Curfew Imposed in Gujarat After Night of Rioting

“The curfew has been imposed in three towns of northern Gujarat and some areas of the cities of Surat, Ahmedabad, Mehsana and Rajkot”, a senior police officer said.

“Since yesterday, the type of atmosphere that is building up in the land of Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Patel, the manner in which violence is being used as a tool… we all know that violence serves no goal”, Mr Modi said in a televised statement.

Elsewhere in the state parts of Surat and Mehsana district have been curfew-bound.

On Wednesday, cellphone networks in Ahmedabad – the state’s commercial capital and largest city – were blocked to avoid the spreading of rumors and gangs from managing their movements, the Associated Press reported.

Mob have either torched or completely ransacked nearly all the BRTS bus stops in the city during late night violence, police said.

Violence sparked off after the detention of Patidar Anamat Aandolan Samiti (PAAS) convener Hardik Patel after a massive rally of the outfit in Ahmedabad demanding other backward classes (OBC) quota for politically dominant Patel community in the state.

Gujarat chief minister Annadibein Patel request to the people of Gujarat to maintain peace, calm and to participate in activities in disrupting law and order across the state after violence broke out over Hardiks’s detention.

Internet services on mobile phones have been suspended across the state to check the spread of rumours through Whatsapp and SMS.

“Violence does not benefit anybody”, the Prime Minister said in an appeal on television. Violence has done no good to anyone ever.

Hardik Patel has threatened to link up with castes with similar complaints about the quota system and take the fight to New Delhi.

Well, the problem over Patel community reservation is swiftly intensifying since their leader Hardik Patel was briefly detained for holding a huge rally in Ahmedabad on Tuesday.

The Patidars or Patels are one of the state’s most affluent communities, but they say they are struggling to compete with less privileged castes for jobs.

Shops, other businesses and schools were closed in the tense areas of Ahmedabad under curfew and hundreds of police were already patrolling its largely deserted streets, an AFP reporter in the city said.

State-run buses have been burnt and government offices have been ransacked in these cities.