Stone pelting hours before Eid in Rajasthan's Jodhpur; CM calls for peace

Jodhpur, May 3 (PTI) Communal tension broke out in Jalori Gate area here, which led to stone pelting, leaving at least four policemen injured in the early hours of Tuesday.

As per reports, people of one community started raising slogans after a flag was put up on the statue of freedom fighter Bal Mukund Bissa and a banner related to Eid was strung up on the circle at Jalori.

The demonstrators removed the flag and banner, causing an uproar. The members of the other community got angry and clashes broke out between the two groups.

Stones were pelted from both sides, vehicles were damaged, the crowd even took down the loudspeaker. The police resorted to lobbing tear gas shells to bring the crowd under control.

The police lobbed tear gas shells to control the situation hours before Eid in the hometown of Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, who appealed to the people to maintain peace.

The two sides clashed with each other over installing a religious flag in connection with Eid, police said.

"Four policemen were injured in the stone pelting. Heavy police force was deployed in the area to control the situation," a source in the police control room said.

The chief minister asked the people to uphold brotherhood and called the incident unfortunate.

"While respecting the tradition of love and brotherhood of Jodhpur, Marwar, I make a touching appeal to all the parties to maintain peace and cooperate in restoring law and order," he said in a tweet.

Gehlot said he has instructed the administration to maintain peace and order.