Curfew relaxed in Miraj, Sangli, Ichalkaranji in Maharashtra

After a week of riots, curfew was relaxed in the towns of  Miraj, Sangli and Ichalkaranji, for four hours, on September 9, 2009.On September 3, 2009, communal tension had triggered riots in Sangli district after police seized a poster that depicted Shivaji Maharaj killing Bijapur’s general Afzal Khan. Following this, Ganesh Mandals in Miraj in Sangli district refused to perform immersion of the Ganesha idols, reports said.

Soon afterwards, the communal tension shot up and riots spread to other areas in Maharashtra.

An all-party meeting was held in Mumbai, on September 8, 2009, to work out a peace agenda.

It was unanimously decided that political leaders will not visit the riot-hit Sangli district in Maharashtra till the situation there returns to normal.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan said that those who attended the all-party meeting included Deputy Chief Minister Bhujbal, Home Minister Jayant Patil, Shiv Sena leader Ramdas Kadam, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state president Nitin Gadkari, BJP general secretary and MP Gopinath Munde, Samajwadi Party leader Abu Azmi and Republican Party of India (RPI) president Ramdas Athawle.

After the meeting, the political leaders, in a joint statement, appealed to the residents of the riot-hit areas to keep peace and ensure that the immersions of the Ganesh idols are held smoothly.

Chief Minister Ashok Chavan announced that cases filed against “innocent people” during the period of rioting will be withdrawn.

The government, however, did not make any official announcement over the poster which had led to the communal strife and the subsequent riots.

The immersion of the Ganesh idols was performed in Miraj on September 9, 2009, by relaxing the curfew for some hours.

On September 7, 2009, BJP leaders Gopinath Munde and Vinod Tawde were prevented by the police from travelling to the communally tense regions, following which the BJP had threatened a state-wide agitation.

Munde declared at the all-party meeting held on September 9, 2009, that he will not visit Miraj and other parts of Sangli district and that all the political parties have decided not to politicise the unhappy incidents.

Gopinath Munde had earlier criticized the ruling Democratic Front of Maharashtra for having taken a “biased approach” to the communal riots and for preventing his visit to Sangli and nearby areas.

He had also alleged that the state government was “politicizing” the communal riots in Sangli by allowing the leaders of the Congress Party and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) to visit the riot-affected regions while preventing him from doing the same.

R R Patil, state president of the Nationalist Congress Party, who visited the violence-hit Miraj, Sangli and Tasgaonon on September 8, 2009, told reporters “it appeared that the riots have been spread in a planned manner” and that the police are trying to nab the “conspirators.”