BOMBAY, 10 July 2006 — Shopkeepers downed their shutters in several localities in Bombay following widespread violence and arson by Shiv Sena militants protesting against the alleged desecration of the statue of Meena Thackery, wife of Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray in their very stronghold at Shivaji Park, in Central Bombay.
The Sena militants went on the rampage setting three BEST buses on fire. Violence was reported from Bandra, Andheri, Jogeshwari, Dadar, Malad, and also in Pune, Nasik, Thane, and Aurangabad. The Shiv Sena militants also blocked the Western Express Highway, and it was cleared after police arrived on the scene. One government bus was set ablaze and three incidents of heavy stone pelting were reported from Nasik.
BEST Public Relation Officer A.S. Tamboli said that all bus services had been suspended till the situation improved.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the alliance partner of Shiv Sena in the state, said that it would raise the question of the desecration of the statue in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly today.
It demanded the immediate arrest of those who desecrated the statue. BJP spokesman Prakash Javdekar described the violence by the Shiv Sena militants as “natural reaction”to the act.
The BJP leader of opposition in the assembly, Gopinath Munde, warned the government that if it failed to apprehend the miscreants who had desecrated the statue within 24 hours, the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance would not allow the assembly to function.
Police claimed that though the situation was tense, it was in complete control. There was large deployment of anti-riot police force in communally sensitive areas of Bombay to avoid any trouble by miscreants.
The no-nonsense tough speaking Bombay Police Commissioner A.N. Roy warned that any attempt to disturb the peace and to create law and order situation would be firmly dealt with. Police units across Bombay have been put on high alert with policemen put at fixed points and patrolling by police vehicles in progress as usual, Roy said.
Director General of Police P.S. Pasricha said police units throughout Maharashtra had been put on a high state of alert to deal with any situation and that he had spoken to all city police commissioners as well as range Inspectors General of Police, directing them to keep a strict vigil on the situation.
State Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh said so far the polcie have arrested 500 Shiv Sena workers throughout the state on charges of indulging in violence. One polcie sub-inspector was injured in Andheri in Bombay, while another person was injured in Nasik. More than thirty five road blockades had been staged and 38 government buses had been damaged, the chief minister said.
Raj Thackeray, the estranged nephew of Bal Thackeray, who quit the Sena to form his own Maharashtra Navnirman Sena deplored the violence and arson by Shiv Sena workers. Speaking to the media at his residence in Pune, Raj said that though he condemns the desecration of the statue of his aunt Meena Thackeray, who was like a mother to him, he strongly deplored the violence and arson by the Shiv Sena workers.
In another development, Sena militants held a demonstration near the house of Samajwadi Party leader and member of Parliament Abu Asem Azmi, for his alleged role in the Bhiwandi riots.
The Shiv Sena women’s wing too held a similar demonstration before the house of Azmi on Satruday, in the wake of the alleged statements made by Azmi in which he blamed the Shiv Sena for instigating riots in Bhiwandi last Wednesday.
