Kasganj incident shameful, a blot on UP: Guv Ram Naik

Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Govenor Ram Naik today termed the Kasganj communal clash as a "blot" on the state and asked the government to initiate measures to ensure such incidents did not recur. The governor noted that such an incident had occurred in the state for the first time in the last 9-10 months and described it as "shameful". In Kasganj, where the situation is tense but under control, clashes between two communities had claimed one life.

At least three shops, two buses and a car were torched after a youth was killed in clashes following stone-pelting by a mob on a motorcycle rally taken out to celebrate Republic Day. "Whatever happened in Kasganj was not good. The incident there is a 'kalank' (blot) for UP. The government is probing the incident. It should initiate effective measures to ensure that such incidents are not repeated," he told reporters here. The Yogi Adityanath government, which stormed to power in Uttar Pradesh riding a saffron wave nearly a year ago, was recently advised by Vice President Venkaiah Naidu to tone up law and order in the state.

Naidu advised Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to take back firearms from people as they were main cause of crime.

"Those who have firearms should return weapons. I want to ask the CM that in UP a large number of people have firearms. This is main cause of crime incidents," Naidu had said at the first UP Diwas event here last week.

He had said "law and order should be top priority".

On asked about the situation in Kasganj, UP government spokesman and senior cabinet minister Sidharth Nath Singh today said he has seen reports that shops are opening now. "The situation is returning to normal, which is a good sign," he added. As many as 112 people were arrested and security forces personnel intensified vigil in the strife-torn Kasganj in western UP. The UP Police said drone cameras had been deployed for aerial surveillance and described the situation as improving. Explosives were found during house-to-house searches following which the state police chief said the stringent National Security Act (NSA) would be invoked against culprits.

Under the NSA, a person can be detained without bail or trial and authorities need not disclose grounds of detention if they believe the detainee can act in a way that poses a threat to the security of the state/country or the maintenance of public order.

The Yogi Adityanath-led government has stressed that the guilty would not be spared.