Friday prayers peaceful in riot-hit areas: Peace committee members

New Delhi: Friday prayers at mosques in the riot-hit areas of northeast Delhi passed off peacefully and no untoward incident was reported, local peace committee members said.

Local mosques had earlier in the day appealed for maintaining peace and harmony in the areas affected by communal clashes earlier this week.

After the Friday prayers, a delegation of peace committee members met senior police officers, including special commissioner (law and order)

S N Shrivastava, at the office of the DCP (Northeast) in Seelampur.

"We have apprised the officers that the prayers were held without any trouble and no untoward incident has been reported from anywhere in the region, Parvez

Mian, a peace committee member and president of the All India Milli Council Delhi state, said.

He said the delegation also apprised the police officers, including Joint CP Alok Kumar and DCP Northeast Ved Prakash Surya, that the situation had been improving in the past two days.

"The police commissioner has assured us that those behind the violence are being identified and strict action will be taken against them," Mian said, referring to Shrivastava who was on Friday given the additional charge of the Delhi Police commissioner effective from Sunday.

Earlier in the day, the mosques had appealed to people to be united and not fall prey to rumours, urging people to report suspicious people to the authorities and cooperate with the police.

"In case of any emergency, please call on 112," the announcement said.

The violence that unfolded in Jaffrabad, Maujpur, Babarpur, Chand Bagh, Shiv Vihar, Bhajan Pura, Yamuna Vihar areas of northeast Delhi earlier this week have claimed at least 42 lives and left over 200 injured while also unleashing large scale mob-led destruction of properties.

The situation limped back towards normalcy on Friday, even as police and paramilitary personnel maintained their presence along main roads and interior areas of the riot-hit region.