Curfew in parts of Nagpur after protest against Aurangzeb tomb sparks violence

Amidst the ongoing violence, prohibitory orders have been imposed in the city, police said after another clash broke out in the Hansapuri area. Several houses and vehicles were vandalised and burnt.

Nagpur CP Dr Ravinder Singal said that section 163 of Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (empowering Magistrates to issue immediate preventive orders in urgent cases to prevent obstruction, danger to human life, public disturbance, or riots, and can be directed at individuals, specific areas, or the general public) has been imposed in the city.

Violence erupted in central Nagpur in the Chitnis Park area in Mahal on Monday around 7.30 pm with stones hurled at police amid rumours that the holy book of a community was burnt during an agitation by a right-wing body for the removal of Aurangzeb's tomb, leaving six persons and three policemen injured, officials said.

Gupta was injured in the attack and said that the mob also vandalised a neighbour's shop. He added that the police arrived an hour later.

Angry residents called for immediate police action against the mob. A PTI Correspondent spotted a couple locking their house and leaving for a safer place around 1.20 am.

Chandrakant Kawde, another resident, who was working for Ramnavami Shobha Yatra said the mob burnt all his decoration articles and threw stones at the houses.

Some of the residents came out in their galleries and watched as a posse of cops led by senior officers marched into the lanes.

A resident of the Hansapuri area speaking to PTI said that the mob came to their home at around 10.30 pm and burnt their vehicles parked outside the house and a fire also broke out as they torched vehicles and properties.

“We doused the fire by putting water from the first floor of our house before the fire brigade came,” she said.

Another resident, Vansh Kawle, said that the mob had covered their faces and broke the CCTV camera. They also tried to break into their homes 

One more resident who has a tea stall in front of a clinic said that the mob entered the clinic (Bandu clinic), broke all the tables and medicines and vandalised the clinic and tea stall.

Police have been deployed in the Hansapuri area, officials said