Indus Valley Times

Internet services were discontinued following April 12 group clashes

By Mahendra Darjee

Bhubaneswar, April 24: Odisha’s Sambalpur district administration on Sunday restored the internet services in the district, bringing a sigh of relief to the local residents.

The internet services in the district had remained suspended since April 12 evening following clashes between two separate groups during the Hanuman Jayanti procession in Sambalpur city.

The Sambalpur district administration has relaxed the curfew timings in view of the improvement in the overall situation post the large-scale violence. As per the district collector Ananya Das, the curfew timings have been relaxed from 5 am to 8 pm and the relaxations have come into effect from Sunday.

Apart from the relaxation in the curfew timings, the internet services in Sambalpur have also been restored. Earlier, the internet suspension was extended on Saturday by another 12 hours till 6 am today.

Internet services were banned in view of the stone-pelting incident and other violence during the Hanuman Jayanti celebrations as a precautionary measure by the administration to ensure that no inflammatory messages or rumours were spread which would create more unrest in the region.

On Saturday, BJP MPs and MLAs wrote a letter to the Union minister of home affairs Amit Shah demanding an impartial investigation by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) into the Hanuman Jayanti violence incident.

Claiming that the violent attacks on the bike rally by a certain community was pre-planned and an organized one, the leaders demanded an investigation by the NIA to unravel the conspiracy.

As many as 10 police personnel and 20 civilians were injured, some of them seriously, in the group clash. The police has so far arrested 55 persons in connection with the violent incidents.

The seriously injured persons are still undergoing treatment at the local VSS Medical College and Hospital.