New Delhi: The National Commission for Minorities (NCM) has claimed that licenced weapons were used during communal clashes in Indore in Madhya Pradesh on 3rd July this year which had claimed eight lives.

A three member fact finding team of NCM led by its Chairman Md Shafi Qureshi visited the affected areas like Pandrinath, Chhatripura, Khajrana and Malharganj to assess the situation after violence broke out in Indore during the VHP sponsored nationwide shutdown on the Amarnath issue. The Commission has found that firings from licenced weapons by a section of people led to the killing of at least three persons in Indore.

According to the Commission s draft report, seven of the total eight persons killed in Indore violence were from the minority community. While three persons were killed in police firing and two in stampede and stone pelting, the rest three fell prey to firings by licenced arms of persons belonging to a particular section, said the Commission. 

The Indore administration had in past given arms licenses to a large number of people. However, it did not bother to disarm the holders when tension began brewing up in the area. Had the administration got the licensed arms deposited in time, firings and resultant violence could have been averted, sources in the Commission said.

The Commission claims its members found that most of the licenses were issued to one group of people, who were later found to be engaged in fanning the violence. It said 130 licenses were issued in Khajrana area alone. Rejecting the state administration s claim that people were killed in cross firing, the Commission said, The firing was made on the minorities either by police or by a section of people.

There was no firing from their side. While holding the shutdown organisers (VHP) responsible for the violence, the Commission criticised the administration for failing to stop them from engaging in violence.

Criticising the BJP government of the state for its alleged inaction in arresting the violence, the Commission claimed the local administration did not act despite the fact that shutdown supporters had started gathering from July 1 itself and there was enough evidence that something was in the offing. Precautionary measures were not taken, the Commission said.

Source : PTI