Hyderabad: Communal tension gripped Adilabad town in Telangana after some miscreants damaged 16 cars parked outside homes in various localities.
As the incident came close on the heels of communal clashes in a nearby town of Utnoor in the same district last week the victims of latest vandalism were looking at the incident from communal angle.
The cars were damaged in the wee hours of Friday in different localities including Shantinagar, Housing Board Colony, Vinayak Chowk and Dwarkanagar.
As the news spread leaders of BJP, Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Bajrang Dal and Hindu Vahini gathered outside the city bus stand and held a protest demonstration demanding action against the guilty. Pointing out that all the cars belonged to one particular community they alleged that the youth from other communities were involved in the attacks aimed at creating a scare.
They called a strike on Saturday as a mark of protest.
As the complaints poured in from different areas police went on alert and DIG Karimnagar Range Ravi Verma and Adilabad district superintendent of police M Srinivas visited the affected localities and spoke to the victims.
After a peace meeting with the representatives of different communities, Srinivas Rao assured the arrest of the culprits with the help of CCTV footage.
“Attempts to disturb the communal peace will not be tolerated,” he warned.
The police have been on their toes ever since the communal violence rocked Utnoor, 40 kms from Adilabad sparked by offensive posts on social media on May 7.
Police have arrested Hakim Ali, the person who had posted one of the offending messages on WhatsApp and also arrested 18 people involved in the attacks on shops and stone pelting.
Adilabad, 300 kms from Hyderabad bordering Maharashtra, has a record of communal disturbances in the past but peace has largely prevailed for many years.
