Did not have any information on possible communal flare-up: Haryana home minister

Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij has said he did not have information about any intelligence input on a possible build-up of tension in the wake of the religious procession that was attacked in Nuh district by mobs on July 31.

"I asked the ACS (additional chief secretary), Home, and the DGP. They also said they did not have any information," Vij said on Friday in response to a question on the violence that erupted in Nuh.

"Do not know who had it (intelligence input) or not, I do not have any information about it. At least I did not know about it," he said.

Referring to a TV channel sting of a CID inspector purportedly claiming that authorities had inputs about potential trouble during the VHP yatra in the Muslim-majority district, Vij said a video of the sting operation was going viral and it has to be investigated whom the inspector shared that intelligence with.

"If he had the information, then whom did he share it with," the minister asked, adding that he had sent the video to the additional chief secretary of the home department for analysis.

The Criminal Investigation Department of the state comes under Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar.

Vij also said a total of 216 people have been arrested so far while 80 have been taken into preventive detention in connection with the communal clashes.

So far, 104 FIRs have been registered, he further said.

Asked about reports on the role of some Pakistan-based social media accounts in inciting violence in Nuh, the home minister said all these facts are in the knowledge of the police and the securitymen are probing the same. He said the conclusions will be shared after the investigation. On a vehicle with Punjab-registered number plate seen during the Nuh violence, Vij said this information has also been sent to the investigating officials.

Six people, including two home guards and a cleric, died in the communal clashes that erupted in Nuh when a Vishva Hindu Parishad procession was attacked by mobs on Monday.

Vij had earlier said that the way bullets were fired from hillocks and stones were collected on rooftops of buildings indicates that the Nuh violence was pre-planned.

Opposition parties in Haryana have alleged that the violence was the result of the failure of the BJP-JJP government.