10 more die, tension persists but city breathes easy

ahmedabad: at least ten persons were killed in continuing but de-escalated violence as ahmedabad police decided to relax curfew timings on sunday in view of improvement in the law and order situation in the city. three people were burnt alive in ghodasar area of maninagar. according to police, they had got off the howrah express and were walking down on the road when suddenly a group of people doused them in petrol and set them ablaze.similarly, two persons were set on fire by an unruly mob near the vinayak factory in the gidc-vatva late last night. a thirty-year old man succumbed to the burns on the spot while another man accompanying him has been admitted in the lg hospital with severe burn injuries. five other persons were brought dead from behrampura, bapunagar, juhapura, shahpur area while another one brought dead from sabarmati river-bed in the city at vs hospital. tension is however still quite high in many of the peripheral areas of the city like bapunagar, juhapura, vejalpur, amraiwadi, meghaninagar and the walled city areas of kalupur, shahpur and dariapur. amc staff was busy clearing the streets of all the stones, bricks and burnt debris left behind in three days of violence. meanwhile, reports of a person being set ablaze at jalampur ni chali shook tranquility in saraspur area. nighfall saw incidents of stone throwing ensue at dariyapur while at khanwadi in ramol members of two communities clashed injuring two. the odhav police, on the other hand, maintained peace in their jurisdiction and even played good samaritans on saturday.they conducted two rescue operations on the amraiwadi highway and in naroda-patia area. according to dcp (zone 5) rj savani, "at 4 pm while patrolling the rabari colony square near amraiwadi highway we rescued five women and four children on a tata sumo. they were heading towards bharvi tower road junction which was being blocked by a mob of fanatics then. they were then transported under police protection to rakhiyal police station." this was timely action since a private car had been set ablaze killing eight. the second incident saw the odhav police, with four police jeeps, rush to the rescue of 37 persons. "they were stuck at naroda-patia where a large number of people had been burnt alive on friday. we reached there on time and took the people to safety and even reached them to safe locations at soni ni chali, rakhiyal and shah alam," savani told tnn. rioting abated in the city so did the flow of dead and injured to the civil and four ahmedabad municipal corporation-run hospitals. on saturday the civil hospital saw 39 bodies being brought in , many of them victims of the riots last evening. the hospital has registered the biggest number of fatalities in city - 168. since rioting began in the city the hospital has tended to 456 patients. there is a shortage of staff nurses, technicians and class four employees. many of them have been missing since the rioting began. amc has organised special transportation for these missing personnel and they can avail of further details on phone number 6586725. patel added, "it is my earnest appeal that they rejoin duty as ahmedabad''s riot victims need their services. we have also got good support from the masses when we collected 100 bottles of blood at an emergency camp in gurukul. on saturday we have collected 200 more from a camp organised opposite the jaideep apartments near shreyas crossing." the ahmedabad fire brigade too was kept on its toes on friday and saturday with 105 calls keeping ''101'' busy. afb till date has answered to 388 fire calls of which 10 were pending till late in the evening.