Prayagraj/Lucknow, June 11: So far 227 people have been arrested till Saturday morning in connection with stone pelting and sloganeering in different cities of Uttar Pradesh, including Prayagraj, Saharanpur, Moradabad and Firozabad, after Friday namaz.
Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Prashant Kumar on Saturday said so far 227 people have been arrested from trouble hit areas for attempting to incite violence.
He said during night long operation three more were arrested in Saharanpur. With this total 48 people have been arrested in Saharanpur so far.
In addition to this, 68 have been arrested in Prayagraj, 25 in Moradabad, 50 in Hathras, 8 in Firozabad and 28 in Ambedkar Nagar.
Police sources said the mastermind of violence in Prayagraj has been identified. “Mohammad Javed is the mastermind of violence in Prayagraj. He is still at large and all efforts are being made to arrest him,” they said.
Chief Minister office sources said CM Yogi Adityanath is himself monitoring police and administrative action on violence in different parts of the state on Friday.
He held two high level meetings and has directed to identify those accused of violence and take stern action against them.
Meanwhile, official sources said there is peace in cities which witnessed violence on Friday and the police and security forces are maintaining a close vigil.
Notably, trouble broke out in these places during protest against objectionable comment by some Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders against Prophet Muhammad.
Last week on June 3 similar incident took place in Becon Ganj area of Kanpur after Friday namaz. To ensure that such incident do not take place tight security arrangements were made this time.
On Friday first incident to incite violence was reported from Prayagraj in the afternoon. Reports said some persons staged protest against objectionable comment on Prophet Muhammad and indulged in heavy stone pelting.
After this similar incidents were reported from Saharanpur, Deoband, Firozabad, Moradabad, Ambedkar Nagar and Hathras.
