NASHIK, July 13: Angry mobs had a field day on Sunday as violence ravaged Nagpur and Nashik following the Maharashtra bandh call given by the RPI.Police stations, hotels, railway stations, public transport bore the brunt of furious Dalits as they devastated towns in the wake of the frenzied reaction to Saturday's `sacrilege'.

Riots exacerbated as it spread from north Nagpur, which was the worst hit as reports came in, to the southern parts of the city. As if to vent their anger towards the police, crowds of Dalits violated a 24 hour curfew imposed and set afire two police stations in south Nagpur; a police patrol was attacked with petrol bombs in Chamar Nala, north Nagpur; a police post at Bhagwan Nagar was destroyed, while the police chowky at Hasanbag was set on fire.

Police had to use teargas shells in two places to disperse angry crowds, even as the spate of stone pelting, burning of State Transport buses, private vehicles, shops and establishments and disruption of traffic continued unabated the second day today.

Incidents of stone pelting at 32 places were recorded during the day, most of which occurred in southern localities of Chandramani Nagar, Rameshwari, Jogi Nagar and Bhagwan Nagar.

State Transport buses too weren't spared by the rampaging rioters which even set one of them on fire at Chandramani Nagar this morning, besides burning two trucks at Pili Nadi road near Pachpaoli.

Tear gas was resorted to at Rani Durgawati Nagar Square to disperse a crowd which ambushed a police unit, after damaging several private vehicles.Two of yesterday's firings victims were cremated today.

Praveen Lade, who was the first victim of the firing, was cremated at Barse Nagar Ghat this evening in the presence of a watching group of 2000 people. The second victim, Vinod Krishnaji Kamble (14), a resident of Hudco Colony, Misal Layout, was cremated late in the evening at Barse Nagar Ghat.

Meanwhile Nashik, reports say, also saw similar scenes of arson and looting, as the police watched helplessly. Frenetic hordes went on a free-for-all, indulging in looting and burning vehicles and shops in various parts of the city. These incidents racked the predominantly Dalit localities.

The police have registered 18 offences and arrested 185 persons at Shikharewadi on Nashik-Pune road. MSRTC suspended its services following damaging attacks on nine of its ST buses. Private vehicles were stoned on the Nashik-Pune Road, Jail Road and Nashik-Deolali Road damaging a dozen vehicles. Stoning on the Nashik-Pune road was so severe that thepolice stopped vehicles bound for Nashik.

Disturbances also gripped Amravati, where two rioters were critically injured in police firing in Shingapur, Daryapur tahsil, and in another potentially volatile incident Sena activists almost coming to blows with a mob which confronted their shakha, averted by a timely intervention by the DSP.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.