Prohibitory orders imposed in Marathwada

AURANGABAD: The authorities in the eight districts of Marathwada have imposed section 144 of the CrPC prohibiting gathering of more than four people at a place, bursting of firecrackers and taking out victory processions or protest marches on Saturday and Sunday.


The prohibitory orders will, however, be relaxed for processions by Muslims to celebrate Eid-e-Milad — the birth anniversary of Prophet Muhammad on Sunday, said officials.

However, community leaders have cancelled the Eid processions in Nanded and Latur to avoid any untoward incidents, said top police officers from the two districts.

The district magistrates in Aurangabad, Beed and Jalna issued directives to the state excise authorities and imposed dry day for two consecutive days starting from Saturday. In Osmanabad, Parbhani and Hingoli, dry day would be observed on Sunday.

In Latur and Nanded districts, the authorities were yet to receive any official communication about dry day. The authorities maintained that Sunday was included to the list of dry day in view of Eid.

As far as the prohibitory orders under section 144 are concerned, a section of Muslims organising peaceful processions have been granted conditional permissions in Jalna, Hingoli, Parbhani, Osmanabad, Beed and Aurangabad districts.

Beed SP Harssh Poddar said, “We have enforced section 37 of Maharashtra Police Act, instead of section 144 and the day passed off peacefully. Hence, there is nothing wrong in granting conditional permission for Eid-e-Milad procession.”

Aurangabad city turned out to be the only place across the region where two offences were registered against the people for violating prohibitory orders.

“Two offences were registered at Kranti Chowk and Vedantnagar police stations after some unidentified people burst firecrackers during the day,” said Aurangabad commissioner of police Chiranjeev Prasad.

Meanwhile, two people were detained in Osmanabad over social media posts. “Police took two people in preventive detention after they made unsolicited posts on social media. Later, they were made to delete the posts,” said Osmanabad superintendent of police Raj Tilak Roushan.

Osmananabad village shows way to harmony

Hindus and Muslims of Terkheda village in Washi taluka of Osmanabad district, about 210 km from Aurangabad city, organised a village feast and ate food together as a gesture of communal harmony.

The decision to organise the feast in the village, with a population of about 10,000, was taken late during a peace committee meeting convened by assistant inspector Pandit Sonawne of Yermala police station on on the eve of the Ayodhya verdict on Friday.

“Peace committee president Vibhishan Khamkar along with Fareed Pathan, Asif Mulani, Ilyas Daruwale and Balkrushna Ghule, took the initiative by publicly pledging that irrespective of the outcome in the Ayodhya case, there will be a feast in which members of both the communities will have food together,” said API Sonawne.

The preparations for cooking large quantity of food continued for the entire night and the villagers were invited and involved.

Taking cognizance of the rare feat, Osmanabad superintendent of police Raj Tilak Roushan personally congratulated the villagers and promised a visit.