said.
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"It is because of the sternness shown by the government that the situation remained calm," he added.
He further said that communal elements are trying to take advantage of the violence in Muzaffarnagar and its adjoining areas.
The situation in violence-hit Muzaffarnagar is limping back to normalcy amid heavy deployment of the army and paramilitary forces.
Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Arun Kumar, who has been closely monitoring the situation, today said that peace prevailed in the district when the curfew was relaxed.
"First, we gave a two hour relaxation and then increased it by half-an-hour. It was peaceful and we faced no problems in closing it. After that, we did not get any information of an untoward incident from anywhere," said Kumar.
Curfew was on Tuesday relaxed for two hours in three areas of trouble-hit Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh even as the death toll in the clashes in the district and adjoining towns climbed to 40.
With no reports of any fresh violence, curfew was eased for two hours from 3.45 pm in Kotwali, Civil Lines and Nai Nandi areas, District Magistrate Kaushal Raj Sharma said on Tuesday.
The district administration had clamped curfew on Saturday following incidents of communal violence.
Meanwhile, the Uttar Pradesh Government has constituted a one-member judicial commission to probe Muzaffarnagar violence.
The commission, which would mainly look into administrative lapses, if any, in controlling the violence, would submit its report to the government within two months.
Violence broke out in the Kawal area of Muzaffarnagar on Saturday when members of a community returning from a panchayat meeting in Naglabadhod, three kilometres from Kawal, clashed with members of another community.