Lawless in Uttar Pradesh

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) President Mayawati on Wednesday demanded that President's rule be imposed in Uttar Pradesh as the law-and-order machinery there had broken down. She also said PM Narendra Modi's graph was declining but expressed fear the BJP might try to arouse communal passions by triggering riots before the Assembly elections. In 2013, the National Crime Records Bureau had termed UP the worst state in terms of occurence of crimes. Crimes against women had increased over 50% since 2012, it said. Data for 2014 have not been released but several crimes against women, attacks on journalists and localised communal riots have happened in UP in two months. Here is a look at some of the incidents:

CRIMES

• May 25: In Shamli district, journalist Vinay Baliyan shot at
• June 1: Journalist Jagendra Singh set on fire at his Shahjahanpur residence. Singh named minister Ram Murti Singh Verma and Inspector Sri Prakash Rai in his statement. Singh had been investigating the minister's alleged involvement in illegal mining and land-grabbing cases.
  He died on June 8. The minister was booked but not arrested
• June 10: Journalist Deepak Mishra shot at, ostensibly for running a campaign against gambling dens in Kanpur
• June 12: In Basti, journalist Dheeraj Pandey run over by an SUV, allegedly belonging to a ruling-party MLA
• June 30: 14-year-old girl gangraped in Badaun district
• July 7: A 40-year-old woman dies of injuries after allegedly being set on fire by two cops who attempted to rape her at a police station in Barabanki district

COMMUNAL TENSIONS

• 2 May: In Shamli, tension after youth of one community assaulted people of another in a train
• 27 June: In Muzaffarnagar, clashes between two communities after reports of sexual harassment in Rampur area
• 27 June: In Faizabad, objectionable content on social media leads to protests and tension
• 30 June: In Ghaziabad, nearly a dozen injured after clashes between two communities over use of loudspeakers
• 4 July: In Mahoba, shops torched on rumours a calf has been killed
• 5 July: In Meerut, clashes over a minor incident in Kankarkhera police station area
• 5 July: In Pratapgarh, clashes between two communities; several houses in half a dozen villages burnt
• 5-7 July: In Kannauj, tension after a scuffle over eviction of a shop; one person shot dead

Compiled by Archis Mohan from reports in Dainik Jagaran, Amar Ujala, The Hindu, The Indian Express