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The mammoth Ganesha procession in Hyderabad passed off peacefully amidst a show of unprecedented communal harmony on Friday.
Police Commissioner M V Krishna Rao said that nearly 21,000 policemen had been deployed to maintain law and order during the procession. Police used video cameras to film the procession and a helicopter was deployed to keep an eye on potential troublemakers.
Barring two or three minor incidents of stone-pelting and two accidents in which welcome dais collapsed, the procession meandered its way through the Muslim-dominated old city with senior Muslim leaders extending a welcome to their Hindu brethren.
The situation near Mecca Masjid and Charminar, which is a communally sensitive area and has witnessed several incidents of violence in the past, was slightly tense when Muslims gathered for Friday prayers and the police stopped the procession 500 metres from the mosque.
The police allowed the main procession to move towards Mecca Masjid only after the Friday prayers were over and the namaazis dispersed.
Union Minister of State for Railways and Bharatiya Janata Party state leader Bandaru Dattatreya got a slight bruise on his right leg when a dais erected near the historic Charminar collapsed around noon. Other leaders, including state Tourism Minister T Srinivas Yadav, escaped unhurt.
The main dais, erected by the procession organizers, the Ganesh Utsav Samithi, collapsed suddenly due to overcrowding. The leaders later moved to another dais put up by the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, a local political party, a few furlongs away as a goodwill gesture to welcome the religious procession.
MIM councillors of the Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad also put up banners in the Charminar area welcoming the procession.
Another dais erected in the Santoshnagar area also collapsed due to overcrowding and five people got hurt, Additional Commissioner of Police A K Khan said.
Overall, compared to previous years, the situation was more relaxed this time. The MIM, which has its stronghold in the old city of Hyderabad, with four legislators and a Member of Parliament, had appealed to Muslims to offer prayers in local mosques instead of congregating in large numbers at the Mecca Masjid. City police officers as well as the organisers of the procession hailed this gesture.
The Ganesha procession, starting from Balapur in the old city, reached the Hussainsagar Lake in the heart of the city, where an estimated 10,000 idols of various sizes were immersed.
Nearly half a million Hindus participated in the daylong procession. Civic authorities had installed 30 cranes at the lake for the immersions.
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