LUCKNOW: Communal tension prevailed in Meerut on Sunday following reports that a Muslim youth and his family had allegedly kidnapped a Hindu girl, forced her to enter into a Nikaah (Muslim marriage contract) in order to convert her to Islam about a fortnight ago and were now torturing her.

On Sunday, the girl's family lodged an FIR with the police accusing the youth and his family of torturing the girl as a result of which she had suffered internal injuries in the abdomen area. The allegations triggered tension across Meerut which tops the list of communally sensitive districts in the state.

According to a statement issued by the director general of police (DGP) headquarters late Sunday, as tension got more palpable, senior administrative officials roped in all para-military and state forces available as reserves and deployed them across the districts. By late in the evening, Meerut was divided into zones and sectors on the basis of the communal sensitivity of the area and adequate security was being deployed in the region accordingly.

At the district level the officer in charge of Kharkhaunda police station senior sub inspector (SSI) Dinesh Kumar was removed from the post and attached to the Reserve Police Lines on charges of laxity and an inquiry was ordered into his conduct with reference to the entire incident.

Allegations are that Nawab, his brother Sanaullah, his wife and their daughter kidnapped the girl on July 23. She was allegedly taken to a madrassa in Hapur area where she was allegedly raped by Nawab, a priest of the school and four others. Thereafter, she was forced to sign some papers which supposedly declare that she had converted to Islam and married Nawab.

The immediate provocation behind the girl's family seeking police intervention was that, as per the FIR, the accused had attacked the girl unprovoked as a result of which she had suffered internal injuries in the abdominal region and that her life was at risk, said a press statement issued from the DGP Hq.

