Curfew in Muzaffarnagar relaxed for two hours, situation under control

Muzaffarnagar District Magistrate (DM) Kaushal Raj Sharma on Tuesday said that the curfew in the riot-hit area has been relaxed for about two hours, and added that the situation is under control.

"The situation is under control. There has been no incident in the last 48 hours. Looking at this, the curfew would be relaxed so that the problems of the people of Uttar Pradesh can be reduced. There will be a relaxation in curfew from 3:45pm to 5:30pm. But there will be curfew the entire night," he said.

Earlier in the day, curfew remained in force in riot-hit areas of Muzaffarnagar district, where 31 people have died and more than three dozen were injured in communal violence over the weekend.

The police were issued shoot at sight orders and they have filed case against over 1,000 unknown people and arrested over 130, including four BJP MLAs and a former Congress MP.

With tension running high in the area, the Centre had on Monday offered to provide additional paramilitary forces to Uttar Pradesh to assist the local administration in dealing with the situation.

Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh government had constituted a one-member judicial commission to probe Muzaffarnagar violence.

The commission, which would mainly look into administrative lapses, if any, in controlling the violence, would submit its report to the government within two months.

"A one-member judicial inquiry commission of Justice Vishnu Sahai has been constituted by the government to probe the Muzaffarnagar violence starting from Kawal incident on August 27 till September 9," State Home Secretary Kamal Saxena said.

Violence broke out in the Kawal area of Muzaffarnagar on Saturday when members of a community returning from a panchayat meeting in Naglabadhod, three kilometres from Kawal, clashed with members of another community.