06-22-2008, 02:06 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Anti-Baba riots engulf Mumbai </b>
Pioneer.com
TN Raghunatha | Mumbai
North-eastern Mumbai reeled under wide-spread anti-Baba Ram Rahim riots for most part of Saturday, as irate Sikh mobs went on a rampage blocking suburban trains for over two hours, <b>bringing traffic to a halt on the eastern Express highway and damaging vehicles in protest against the death of their community member in a firing resorted to by the bodyguard of Dera Sacha Sauda's chief Baba Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh at Mulund on Friday night</b>.
Lives may not have been lost and damage to public property was not as much, but the Sikh anger was conspicuous by its presence in the north-eastern suburbs. In the worst-ever Sikh rioting witnessed in the metropolis after the community members' protests in 1984, the Sikh protesters - armed with swords, kripans, lathis, knives - laid siege to railway tracks at Mulund and the Eastern Express highway, the two major arterial routes used by people living in Mumbai.
<b>Though the city police was quick on arresting four persons - all Baba Ram Rahim's security guards - in connection with Friday's incident and rushed a team of police officials to Khalapur in Raigad district to detain Baba's remaining bodyguards for questioning, the Sikh protesters were in no mood to be convinced of the intentions of the city police</b>.
What began as a silent protest demonstration at Mulund at 9 am on Saturday turned out to be a full-fledged riot in later part of the day.
A huge posse of city police personnel - complimented by the State Reserve Protection Force (SRPF) and Rapid Action Force (RAF) personnel - tried hard to control the rioting mobs by resorting to a lathi-charge, bursting tear-gas shells and cordoning off the Eastern Express highway. However, the Sikh protesters remained undeterred all through the day.
<b>The anti-Baba Ram Rahim protesters had a field day, as they stoned the passing vehicles. They did not spare some suburban trains, which managed to speed past them when they staged "rail roko" at the Mulund railway station, which is located less than two km away from the upmarket Nirmal Life Style mall.</b> It was in front of this mall that trouble had broken out on Friday night after the Sikh protesters demonstrated demanding the arrest of visiting Baba Ram Rahim. The demonstration had resulted in a Baba's bodyguard opening fire at the protesting Sikhs, an incident that claimed the life of a Sikh community and left two others injured.
Though scores of vehicles were damaged, official sources maintained that only eight civic buses and nearly a dozen private vehicles were damaged.
As the day passed, the police and the Maharashtra Government was understandably unnerved to see the otherwise peace-loving members of Sikh community taking recourse to violence demanding the arrest of Baba Ram Rahim.
Meanwhile, <b>one of the three bodyguards has confessed to having fired at the crowd, a senior police official said on Saturday</b><!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Pioneer.com
TN Raghunatha | Mumbai
North-eastern Mumbai reeled under wide-spread anti-Baba Ram Rahim riots for most part of Saturday, as irate Sikh mobs went on a rampage blocking suburban trains for over two hours, <b>bringing traffic to a halt on the eastern Express highway and damaging vehicles in protest against the death of their community member in a firing resorted to by the bodyguard of Dera Sacha Sauda's chief Baba Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh at Mulund on Friday night</b>.
Lives may not have been lost and damage to public property was not as much, but the Sikh anger was conspicuous by its presence in the north-eastern suburbs. In the worst-ever Sikh rioting witnessed in the metropolis after the community members' protests in 1984, the Sikh protesters - armed with swords, kripans, lathis, knives - laid siege to railway tracks at Mulund and the Eastern Express highway, the two major arterial routes used by people living in Mumbai.
<b>Though the city police was quick on arresting four persons - all Baba Ram Rahim's security guards - in connection with Friday's incident and rushed a team of police officials to Khalapur in Raigad district to detain Baba's remaining bodyguards for questioning, the Sikh protesters were in no mood to be convinced of the intentions of the city police</b>.
What began as a silent protest demonstration at Mulund at 9 am on Saturday turned out to be a full-fledged riot in later part of the day.
A huge posse of city police personnel - complimented by the State Reserve Protection Force (SRPF) and Rapid Action Force (RAF) personnel - tried hard to control the rioting mobs by resorting to a lathi-charge, bursting tear-gas shells and cordoning off the Eastern Express highway. However, the Sikh protesters remained undeterred all through the day.
<b>The anti-Baba Ram Rahim protesters had a field day, as they stoned the passing vehicles. They did not spare some suburban trains, which managed to speed past them when they staged "rail roko" at the Mulund railway station, which is located less than two km away from the upmarket Nirmal Life Style mall.</b> It was in front of this mall that trouble had broken out on Friday night after the Sikh protesters demonstrated demanding the arrest of visiting Baba Ram Rahim. The demonstration had resulted in a Baba's bodyguard opening fire at the protesting Sikhs, an incident that claimed the life of a Sikh community and left two others injured.
Though scores of vehicles were damaged, official sources maintained that only eight civic buses and nearly a dozen private vehicles were damaged.
As the day passed, the police and the Maharashtra Government was understandably unnerved to see the otherwise peace-loving members of Sikh community taking recourse to violence demanding the arrest of Baba Ram Rahim.
Meanwhile, <b>one of the three bodyguards has confessed to having fired at the crowd, a senior police official said on Saturday</b><!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->