LUCKNOW: In a surprise raid on a gay bash Saharanpur police over the weekend arrested 13 people on charges of obscenity at a public place. Most of those arrested are outsiders who had come from places as far as Delhi, Haryana, Uttarakhand besides other western Uttar Pradesh districts.The occasion was a birthday bash thrown by one Bunty Vinod, the owner of Bunty Beauty Parlour in Jafar Nawaz area, at Guru Tegh Bahadur Dharamshala on Ambala Road in Saharanpur. The party was attended by over 100 people, the police said. Police said many of the arrested persons are affluent and include doctors, lecturers, social activists and students."All of them had come specially for the party and this was strange in itself," said an officer who participated in the raid. Apart from Bunty Vinod, those arrested include a surgeon, a school teacher of Rishikesh Public School, a businessman owning a crockery store in Ganga Nagar, a management student of IIPS, Dehradun — all from Uttarakhand. The management student belongs to Adhorwala in Raipur.Besides, a taxi driver from Daryaganj (Delhi), a student of engineering in computer science from Sahibabad (Ghaziabad), a second year student of Khalsa College, Delhi, residing at Kamla Vihar in Sant Nagar, HIV counsellor of Sri Baksh Hospital in Moti Nagar (Delhi) were also arrested. A ward boy from Bismillah Nursing Home in Moradabad and a BA second year student from Model Town in Yamuna Nagar also figured in the list. There was resistance police action but the gays gave up after police officials explained that they had nothing against the gay party or community. "Action was taken only against those who were found in objectionable positions in public," said circle officer, city, Avinash Misra, who supervised the raid."The raid was conducted after a phone call that there were some suspicious-looking outsiders gathering at a dharamshala. The tip appeared important and couldn't be overlooked particularly in view of the recent terror alerts. When we reached the site, we found some of the guests in compromising position and recovered used condoms as well. Such things merit action," he said.This was the first known formal all-gay party in Saharanpur that has come to light, police said and has left this ultra-conservative town shocked. "This is certainly unheard of in Saharanpur. I don't know where are we heading to," said Ayub Qureshi, a teacher in a local college, expressing shock over the incident. "There has to be something more than a mere meeting of those having similar sexual orientation. Had they been all locals, it would have been understandable. But this appears to be more of a community get together," he said.