Cops clash with mob as civic body's razing drive turns violent

A drive by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation to demolish illegal tenements in Fatehwadi area of the city turned violent today with a mob hurling stones and torching vehicles of police who retaliated with lathicharge.
Police arrested 18 persons for rioting and trying to obstruct the drive which was aimed at razing illegal constructions.
"We have arrested 18 persons under charges of rioting as they started assaulting cops who were on duty during AMC's demolition drive, and setting two of our vehicles on fire," said SP, Ahmedabad (rural) Nirlipt Rai.
The incident occurred when around 500 residents of the illegal buildings tried to stop the civic officials from conducting the exercise.

"The mob started pelting the police with stones and torching our vehicles as a result of which we used force and lathicharged them," said Rai.
According to a statement by AMC, seven residential buildings were completely razed by its squad in Fatehwadi and adjoining Sarkhej areas amid the foolproof police protection.

The civic body will continue with its drive to demolish around 122 such buildings in the area, it said.
Meanwhile, the exercise took a political turn when leaders of the Congress sat on a dharna outside the residence of municipal commissioner D Thara in Law Garden area to register their protest.

"Those alleged illegal residential buildings were not built over-night. Builders who built them must have secured permission from the civic body....Why the BJP-led AMC began the drive today and started harassing people instead of nabbing those builders," said Gayasuddin Sheikh, the Leader of Opposition in AMC.
This is a political drive which is aimed at harassing a particular community, he alleged.
"This is the time of Board exams for the children of those whose houses have been razed today and AMC has rendered them home-less at this crucial time," Sheikh said.