Ahmedabad, August 29: Normalcy is gradually returning to Gujarat where authorities Saturday lifted curfew from all affected parts of the state as no major incident of violence was reported for two days after the Patel quota agitation turned violent early this week.
“As no violence was reported in the state, curfew has been lifted from all the parts of the state, where it was clamped on August 25,” Additional Director General of Police (law and order), PP Pandey said. In Ahmedabad city, curfew has been lifted from all the nine police station areas as the situation remained completely peaceful for around two days, officials said.
However, heavy deployment of para-military forces continued in all the areas hit by violence that had began from August 25 after the leader of the quota agitation, Hardik Patel was detained by the city police. Ahmedabad District Collector Rajkumar Beniwal said five companies of Army which were called in to control violence will be sent back soon.
“Curfew has been lifted from six police stations areas here including Nikol, Bapunagar, Naroda, Odhav, Krushnanagar and Ramol today,” the city control room officer, A K Desai said. This decision was taken by Commissioner of Police in the city, Shivanand Jha after no big incident of violence was reported in the city for around two days, said Desai. Curfew was clamped in nine areas of the city including Nikol, Odhav, Ramol, Bapunagar, Ghatlodia, Naranpura, Naroda,Krishnanagar and Vadaj August 26 after widespread violence, incidents of arson, burning of public and private properties and stone-pelting was reported here.
Friday, curfew was lifted from three areas of the city (Naranpura, Ghatlodia and Vadaj), Desai said. The city roads witnessed normal traffic with buses of BRTS (Bus Rapid Transport System) and AMTS (Ahmedabad Municipal Transport System) plying Saturday. In view of the festival of Rakshabandhan, shops as well as other business establishments remained open Saturday with people flocking the markets.
In other violence-hit districts including Rajkot, Mehsana, Surat, Jamanagar, Morbi and Sabarkantha, normalcy has returned. However, mobile Internet services across the state are barred till Monday, said a senior police official. According to a notification issued by Ahmedabad City Police Commissioner, Mobile Internet services are barred till Monday to avoid rumours and provocative messages. PTI