By Naushad Mallick, for Muslim Mirror,
Nawada, August 14: As Nawada town in Bihar entered third day of curfew today, several families of the poor and daily laborers are close to starvation with the district administration giving no relaxation in the curfew in day time and kirana shops in streets and mohallas getting out of stock.
The indefinite curfew was clamped on Monday in the entire town area of Nawada, about 150 kms from the state capital Patna, following fresh violent communal clashes leading to two deaths. The toll now has reached three with reported death of an injured in Patna Medical College Hospital on Tuesday.
The areas under curfew are not getting milk and newspapers for last three days. They are virtually under siege with paramilitary forces marching the streets armed with orders to shoot the rioter. The small shops in mohallas and lanes have run out of ration stock. The situation is very grim for the poor laborers who daily earn bread to live.
However, despite the orders of Shoot at Sight, some violent incidents have happened on Monday and Tuesday. A mazar of Jalal Bukhari adjacent to a temple near Bihar Bus Stand was damaged on Monday. A mosque in Nenaura village having five Muslim houses was attacked on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, college student Md. Iqbal who was killed on Monday was buried amidst tight security here on Tuesday afternoon. Despite curfew, around 2000 people offered funeral prayer while around 500 people took him to the graveyard in Moghlakhar locality under the supervision of SDO Deewan Jafar Hussain who was appointed for the task by the District Magistrate. Iqbal was first year student of KLS College in Nawada. He was killed with bullet fired by a mob of majority community of Bundelkhand locality while attacking Moghlakhar locality of the minority community.
The family of Iqbal had to make lots of efforts to lodge FIR as the police were refusing to do so. The family has made five persons accused for the killing but so far none of the accused has been arrested. In the wake of the media and police claims that Iqbal died with police bullet when he attacked a team of police, Iqbal’s family has demanded forensic enquiry of the bullet found in his body. His autopsy was conducted in Bihar Sharief.
Besides Iqbal, another youth Kundan Rajak was killed on Saturday in police firing when the youth reportedly tried to snatch the rifle of the policeman. The clashes started on Saturday over a petty dispute at a dhaba.
In the communal violence in last 5 days, around 75 shops including a showroom of footwear giant Bata owned by the minority community are reported to have been looted and burned. It is said most of these shops were in main market area in the vicinity of the offices of SP and DM.
To control the situation, the state government has deputed DIG Magadh range, Nayyar Hasnain Khan and IG in Nawada. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was due to visit Nawada on Tuesday but couldn’t due to undisclosed reasons.