Statues of Ambedkar were descrated in Allahabad and in two places in Karnataka on Wednesday, as the death anniversary of the Dalit icon was observed across the country.
The primary main functions were held in Maharashtra, which recently witnessed large-scale violent protests against Dalit killings and statue vandalisation, and these passed off peacefully.
The Ambedkar statue was found damaged in the premises of Allahabad University in Uttar Pradesh early Wednesday morning after which the students staged a road blocade and burnt an effigy of Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, accusing him of being responsible for the 'insult to Dalits' pride'.
Groups of police and Provincial Armed Constabulary personnel were deployed around the university area to prevent any outbreak of violence even as the varsity authorities got the statue repaired by afternoon.
In Karnataka, police lobbed teargas shells and charged with batons at Mannaekkelli village and Bidar town as Dalits torched buses and hurled stones after a string of footwear was found on the fence around an yet-to-be-unveiled statue of Ambedkar.
Police said the Dalits resorted to stone-pelting and torched at least two buses in Mannaekkelli in Humnabad taluk of Bidar district. Violence later spread to Bidar town, where scores of people resorted to stone-pelting damaging three to four buses.
In Mumbai, thousands of Ambedkar followers assembled at Chaityabhoomi, where he was cremated, and paid homage to him amidst tight security against the backdrop of violent protests against vandalisation of his statue in Kanpur and killing of a Dalit family in Khairlanji in Maharashtra.
