Mumbai: Women and Child Welfare minister Yashomati Thakur, and the guardian minister for the district in Vidarbha in Maharashtra said the recent violence in Amravati was the handiwork of the fringe elements in society.
The incidents that led to a riot was planned in a city where otherwise is a secular atmosphere, said Minister Yashomati to The Indian Express referring to the Cyber Crimes Cell of the Mumbai Police.
Calling the violence sad and shocking, the Minister said the intelligence report pointed to the fanatics from both sides who were behind the riot. The routine life was disturbed while the common man had to suffer from the violence as it has brought out curtailment in the form of curfew in the city, the Senior Congress leader said.
There was a plan to set Maharashtra on fire and this is what the cyber report is saying, Yashomati said. Talking about discontent the people are over the restriction on internet, she said that it is not at the government the people are angry but at the people who planted the trouble to them.
The some of the police officers and the people who were found to be guilty of abetting violence, the government will ensure they are punished for their irresponsible behaviour, the Minister said.
Yashomati also defended the ban on the internet saying the peaceful situation could only ,the be brought out when there is no chance for hate and provocative messages are spread.
Admitting that there was an intelligence failure, the Minister said that some police officials were seemed to have not acted as the situation demanded and all this could have been avoided, had the intelligence (department) alerted (the government), (the violence) could have been avoided.