'Communal incidents in Uttar Pradesh result of planned action'

A Press Council of India (PCI) appointed single-member fact finding committee has held that incidents of communal violence, including attack on a local weekly in Faizabad, in Uttar Pradesh last year were the result of a planned action. The report also held that the attack on bilingual Hindi- Urdu publication 'Aapki Taaqat' was due to communal motives and not because of any writings or thought. In the report, Sheetla Singh, editor of Faizabad's Hindi daily 'Jan Morcha', has recommended several measures including action against officials whose lack of action allowed the violence to occur. Among several other measures, the report has also recommended that steps should be taken so that communal propaganda is not allowed to spread and a judicial probe into the Faizabad incident. Press Council chairperson Justice Markandey Katju had appointed the committee to look in to the incidents related to the attack on the office of the local publication last year.