Rajasthan Police has identified Indian National Congress (INC) Councillor Matloob Ahmed as the main conspirator in the mob attack on a Hindu procession for the New Year in Karauli last week. Ahmed is accused of stone-pelting, inciting violence and organising a mob to attack the rally.

Rajasthan Police has mentioned his name in the FIR, booking him under Section 307 of the IPC. While Matloob Ahmed is absconding, a police team is chasing him. The police are also investigating his role in instigating the PFI that the BJP suspects to be involved in the communal flare-up.

Ahmed’s family expectedly denied the allegation against him, calling the FIR a “conspiracy”.

After Muslims threw stones at a shobha yatra as it was on a road near a mosque, Hindus retaliated by setting shops and motorcycles along the road on fire, sources said. Police say at least 35 people were injured in the clashes.

While police in Karauli arrested 46 suspected rioters, BJP spokesman Shehzad Poonawala said that the PFI had written a letter to the Ashok Gehlot government, warning of such violence occurring in the district.

Branding it as a reflection of the “Aurangzebi mindset” of the Rajasthan government, Poonawala asked, “Can Hindus not even organize a Shobha yatra now in Congress rule?”

“PFI wrote a letter in advance to Gehlot govt about violence in Karauli! How did they know that there would be violence targeting the Hindu New Year Shobha Yatra? Was it Sanyog or Prayog? If PFI knew how did the Rajasthan administration not know? Or did look the other way?” BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawala said in a series of tweets.

The letter from the PFI stated that tensions could rise during the Hindu shobha yatra. The PFI had alerted the local administration and the police about the sensitivity of taking out a Hindu new year procession through the Muslim-dominated locality in a letter written to the Gehlot government two days before the procession.

The INC government in Rajasthan did little to prevent the violence. Rather, Chief Minister Gehlot had ridiculously blamed the union government for violence. While alleging that workers of the main opposition party in the state were fuelling riots by creating Hindu-Muslim issues, Gehlot said Prime Minister Narendra Modi was responsible for law and order in the state!

The BJP deplored Gehlot for seeking the prime minister’s response to the Karauli riots. The party is filing a detailed report on the incident in three days.

(This article was published on sirfnews.com on April 5, 2022 and has been reproduced here.)