Raisen

Meerut

Curfew

Kunwar Sarvesh Kumar Singh

Kunwar Singh Tanwar

Satyapal Saini

An argument over a bus seat and a fight over Rs 100 resulted in two separate incidents of communal violence 630 km apart.was imposed on Friday night in Raisen town in Madhya Pradesh, after a clash between two communities left seven people injured, three of them with gunshot wounds. The fight was started by two men who got into a heated argument over a seat on a Raisen-bound bus.After the bus reached the town, which is about 50 km from state capital Bhopal, the two men called their supporters and the matter soon got out of control. The mob engaged in stone-pelting and arson.Four shops and as many vehicles were set on fire, while several other shops and parked vehicles were also damaged. Police lathicharged the rioters and lobbed teargas shells before being forced to fire in the air as the situation got out of control, Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) Mukesh Vaishya said, adding that 33 people have been arrested.Meanwhile, in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, two men from different communities argued over a loan of Rs 100, resulting in at least six people suffering injuries. The incident took place on Friday night, and the fight escalated into a riot when people from the two communities took to the streets and indulged in stonepelting, SSP Omkar Singh said.The situation in Moradabad, where 65 people were arrested on Friday for stone-pelting, firing and blocking the Moradabad- Saharanpur railway track, remained tense on Saturday. The issue of holding a ‘mahapanchayat’ in the town’s Kanth area turned into a violent protest on Friday, during which BJP leaders including four MPs, and an MLA who was accused in the Muzaffarnagar riots, were briefly detained. Moradabad MP, Amroha MP, Sambhal MP, Rampur MP Nepal Singh , MLA Sangeet Som and their supporters were among those detained.The 'mahapanchayat' was called by the BJP in defiance of the state order, after a recent dispute in Kanth over removal of a loudspeaker from a temple, which led to communal tension in the area.