Nuh Violence: Centre to permanently station Rapid Action Force in Mewat, Amit Shah to soon lay foundation stone

Union Home Minister Amit Shah has assured Gurugram Member of Parliament and Minister of State Rao Inderjit Singh that he will very soon lay the foundation stone of a special and permanent camp of the Rapid Action Force (RAF) in communally sensitive Muslim majority Mewat district of Haryana which has been gripped by Hindu-Muslim riots. Sources told Firstpost that the Gurugram MP had met Amit Shah to reiterate his longstanding demand for the camp as riots singed Nuh in Mewat after a Muslim crowd stopped the Brij Mandal Jalabhishek Yatra at the Nuh intersection and prevented it from reaching a Shiva temple on July 31. Allegedly the crowd pelted stones and hurled petrol bombs on the procession. Incidentally, Singh had proposed the RAF camp to be set up in Mewat to prevent communal clashes back in 2014 in the wake of Hindu-Muslim clashes, not unlike Nuh, in Mewat’s Tauru. Back then he had approached the then Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh with the proposal to which the latter had given approval in principle. Indri village was later identified as the cite where the camp would come up. While the matter has been hanging fire since then on one pretext or the other, this time Amit Shah has taken the matter in his hands and has assured that he will soon lay the foundation stone of the camp building without any more delays. At least five people, including two Home Guards, have been killed, and 45 people have been injured. The violence, which started in Nuh spread to neighbouring Gurugram. Hindu-Muslim tension broke out during a religious procession in Nuh’s Khedla Mod. The Brij Mandal Jalabhishek Yatra, organised by the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), was stopped by a group of young men. As the mob tried to disrupt the procession, the two sides came to loggerheads. Stones were pelted and cars were set on fire, and as Home Guards intervened, they were shot at, said the police. More than 100 vehicles were burnt and people sort refuge in the Nalkeshwar Temple from where the procession was scheduled to begin. Over 150 new motorcycles were looted from a showroom in the area and a cyber police station was attacked by miscreants. Central paramilitary forces were rushed in last night to get a grip on the situation in Nuh and a curfew has been imposed. A mosque was attacked in the Sector 57 area of Gurugram, leading to the death of a man and taking the toll in the violence that erupted over an attempt to stop a Vishva Hindu Parishad procession in Nuh district to five, police said on Tuesday. Authorities on Tuesday imposed a curfew in Nuh where two home guards were killed and many others, including several policemen, injured on Monday, as Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij alleged that the violence was “engineered”. In Gurugram, a 26-year-old man was killed and a mosque set ablaze in Sector 57 as the violence spread from neighbouring Nuh, the police said.