SURAT, JAN 31: The communal trouble that has plagued South Gujarat for the past few months surfaced again at Songadh last night when members of the Hindu and Muslim communities clashed. No fatalities or injuries were reported, but several buildings were allegedly torched. An SRP company has been deployed in the area.Police said the trouble broke out when some Bajrang Dal volunteers went to the Muslim Faliu late last night and asked the residents to remove some decorations they had put up on the occasion of Id. Two of these volunteers were intercepted and isolated by the locals near the ST depot and then assaulted.In retaliation, said a complaint lodged with the Songadh police, Dal volunteers set fire to five shops belonging to the minority community on the Highway early on Sunday; a couple of cabins belonging to the majority community also reportedly caught fire.Three separate complaints were lodged, by Farukh Umar Shaikh, Salim Ajab Patel and the Kamrej Circle Police Inspector, on torching of cabins and stone-throwing.Patel, whose cabin was gutted, alleged that a few stones were thrown at the neighbouring masjid as well. Though there was no damage to the shrine a board fell off, he said. Over a dozen Dal activists were named in the complaints.Jadhav, on the other hand, named 16 Muslims in his complaint, which said he had been beaten up and threatened with death. Munjer Usmanbhai was arrested by the police in connection with the attack on Jadhav.All BD activists were arrested by the police and brought to the Ucchal Police Station. Following their arrests, BD activists moved in the town on Sunday afternoon and forced all the shops to close. There was some tension in the town throughout the day, forcing district superintendent of police B D Vaghela to visit the area and deploy reinforcements.Bajrang Dal South Gujarat convenor Harish Surti claimed the BD activists had been falsely arrested and claimed that one of the torched cabins belonged to a Vishwa Hindu Parishad activist. The trouble, he alleged, had been sparked off when a boy accidentally tore down a piece of decoration and was subsequently beaten up by members of the minority community.Surti blamed the incident on the Adivasi Ekta Rally, organised by the Congress at Vyara on Saturday, where Mandvi MP Chhitubhai Gamit had asked tribals to take on BD volunteers.Gamit and Surat District Congress Committee President Yusufbhai Sava were among the Congress leaders who visited the affected localities. Gamit told Express Newsline that the VHP and BD had resorted to the violence because their strategy of targeting tribal Christians in the district had failed. He claimed it was no coincidence that the violence erupted after the successful rally of tribals in Vyara on Saturday.
