Kanwariyas clash with police in Varanasi

Kanwariyas set afire a roadways bus and a circle officer’s Bolero jeep at Mirzamurad on the Allahabad- Varanasi highway late on Friday evening when cops tried to switch off the music system which the Kanwariyas were carrying.

Several cops were injured in the clash with Kanwariyas.

In order to control the mob, cops opened fire in air and resorted to cane charge. The violence on the busy highway led to traffic jam.

Deputy inspector general of police A Satish Ganesh, district magistrate Pranjal Yadav and senior superintendent of police Ajay Mishra rushed to the spot. A large contingent of police force- PAC, RAF and commandoes of ATS- was rushed to Mirzamurad to control the violence. Situation remained tense till late Friday night.

According to reports, hundreds of kanwariyas blocked the Varanasi-Allahabad highway at Kachhwa road, Mirzamurad when cops tried to stop the procession that was accompanied by a blaring DJ on Friday.

Situation took an ugly turn when cops tried to switch off the DJ. Kanwariyas went berserk and set afire a Bolero jeep of circle officer, Cantonment, and a roadways bus.

The unruly mob also resorted to brick batting and pelted cops with stones.
Circle officer, Chetganj, Raj Kumar, station officer, Manduadih, Sanjeev Mishra, constable Pradeep Yadav and several other police personnel were injured in the clash.

Cops resorted to cane charge to control kanwariyas. However, when the situation continued to remain grim despite the cane charge, cops opened fire in air to contain violence. For more than one and a half hours violence continued on the busy Varanasi-Allahabad highway. Traffic movement on the busy highway came to a grinding halt. Long queues of vehicles were formed on both ends of the highway.

Till late on Friday night, the highway remained blocked and normal traffic movement could not be restored on the highway.

It was after 11.30pm on Friday that cops managed to pacify kanwariyas and their small groups were allowed to move to Varanasi.