Hyderabad: With two back-to-back communal incidents having been reported in the last fortnight in the state, city police commissioner CV Anand on Wednesday held a meeting with all divisional assistant commissioners of police, zonal deputy commissioners of police, and others to discuss the need to improve preparedness and reactions.
Anand, in the meeting with senior police officials from the Hyderabad police, also discussed about keeping a watch on various activities of communal and political groups. “The need for improvement in police preparedness and reactions, the acclimatization of new entrants in the police force was also emphasised,” said a press release from his office.
This meeting was held in view of communal violence that took place in the city at Karmanghat last week. On the night of February 22, half a dozen cattle transporters got into an altercation with right-wing Hindu self-styled gau rakshaks (cow protectors) who tried to stop the a vehicle which was carrying some bovines.
After the vehicle stopped, both sides got into a fight, after which the gau rakshats ran into a Hanuman temple nearby and rumours began spreading that the Hanuman Temple itself attacked. It lead to communal tensions in the area following which the BJP and gau rakshaks held a protest the same night, in which a cop was injured, while two police vehicles were also damaged.
The police arrested seven people for the altercation, while it took some of the right-wing gau rakshaks also into custody soon after. Aside form thus, two days ago on February 28 a Muslim fruit vendor in Karimnagar was asked to take down a ‘Happy Shivratri’ board from his cart by a BJP worker passing by on his bike. The BJP worker was seen in the viral video aggressively arguing with the vendor about the board.
The meeting also had a discussion about the steps to ensure that everyone in the police force, right from the home guard takes responsibility. Police preparation for the upcoming assembly elections and the festival season was also discussed.
