Senior CPM leader Prakash Karat has termed the violence in Bulandshahr in Uttar Pradesh, which claimed at least two lives, as “a pre-planned incident”. He alleged that there had been attempts in the past well to create communal tensions using the issue of cow slaughter.


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Citing the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots, the Left leader said that in manner similar to that in Bulandshahr, riots had taken place before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.


“It appears to be a pre-planned incident as in western Uttar Pradesh. Using cow slaughter as issue there were previous attempts to create communal tensions when polls were approaching,” said the former CPM general secretary.


Karat further said, “Everyone remembers how in Muzaffarnagar, riots took place in 2013 before Lok Sabha elections.”


This comes even as the National Human Rights Commission issued notice to the government of Uttar Pradesh over the violence in Bulandshahr.


In violence that broke out in Bulandshahr allegedly over cow slaughter, a police inspector, Subodh Kumar Singh, and a 20-year-old youth Sumit lost their lives. The post-mortem report of the inspector said that he died due to bullet injury. The youth was allegedly killed in police firing.


The police have filed an FIR in the incident and have arrested three people for their alleged involvement in mob violence.


At least twenty-seven people have been named in the FIR, registered around 3 AM following the violence on Monday, while cases have been lodged against 50 to 60 unidentified people, police officials said.


Of the 27 named, at least four are workers and functionaries of right-wing organisations, including the Bajrang Dal, officials said. 


The main accused in the case is Bajrang Dal district convenor Yogesh Raj, who has not been arrested, officials said. The protestors, who reportedly hailed from three villages, had vandalised several vehicles and even torched many of them.