Army called out, curfew imposed in Ranchi

ranchi: the army was called out on friday afternoon to restore peace in this trouble-torn capital of jharkhand following incidents of violence and arson by members of the minority community who virtually held the city to ransom the entire day. the decision was apparently taken to show the government's determination to tackle the situation firmly. while the government had earlier announced clamping of prohibitory orders in the city, it later imposed curfew in the core areas of the city after two police pickets were burnt by a mob which also pelted stones on a vehicle of the rapid action force (raf) at rajendra chowk, site of thursday's police firing.the raf also burst at least 15 rounds of teargas shells to disperse a violent mob at the site. members of the minority community, who had given a bandh call to protest against the police firing in which three persons were killed, assaulted a police patrol vehicle in the morning, injuring an assistant sub-inspector. they also blocked the road in at least two places. tension was palpable in the area near the main masjid at the main road here when friday prayers were being offered in the afternoon. members of the community put up black flags at various places and themselves wore black badges to register their protest. a section of muslim youth also sat on dharna in front of the anjuman plaza demanding the resignation of the superintendent of police and the deputy superintendent of police as well as the babulal marandi government. all business establishments remained closed throughout the day while only a few two-wheelers plied on the road. attendance in jharkhand government offices was low with only a couple of ministers, the chief secretary and the home and finance secretaries present in the office. incidentally, the secretariat is adjacent to the doranda masjid and close to the site of thursday's firing. though the home secretary, sushma singh, claimed to have deployed sufficient number of para-military personnel, raf and the district police, the forces were largely conspicuous by their absence. the bjp-led nda government appears to have taken a soft stand on the matter fearing harm to its image if it took a hard stand. however, the opposition has already demanded its resignation. while thursday's police firing was apparently unprovoked, the government could have saved the situation from turning ugly on friday, observers here said. ``the government did not want to show the red rag to the bull,'' said v.s. dubey, chief secretary, explaining that the government believed that the situation would normalise after the demands of the victims' next of kin had been accepted. incidentally, this was the second occurrence of violence in the city since november 15 when the government took over.