Rumours lead to violence at Charminar

Rumours lead to violence at Charminar ATM, Shops Targeted TIMES NEWS NETWORK  Hyderabad: Communal tension was triggered at Charminar and surrounding areas late on Sunday night following rumours that the Bhagyalakshmi temple management was quickly completing erection of a pandal to cover the area around the temple. Thousands of people belonging to  the minority community gathered near the heritage structure, apprehending that this was a thinly veiled attempt to expand the temple premises to surround the historic structure. Subsequently, the mob damaged three police vehicles, pelted stones at some commercial establishments, damaged an ATM and targeted a super market.      Police said that it all began around 1 am, when hundreds of people began gathering at Volta café in Moghulpura where MIM MLAs Akbaruddin Owaisi and Mumtaz Khan were chatting with their cadres. Police said the legislators were in the Old City to attend a wedding at their party activist’s house in Chandrayangutta. But rumour mills became active, spreading information that the Bhagyalakshmi temple management was trying to complete building the temporary pandal with police support and that Akbaruddin was in the Old City to prevent this. A little later both the MLAs left the spot, but the incensed mob began marching towards Charminar. Within 30 minutes, hundreds of locals from Moghulpura, Shah Ali Banda and Hussainialam reached Charminar. By 1.30 am, the mob swelled to about 3,000 even as the police remained mute spectators. Charminar MLA Pasha Quadri reached the spot and spent about 10 minutes there talking to people. He assured them that no pandal would be erected there. Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi went around the area in his vehicle.      Assured by their political leaders that no pandal would be allowed at the temple, the mob began dispersing from the area. However, some miscreants, returning to their homes, pelted stones at public and private properties.In the rioting, three police vehicles, including the official vehicle of assistant commissioner of police (ACP), Falaknuma, Taher Ali, were damaged. “The mob damaged window glasses and windshields of three police vehicles,” Hussainialam inspector J Venkat Reddy said.      The miscreants also pelted stones at SBH ATM and Wonder World super market in Shah Ali Banda. “The glass façade of the super market and glass panes of the ATM were damaged. We have booked a rioting case in both these incidents,” Moghulpura inspector B Naveen Kumar said. Cops framing youth: BJP  Hyderabad: On Monday evening, a BJP team, comprising Bandaru Dattatreya, Baddam Bal Reddy and Bangaru Laxman, met Hyderabad police commissioner Anurag Sharma. The BJP leaders alleged that police were harassing Hindu youth and falsely implicating them in communal violence cases. They also asked police support for completing the pandal at Bhagyalakshmi temple for Diwali celebrations.      Talking to the media, Anurag Sharma said that they were arresting miscreants, who violate the law only after gathering enough evidence, and “there is no religious bias at all”. To a query about the temple pandal issue, the commissioner said: “There is a court order about maintaining status quo there for the time being and we will be implementing it.” Police have arrested 35 persons till now and imposed sections 144 in the police station limits of Khulsumpura and Tappachabutra. The ATM that was damaged in Sunday night’s violence at Charminar

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