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July 14, 2000
NEWSLINKS
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Malpura: one murder led to communal carnage
Josy Joseph in Malpura, Rajasthan Riot-ravaged Malpura, about 150 kilometres from Jaipur, continues to be tense, despite the Rajasthan government rushing in more police and Rapid Action Force personnel to prevent further bloodshed. The death toll in the communal rioting has reached 12, even as curfew continues in Malpura town, which has a population of about 25,000, and the district headquarters, Tonk. The riots were sparked off on the afternoon of July 10, when a local Bharatiya Janata Party leader, an accused in the 1992 riots in Malpura in which 22 people had been killed, was murdered. The incident led to several gruesome attacks -- women and children were dragged out of vehicles and stabbed to death, religious places were set on fire, a 11-year-old boy was thrown down from the top of his home by a mob which killed his mother and seriously injured his three sisters. For three days, a section of both the Hindu and Muslim communities went berserk, shattered the normalcy and broke the slim thread of peace that had been prevailing in a town with a history of communal riots. Both communities have lost six members each -- mostly old men, women and children -- and all from poor labourer families. State Home Minister Gulab Singh Shekhawat told rediff.com in Jaipur this morning that the state government has requested the Centre to send five more RAF companies to the riot-struck area. Already there are three RAF companies in Malpura and surrounding villages, besides one company in Jaipur. "In the last 24 hours there have been no untoward incidents. But today being Friday we are leaving nothing to chance. We have intensified our police patrolling, besides summoning five more RAF companies," he said. He said the state government has posted an additional director general of police in Malpura to oversee the law and order situation; already there are about a thousand policemen on duty in the area. "We have given magisterial powers to tehsildars and block development officers so that preventive action can be taken at the earliest," he said. Satyanarayan Jain, the deputy inspector general of police in charge of Jaipur range II under which Tonk district falls, told rediff.com that the police has intensified patrolling in the villages where stray incidents have taken place over the last 48 hours. The last reported incident was on Wednesday morning, at a village on the outskirts of Todi Rai Singh town, where a large crowd demolished a place of worship and set it afire. Later, they broke into the homes nearby and attacked the families at random. "He was wearing a turban, I know him," one of the victims, told rediff.com from her bed in the Malpura government hospital. While the victim and her 10-year-old daughter have been admitted to the government hospital, two other children -- aged 14 and 12 -- are in Jaipur undergoing treatment. In another incident, the local police discovered the decomposed body of a man in his late 60s, late on Wednesday. DIG Jain said his murder "does not seem to be linked to the riots." The riots flared up in Malpura after Kailash Mali, a local BJP leader and husband of the vice-chairperson of the Malpura municipality, was murdered. He was pushed down from his motorcycle in the middle of the road, and stabbed repeatedly. He died while he was being rushed to Jaipur. According to police records, Mali led a riotous mob in the wake of the Babri Masjid demolition in 1992, and was the main culprit in the murder of 19 people. Malpura had then witnessed large-scale violence in which 26 people were killed. News of Mali's murder spread like wildfire, and soon the town and neighbouring villages were engulfed in violence. Within a couple of hours, labourers working in a nearby field were attacked by a mob, which killed four of them. Later, on Monday evening, another crowd stopped a jeep coming from Todar Rai Singh town, dragged out all the occupants and killed four people on the spot. An old man standing nearby was also murdered by the mob. About 45 people have been arrested so far, both for substantive offences such as rioting and under precautionary laws. DIG Jain said 11 cases have been registered till now. Additional Director General of Police Arun Duggal told rediff.com that the "situation is under control, but tense." He said police officers and district administration officials have been meeting leaders from both communities to bring back peace.
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