11, Aug 2014

says half a dozen families have shifted to their relatives
Fearing retribution, several members of a particular community have reportedly left Kharkhaunda, a small town in Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut district, about 500 kilometres from here, following a communal flare-up after an alleged gang-rape and forced conversion of a girl at a religious school.
According to the reports, at least half a dozen families have shifted to their relatives’ homes in the past couple of days. Eyewitnesses said that one family left the town with baggage on Saturday. Reports said that several houses in the town, which has a mixed population, were seen locked after the flare-up last week. Local police officials, while conceding that some families have indeed left the town, claimed that they might be visiting their relatives. “They will come back after spending some time there”, said a senior police official in Meerut.