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Hit-and-run violence flummoxes Gujarat police

A new pattern of hit-and-run violence has emerged in the sensitive walled city areas of Ahmedabad. The Gujarat government appears flummoxed with the sporadic, low-intensity violence which has claimed 18 lives since July 20.

Police are grappling with the situation as curfews are proving ineffective in controlling the situation. Every time curfew is relaxed incidents of violence spread to new areas.

The Governemtn of Gujarat has now directed intelligence officials to probe into this unnatural pattern of violence. The state government has deployed about 7000 policeman, 30 companies of Central Reserve Police and six of Rapid Action Force.

Ahmedabad is new to this low-intensity violence. Having witnessed some of the worst riots in the 1980s and early 1990s, the new pattern appears like terrorists striking at will in the border states.

''Mob violence is due to aroused passions and can be controlled. But here, we are facing dispassionate violence, aiming specifically at nothing,'' a senior official said.

Of the 30 police stations in Ahmedabad, six are in the walled city area. These are considered the most sensitive ones. After the 1992 riots the demographic composition in the walled city underwent a sea change due to which the authorities banned transfer of properties at throw-away prices. But this continued leading to the present composition in the walled city.

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