Scuffle between children triggers late-night communal clash in Pune; stones hurled at cops

PUNE: A minor scuffle between children while playing in a society snowballed into a clash between two communities late on Monday night, prompting a huge gathering and tension near the Kondhwa police station around midnight.

The members of the two communities allegedly threw stones at each other and also at the police personnel, trying to quell the situation. Tension prevailed in the area till 2am on Tuesday.

The police held discussions with members of both the communities and requested them to maintain peace. A tight vigil was maintained in the area on Tuesday to avoid any untoward incidents.



Inspector Navnath Jagtap of Kondhwa police station said, “A fight broke out between children of two different communities, some of them teenagers, while they were playing on the premises of a society on Monday evening. A group of children, beaten by the other group, went home and narrated to their parents how the children of the other community had beaten them up. Following this, parents of one of the boys went to the society’s open space and argued with the children from the other community. They then beat up a child of the other community on the society premises.”

He said, “The news of members of a community beating up another community member spread like wildfire within a few minutes. Following this, members of both the communities reached the Kondhwa police station area. They occupied the main road in front of the police station, leading towards Khadi Machine Chowk, around midnight intervening Monday and Tuesday.”

Jagtap said, “The members of the two communities abused each other. After a few minutes, they started pelting stones at each other on the road connecting Kondhwa with Khadi Machine Chowk .”

Sensing trouble, the police used mild force and resorted to lathicharge to disperse the crowd. The city police cleared the road around 2am and removed the stones from the thoroughfare.

The police held discussions with members of both the communities twice. The first peace parleys were held in the early hours of Tuesday. The police once again requested them to maintain peace in the area on Tuesday morning.