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Communal violence leads to imposition of curfew in UP town

Sharat Pradhan in Lucknow

Communal violence took one life and led to the imposition of curfew in Mau town, about 60 km from Varanasi in eastern Uttar Pradesh on Sunday .

The trouble began after a bomb blast disrupted a Durga Puja procession while it was passing through a Muslim locality.

District Magistrate Subhash Chandra told rediff.com over the telephone, "The blast provoked clashes between members of the two communities, in which one person was stabbed. The man later succumbed to his injuries."

"News of the death spread like wildfire, sparking off violence," Chandra said. The administration then clamped a curfew in the communally sensitive town, he added.

On Monday morning, the DM maintained, "The situation is under control, but the curfew is being continued as a preventive measure, considering the communally sensitive background of Mau."

According to a spokesman of the state home department, a contingent of the Rapid Action Force and riot squads from the Provincial Armed Constabulary have been rushed from Varanasi to keep a strict vigil in the town. Armed police have been deployed at Hindu and Muslim religious sites and public places like the railway station.

The state government has announced ex gratia relief of Rs 200,000 to the next of kin of the riot victim. Of the two men injured in the blast, one has been discharged from hospital while the other, who fractured his lower limb, continues to remain in hospital.

Movement of any kind has been banned on the city roads. However, normal traffic continues to ply on the highway leading to Gorakhpur.

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