Curfew to be relaxed in riot-hit areas of Muzaffarnagar

The district administration reviewed the situation and decided relax curfew to let people attend necessary chores

With the situation limping back to normalcy, the district administration on Wednesday decided to relax curfew for four hours from noon in three areas of riot-hit Muzaffarnagar.

District Magistrate Kaushal Raj Sharma said curfew would be relaxed for four hours from 12 noon. Death toll in the clashes in the district and adjoining towns has claimed 40 lives.

The district administration reviewed the situation and took a decision to relax curfew to help the people attend necessary chores.

Strict vigil was being maintained during the relaxation period and police and paramilitary forces are on high alert. The administration had imposed curfew in Kotwali, Civil Lines and Nai Mandi areas of the district of Saturday last following communal flare up.

No one would be allowed to disturb peace in the area, the DM warned.

Yesterday, curfew was relaxed for over two hours in three areas of trouble-hit Muzaffarnagar.

A total of 40 people have died in the clashes in various districts of western Uttar Pradesh. Besides Muzaffarnagar, two deaths have been reported from Meerut, one each are reported from Hapur, Baghpat, Saharapur and Shamli.

UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav had yesterday said, "The state government would deal strictly with all those who have tried to create communal chasm and harm the atmosphere of Muzaffarnagar and Uttar Pradesh."

"It would be our effort that communal amity is strengthened and the areas where situation has been brought under control no new incidents are allowed to take place", he said.

"We have got information that many people have left there homes and villages and collected elsewhere and they have to return...It would be my appeal that brotherhood should remain intact", he said.

Meanwhile, the Uttar Pradesh government has given a financial assistance of Rs15 lakh to the wife of a news channel correspondent Rajesh Verma, who was killed in the clashes.