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Hyderabad toll is 8, high court okays speedy trial for rioters

Communal violence, which rocked the old city of Hyderabad during the last week, claimed eight lives and left 85 injured, Home Minister L K Advani informed the Lok Sabha today.

Police patrolling has been intensified, flag marches were conducted in the vulnerable and communally hyper-sensitive areas to infuse confidence among the people. The state government has reported that all the communal offences are being investigated by the special investigation team.

A highly derogatory pamphlet found in circulation in Shamsher Ganj locality of the old city of Hyderabad sparked off the violence.

The Centre has, so far, provided 11 companies of central paramilitary forces including eight Rapid Action Force companies to the state government for maintaining law and order in the communally affected areas. The state government has been taking all necessary steps to maintain peace and communal harmony.

Meanwhile, day curfew in 13 police station limits in the old city was relaxed today, as no untoward incident was reported from the riot-torn areas during the last 24 hours.

A decision to this effect was taken after Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu reviewed the situation at a high-level meeting last night.

The curfew was reimposed at 5 pm today.

Streets and bazaars in the old city presented a near-normal look after the curfew was relaxed.

Paramilitary forces and the city police would continue intensive patrolling in the affected areas. Video cameras have been installed at all vantage points in maintain vigil.

The Andhra Pradesh high court has accepted the state government's request to constitute a special court for speedy trial of cases against those involved in the violence.

Elsewhere in the city, more than 200,000 people from different parts of the country and abroad were administered the famous fish medicine, a herbal medicine for asthma and respiratory ailments, by the Bathini Goud family at the sprawling Nizam College grounds.

The venue for distributing the medicine was shifted from the ancestral home of the Goud family located in the old city in view of the communal disturbances. This was first time in the last 150 years that the medicine was administered away from their ancestral home.

Elaborate arrangements were made by the Andhra Pradesh government, also for the first time, for the stay of the people and orderly distribution of the medicine.

Chandrababu Naidu, accompanied by his cabinet colleagues, visited the venue and witnessed the administration of the medicine.

The medicine, kept in the mouth of a tiny live fish, is pushed down the throat of the patient by the Goud family members.

UNI

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