Bohras help avoid congestion in Bhavnagar

The annual Rath Yatra of Lord Jagannath in Bhavnagar went off peacefully after passing through communally sensitive areas as police made special deployment for the assembly of Bohras for namaz late on Wednesday evening.

The annual Rath Yatra of Lord Jagannath in Bhavnagar went off peacefully after passing through communally sensitive areas as police made special deployment for the assembly of Bohras for namaz late on Wednesday evening.

The Rath Yatra in Bhavnagar,the second largest after Ahmedabad in terms of participation of devotees,began from Jagannath Mandir in Subhash Nagar area at 8 am. At the time of going to the press,the yatra was past the communally sensitive area of Khar Gate and Haluria Chowk,around 9 km away from its starting point. After completing its march on 17-km long route,the yatra was scheduled to culminate the at Jagannath Mandir at around 10 pm.

Meanwhile,police made special deployment in Barton Library Chowk and adjoining areas for safe passages of members of Bohra community going to offer their evening namaz. Their namaz starts at 7.30 pm. But today,they agreed to assemble early before the namaz time to avoid congestion in Haluria Chowk,Khar Gate and Barton Library Chowk. We had deployed around 150 personnel for their safe passage, Bhavnagar SP Maninder Singh Pawar said.

The Bohra community observed their fast on the first day of the holy Ramzan. Haluria Chowk is a sensitive area and firing had taken place during Rath Yatra in 1995. However,we have made enough security arrangements for the yatra this year and no untoward incident has been reported so far, the SP further said. Around 2,500 personnel had been deployed in that city,he said.

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