As Nuh burns, neighbouring Bharatpur in Rajasthan also simmers

Jaipur: Did the communal violence that broke out in Haryana's Nuh district originate from Rajasthan?

This is the question being asked in the desert state after eight of the arrested rioters were traced to Rajasthan.

Police officials said that the accused had reached there from villages in Bharatpur and Mewat areas of Alwar district. Many people are still in police custody.

Haryana’s just-transferred Nuh district SP Varun Singla told the media that the investigation is still going on. “So far we have arrested more than 141 rioters, out of them eight people are residents of villages in Bharatpur and Alwar districts of Rajasthan,” he said

Personnel from the Sadar police station of Nuh have arrested four people from the hilly area of Bharatpur district. Nasir-Junaid's village Ghatmika falls in the mountainous area. Here, Sabir, Ashfaq and Salim have been arrested.

Ghaseda village falls in the Pahadi police station area, from where Altaf has been arrested. At the same time, the addresses of the other accused are being verified.

Junaid (35) and Nasir (28) were residents of Ghatmika village in Bharatpur district of Rajasthan. Junaid's cousin Ismail had registered a case of kidnapping and assault of both at Gopalgarh police station in Bharatpur on February 15.

The next day, on February 16, the bodies of Junaid and Nasir were found in a burnt condition in a Bolero vehicle in Loharu town of Bhiwani district in Haryana. In this connection the Bharatpur police had registered a case of kidnapping and murder.

So far, in this case, the Gopalgarh police has arrested three accused -- Rinku Saini, Monu Rana and Gogi alias Monu Bhiwani -- and presented challans against them.

As many as 27 other accused including Monu Manesar, Vikas Arya and Vishal Jewli, Shashikant Munak, Shrikant Maroda and Yogendra Acharya are absconding, whom the police have not been able to nab till now. All the 30 accused are residents of Haryana.

The Nuh violence is being linked to revenge of the killing of Nasir-Junaid in the forests of Bhiwani, Haryana, four months ago. While officials believe that before the riots, panchayats were held in many villages of Mewat adjoining Rajasthan and then a mob reached Nuh, others said that Mewat and Bharatpur in Rajasthan earlier too had witnessed tense episodes over the issues of cow slaughter and cow smuggling.

Many areas of Rajasthan's three districts Alwar, Bharatpur and Dausa come under Mewat. After the violence in Haryana's Nuh district, Internet services were suspended in these areas as a precautionary measure. Section 144 was also imposed.

Nasir-Junaid's village Ghatmika in Bharatpur district is 50 km from Nuh district of Haryana; however, Nuh is only 12-15 kilometers away by hilly roads.

Locals in Bharatpur say that one should take the riots in Haryana as either Mewat's answer or compulsion. For many days, those people were posting videos on social media.

Monu Manesar, the alleged murderer of Nasir-Junaid, was saying repeatedly by putting out a video that he is coming to the rally and giving challenge after challenge to the community, they said.

There was already resentment among the people and the community over the murder of Nasir and Junaid and the non-arrest of the accused.

Meanwhile locals also say that not a single person from their village went to Haryana. Nuh is 52 kms away from our village. We are angry that people against whom there are fifty cases are releasing provocative videos. Why doesn't the police arrest them?

The Haryana government is giving them protection. Big leaders and commissioners get photographed with Manesar. On the other hand, even if a stick is seen near us, the police will catch us and put us in jail, they added.

Most of the people from Nasir and Junaid's village question why their killers have not been caught?

Not catching the killers till now is also a failure of both the Haryana and Rajasthan police. If the police want, they can arrest all of them in a day. Is it the pressure of the government that the police are not catching them, only they can answer.

Yes, the police are also appealing to arrest these criminals as soon as possible so that such riots do not happen, they added.