Excelsior Correspondent
RAJOURI, Jan 16: The mysterious death of a young woman amidst allegations of forced conversion, sparked violence in Nowshera village, where mob torched two shops and a local religious place this afternoon.
The police resorted to lathi-charge to quell the mob, lobbed tear gas shells and also fired in air to control the situation. At least a dozen persons including eight cops were injured in the clash.
SSP Rajouri, Yougal Manhas and Additional DC Rajouri, Qayoom Mir rushed to the spot and controlled the situation. They also spoke to the protesting people and assured action on both the sides.
Sources said that one Seema Devi, wife of Rinku Kumar of village Sial in Nowshera died under mysterious circumstances at Jallandhar yesterday. Her husband Rinku who had embraced Christianity some time back, took her wife to Jalandhar for treatment. He claimed that on January 8 he took her wife for treatment at Jalandhar Missionary hospital and she died there.
When parents of the girl came to know about the matter at their village Kangri near Sunderbani, they gathered along with a large number of people last night. The girl’s father Girdhari Lal and others alleged that Rinku was forcing Seema for conversion but she didn’t agree. She was tortured and done to death there at Jalandhar, they alleged.
Today at around 1.30 pm the postmortem of the body was held at Nowshera hospital. The body was to be brought to Kangri village but the in-laws preferred her last rites at Sial. When the body reached there, already a strong mob of over 4000 people had gathered at Sial. The mob torched the two shops and a small local religious place of the 7-8 families. They also torched a tractor and further tried to torch house of Rinku and some other families.
However, police resorted to lathi-charge and lobbed tear gas shells. The people also fired some rounds in the air to disperse the mob. The mob then started stone pelting on cops. The DySP Operation and seven other cops were injured.
SSP Rajouri, Manhas said that there was no physical injury on the body of the victim as reported by doctors conducting postmortem. He said there are just allegations of conversion and Rinku by faith used to go to local church but he had as per record not embraced Christianity. His wife was ailing for some time and he had gone for treatment at Jalandhar.
He said some miscreants joined the mob during protest at Sial and resorted to torching shops and other property of some families at Sial, but with the swift action of police several houses were saved. He said property of Baldev Raj was damaged. About eight cops including DySP Operation Sukhdev Singh were injured in stone pelting. Some people on other side also learnt to have been injured. He said that two FIRs have been registered in this connection at Nowshera Police Station.
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