Mumbai, other parts of Maharashtra peaceful

Mumbai: The city, which broke into one of the deadliest communal violence when Babri Masjid was brought down on December 6, 1992, remained calm and peaceful and no untoward incident was reported on Saturday as the Supreme Court pronounced its verdict on the Ayodhya land dispute.

Mohammed Ali Road, the Muslim-dominated area situated in South Mumbai observed routine life on Saturday. The area has always been the talk of the town due to the police firing during the riots by then police commissioner R.D. Tyagi and his squad on Suleman Usman Bakery and Darul-uloom Imdadiya Madrassa (located inside Masjid behind the Bakery). Nine people were killed and twelve others were injured in the incident. On contacting the persons working in the bakery, they refused to comment on it. “We don’t want to talk on this issue,” they said.

Faris Shaikh, a perfume seller near Minara Masjid said, “I have accepted the verdict indubitably, we all want brotherhood and peace. Nobody would want to disturb the harmony of the nation.”

The 1992 riots had hit many areas in the city. Bandra’s Behrampada was one of them. However, on the Supreme Court’s judgment day, the Muslim-dominated slum was peaceful and calm. Compared to the crowd witnessed daily in this thickly populated area, less number of people were seen at the Bandra station, bus depots and rickshaw stands.

Navbhartiya Shiv-Vahtuk Sena National vice-president, Maqbool Mujawar said, “All communities should accept the apex court’s verdict and should move on. Ram Mandir used to be a core issue of political parties in every election, but now this will not happen in future.”

Minutes after the apex court started dictating judgment on the Babri Mosque title, the Mumbai police invoked Section 144 across Mumbai. The orders will be in place for next 24 hours (starting from 11 am on Saturday). The city, thrown under watertight police deployment ahead of the verdict, will see the police presence till Monday with the Muslim community celebrating Eid-e-Milad on Sunday.

“The city was peaceful and the police are securing the streets. The security cover will continue till Monday. The order will be in place till 11 am and will be extended if need be,” said Pranay Ashok, Mumbai police spokesperson.

Meanwhile, the caretaker chief minister Devendra Fadnavis met state governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari at Raj Bhavan to appraise him about how the law and order was being maintained in Maharashtra. The chief minister’s officer’s tweet stated, “Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis briefed Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari on the law and order situation and steps taken in view of the Ayodhya verdict. (sic)”

A force of at least 40,000 personnel were out on the street with the traffic police conducting separate checks at important junctions. All the sensitive locations have deployment of state reserve police force. The police are also keeping a watch on neighbourhood via the Closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras to avoid any kind of mischievous activities.  

The local police stations and the senior officers, meanwhile, conducted peace meetings in their jurisdiction with Hindus and Muslims. The officials said that the response from the communities was good. The police had issued an advisory asking people to refrain from indulging in any kind of celebration or acting in any way that would hurt anybody’s sentiments.

Several railway stations were also seen deserted compared to other weekends. Teams of the Government Railway Police (GRP), the Railway Protection Force (RPF) and the Home Guards were deployed at the important stations to keep a tab on passenger movements. The Railway Protection Force also scanned the real-time footage of cameras on all the city stations.

Advocate Majid Memon, Rajya Sabha MP who had represented some of the accused in the 1993 blasts case said, “One of the achievements of the judgment is that there would no longer be any politicisation of the issue. The animosity between the two major communities in the country, which the ‘black day’ of December 6, 1992, (when the Babri masjid was demolished) generated, should now end.”

Mr Memon, who is also a member of NCP, further added, “We should now build, rather rebuild, cordial relationship between Hindus and Muslims in India.”

In January 1993, a man and five women were set ablaze while they were asleep in their residence at Radhabai Chawl, now know as Gandhi Chawl, in suburban Jogeshwari. The killings led to the second phase of riots post Babri Masjid demolition.

Sharad Mane, a resident of neighbourhood of Radhabai Chawl, said, “We have bore the brunt of the incident and with the Supreme Court’s judgment, we suppose that it would bring closure to the entire subject.”

The Srikrishna Commission, set up in 1993 to inquire into the December 1992 and January 1993 riots, had held Shiv Sena responsible for “fomenting and organising” communal riots after the Radhabai Chawl incident.

Shiv Sena Bhavan at Dadar was the epicenter of Sena’s activities during those times.

However, not everyone was willing to forgive what happened 27-year-ago. A 48-year-old Shivaji Nagar resident Mohammad

Shaukat Qureshi, who had lost his maternal aunt’s son in the 1993 riots said, “I lost my brother. How can I be happy? But the people of the country have accepted the verdict. How can I not accept it?”      

The riots had claimed more than 700 lives and also led to migration of a large section of the minority community to suburbs outside the city.

Mumbai police faced criticism for alleged bias in handling the situation during that period. The serial blasts, which followed the riots, killed at least 257 people and maimed over 700, providing a deadly climax to the traumatic period.

“Whatever we did (to contain the riots) was to the best of our ability in the given situation. We did whatever was humanly possible,” said then police commissioner of Mumbai Shrikant Bapat, who was shunted out after the riot.