HE Bureau | Agencies | Hyderabad | May 18, 2014:: The recent post riot situation in Hyderabad has worsened again after a Hindu young man being stabbed by some skull capped Urdu speaking people and obviously from the generated tension out of seventh Mecca masjid blast anniversary.

Two private employees, who went to have tea, were stabbed by miscreants at Dobhighat, Saidabad, in the wee hours of Saturday. Police suspect that it could be a fall out of the recent communal tension in the Old City. Saidabad police said that P Bhanu Prakash Reddy, 25, has a part-time job with Matrix, a logistics company. Bhanu and his friend Hari Krishna, were deputed to work at Heritage Fresh, Santosh Nagar on Friday. As the Matrix agency serves super markets in the city and helps them stock goods, its employees work between 10 pm and 5 am. On Friday, the agency asked Bhanu and Hari to work at Heritage. At 3 am, they took a tea break.”While they were walking near Dobhighat, a few persons asked them something in Urdu. As the victims knew only Telugu, they asked them to speak in Telugu. Due to the language problem, the two left the place and went towards Santoshnagar. After 15 minutes, while returning to the supermarket, they again came across the group which stabbed Bhanu,” Saidabad inspector A Srinivasulu said.According to police, the victims informed ‘100’ and ‘108’ ambulance and Bhanu was rushed to OGH, where he is undergoing treatment. Police said that they were probing the case. The stabbing injury on Bhanu seems to be critical.Meanwhile, in Old City flag march was done by security personnel keeping in view the seventh Mecca masjid blast anniversary. RAF, city police did it in Charminar, Mogulpura, Shalibanda and other surrounding areas.

A pall of gloom coupled with an uneasy calm prevailed in the violence-hit areas of Arsh Mahal in Kishanbagh here on Thursday, a day after violent communal clashes between two communities rocked the locality, allegedly over burning of a  religious flag of Sikhs (Nishan Sahib) by suspected Muslim perpetrators.  Clash erupted in Kishanbagh area of Hyderabad’s old City after miscreants burnt a Nishan Sahib (Sikh religious flag) in the early hours of Wednesday May 14 ,2014.

In the wee hours of morning Sikh youths armed with swords started assembling at the spot even as deployed police officers remained perplexed.

After that the armed Sikhs attacked Muslim houses in Sikh Chowni and set ablaze properties. Muslims from neighbouring areas started to assemble after news of attacks started to spread which led to stone pelting between both communities.

Seeing the situation going more violent and out of control, police firing was necessary to control the situation but he claimed that orders were given to fire in the air. A police official in charge told reporters, “Around 6.30 am, a group assembled and attacked people. As both groups, armed with swords clashed, we ordered BSF to fire in the air. Those who were at some height from the ground level were hit. Three people have died in the firing. The injured are stable, firing in the air was necessary to bring the situation under control.”

As a matter of fact the communal tension was sparked widely in and around old city of Hyderabad, when the Hindus of Hyderabad started retaliation after being irritated after hearing the news of humiliation of  Sikh brothers mostly located at Kishanbagh and sikh Chowni areas. All on a sudden the Muslim rioters were put under a severe pressure created by the joint Hindu-Sikh anti Mujaheddin action force.

For the fourth consecutive day, curfew is in force  under the Rajendranagar police station limits even as the police reportedly took into custody at least 30 persons in connection with the violence. Five cases were registered. Meanwhile, governor ESL Narasimhan ordered a magisterial enquiry into the police firing that left three persons dead.

Out of these 30 persons, 23 are from Sikh friends so far. The accused who were arrested on Thursday are: Dayal Singh (54), Nanak Singh (41), Jaswanth Singh (64), Charan Singh (41), Maninder Singh (17), Havinder Singh (18), Hari Dayal Singh (24), Tharanjith Singh (21), Sukbinder Singh (23), Sathpal Singh (25), Jithender Singh (25), Manpreeth Singh (27), Govind Singh (16), Ranjith Singh (14), Gurmith Singh (15), Devender Singh (28), Maninder Singh (15), Rajbeer Singh (28), Ranjith Singh (28), Narendra Singh, Bachan Singh (50), Babun Singh (32) and Haribajan Singh (16). All are residents of Sikh Chavni. They have been remanded to judicial custody.

Though the curfew was declared to be  in force till 10 a.m. on Saturday, the same has been extended upto Sunday. For three hours in the morning it was lifted for the help of public utilities. Situation is not so peaceful and may be under control, if the police does not chase the miscreants in a though hand.  However, security has further been tightened in and around the old city upto next Friday.

On the other hand, Punjab deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal on Thursday condemned the burning of a religious flag in a Gurdwara premises in Kishanbagh area in Hyderabad on Wednesday and urged the Andhra Pradesh government to take stern action against the accused. 

The Shiromani Akali Dal president, in a statement, said he had requested Delhi Sikh Gurdwara managing committee president Manjit Singh GK to lead a delegation to the Gurdwara site in Hyderabad immediately to conduct an investigation into the shocking incident. 

He said the DSGMC president would also interact with the Sikh community during his visit to Hyderabad and assure them that the SAD would not only stand by them but also work to punish the perpetrators of the act. 

The SAD president also requested the AP government to take strong and decisive action in the case besides taking steps to safeguard all Gurdwara premises in the state. 

He requested the AP government to ensure the safety of the life and property of the Sikhs living there. 

Input from PTI, TNN, AP, AFP, Newswala and Agencies.