School stabbing sparks communal flare-up in Udaipur; Internet shut – Times of India



UDAIPUR: Protests and communal tension erupted Friday in Udaipur following the stabbing of a schoolboy by another from a different religion, shutting down markets amid stone-pelting, vehicle torchings and a mall rampage.
A Class 10 student of Government Higher Secondary School Bhattyani Chauhatta in Girwa area stabbed his classmate with a knife over an old enmity around 10.30am.District education officer Lokesh Bharti said both minors were around 15 years old.
The reason behind their dispute remains unknown. The attack occurred during an altercation outside school after lunch when one knifed the other two to three times in the thigh, Bharti added. The assailant has been detained and his father arrested, police said.
The injured student is in ICU at a city hospital and stable, collector Arvind Poswal said while promising a “thorough inquiry” into the attack. Late Friday evening, local authorities suspended mobile internet in the city for 24 hours to check rumour-mongering and incendiary messages.
As the school rushed the injured student to hospital, his family arrived there, followed by members of a religious organisation who started raising slogans. When the protesters swelled, more cops were deployed at the hospital.
As word about the stabbing spread, protests erupted in other areas of the city late afternoon. More than a dozen vehicles were set ablaze.
Forces deployed in all areas of city to check trouble
Most markets in the old city remained closed. Many organisations from the injured boy’s community shut down shops in various areas. The situation gradually escalated into violence.
An enraged mob vandalised shops and a mall in Chetak Circle area.
Fire brigades were rushed in to douse the torched vehicles.
Collector Poswal later invoked special provisions in Bhartiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita’s (BNS) Section 163, which gives local authorities powers to crack down on nuisance or apprehended danger to maintain law and order. Udaipur ASP Umesh Ojha said more forces had been deployed in nearly all areas of the city to check further trouble.





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