After four days, curfew in Old Lucknow’s Hussainabad area was finally lifted today for two hours — one hour each for the Shias and Sunnis living on either side of the Hussainabad tri-section. A wall of police stood guard in between the two sections to avoid any clash.
Curfew was imposed in the area on Sunday, following a Shia-Sunni clash in which three people died. ‘‘The tension is still evident. That is why the road of Hussainabad tri-section was taken as a dividing line,’’ said SSP Navniet Sekera.
‘‘Curfew was first relaxed in the Sunni-dominated locality living on one side from 2 pm to 3 pm. All entry points to the Shia-dominated locality on the other side were blocked then. Curfew was then relaxed in the Shia area from 4 pm to 5 pm in the same manner,’’ said Sekera.
Long queues were seen at ration and medicine shops. ‘‘It is like being freed from jail. Even the milkmen have not come to the area for the last few days now,’’ said 60-year-old Nadia Begum.
But Sekera admitted that the problem is not over yet. ‘‘The fact that all the three deceased were Sunnis is not helping matters. We are not sure when complete normalcy will return here and when curfew can be completely lifted,’’ he said.
Meanwhile, the family of Parvez Alam, arrested yesterday on charges of shooting dead three people, claimed that he was being framed in the case, and was not even at home when the violence occurred.
‘‘On Sunday, both my sons, Parvez and Alim, left home at around 9 am with a Tazia procession for Karbala. The riot broke out at 10.30 am. Our shop is the only Shia shop in the area, and hence became a target of the Sunnis. They had attacked it in 1997 too. They had almost burned down the shop when some people rushed to our rescue,’’ said Sultana Begum.
While District Magistrate Aradhana Shukla earlier conceded that Parvez had shot dead three Sunnis but ‘‘it was more of a panic reaction after a mob targetted his house’’, Sekera declined to comment on the matter.