Haldwani Violence: Hundreds of Muslim families migrate from Banbhoolpura

Lucknow: Hundreds of Muslim families have migrated from Banbhoolpura, the epicentre of Thursday's violence in Uttarakhand's Haldwani town after an ''illegally built'' madarsa (islamic school) and a mosque were razed during an anti-encroachment drive in which six people were killed and scores others injured.

According to the reports, the residents of the locality were seen walking, carrying their belongings, on foot to the Lalkuan railway station, a few kilometres away from the area, to board outbound trains.

The residents had to walk on foot as transport services remained suspended in the town in the wake of the violence.

According to the reports, many residents had fled the locality after the police conducted a series of raids in the area and detained as many as 60 people. More than two dozen people have so far been arrested in connection with the violence.

The reports said that many houses in Banbhoolpura locality were now locked and their inmates had left for different places in Uttar Pradesh to live with their relatives until the situation became normal.

One of the residents alleged that the police were 'harassing' the residents of the locality. Reports of Muslim tenants being asked by their landlords to vacate the premises were also received from some areas in the town.

Meanwhile the situation in the town remained peaceful on Monday with untoward incidents being reported from anywhere.

Police said that 25 people, who had been arrested in connection with the violence, were booked for rioting, dacoity and obstructing public servants in discharging their duty and other sections of the IPC. The owner of the land on which the madrasa and the mosque had been built Abdul Malik was arrested from Delhi on Sunday.

The state government had on Saturday ordered a magisterial inquiry into the violence. Commissioner Deepak Rawat would conduct a probe into the violence and submit his report to the government within 15 days.

Six people were killed and scores others injured in violence following the razing of an ''illegally built'' .madarsa and a mosque in Banbhoolpura locality in the town on Thursday. The mob had torched several vehicles and a petrol pump and indulged in heavy stone pelting at the cops.