Situation tense in Chamba after youth killed over inter-community affair

Shimla, June 16 (IANS) Situation in Himachal Pradesh's Chamba district remained tense on Friday after the murder of a 21-year-old man for loving a woman from another community.

Protesters demanded the probe into the crime be handed over to the National Investigating Agency (NIA), saying they have no faith in the state police. The victim's family has been demanding capital punishment.

The body of the victim, Manohar Lal, a mule owner, was brutally cut into eight pieces and thrown into a drain allegedly by the woman's kin.

The crime took place in the Bhandal panchayat of Salooni sub-division, located some 75 km from the district headquarters of Chamba, bordering Jammu and Kashmir.

The man went missing on June 6 and his body was discovered on June 9.

The police have taken into custody 10 people, including four minors, for the murder, all belonging to a Muslim pastoral family.

The convoy of former chief minister Jai Ram Thakur and state BJP chief Rajeev Bindal was stopped by the police as they tried to enter Chamba district.

Accompanying a large number of BJP supporters, they were heading to meet the victim's family.

The administration on Thursday imposed prohibitory orders across the district as the preventing step as a mob set afire the house of the accused.

"My son was hacked to death. He was our only son, we want justice," the victim's father told the media and demanded capital punishment.

The BJP leaders and workers later gathered at Dalhousie town where Bindal called for a state-wide protest on Saturday against the incident.

"We stand firm with Manohar Lal's family and won't stop till justice is delivered. The government has stopped us from meeting the aggrieved family and tomorrow, we will hold a protest in all district headquarters," Bindal told the media.

"We demand strict action in the murder case," added former chief minister Thakur, who was on a sit-in protest at the spot where he along with others were stopped by the police.

"After sitting on dharna for an hour, we came back as the government did not allow us to proceed further. In such a situation, either Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu or his Cabinet colleagues should have visited the spot," Thakur said.

He said the BJP has been demanding an NIA probe as there were alleged financial transactions in an account of one of the accused that raised suspicion about the motive of the crime.

A similar protest was also held outside the Deputy Commissioner's office in Chamba, some 450 km from the state capital, to demand justice for the victim.

Official sources said tempers flared when activists of a Hindu outfit met the victim's family four days after the recovery of the body. A protest started on June 14 that turned violent a day later with the burning of the house of the accused.

Deputy Inspector General Abhishek Dullar along with Chamba Superintendent of Police Abhishek Yadav have been monitoring the situation.

Expressing grief over the incident, Governor Shiv Pratap Shukla said strict action should be ensured against those involved in the heinous crime.

In a statement issued here, the Governor said such incidents in the peace-loving state of Himachal Pradesh were highly condemnable.

He appealed to the people to maintain peace and avoid taking law and order into their hands. The Governor also expressed his condolences to the family members of the deceased.