19, Aug 2014

Loni (Ghaziabad):Communal clashes broke out in Loni, a subdivision town in Ghaziabad adjoining Delhi, on Monday after the alleged rape of a 10-year-old girl by a 65-year-old man from another community.
Rival mobs pelted stones and opened fire on each other in a frenzy of violence that started around 9am on the Delhi-Saharanpur highway. The clashes were fanned by rumours of the girl dying and reports of an autorickshaw driver being shot dead in the area around the same time. The death of the auto driver was confirmed later, but police didn’t draw a connection with the clashes.
Though the violence was restricted to the highway and its immediate vicinity, tension spread all over Loni as people assembled in little clusters — calling themselves “defence groups” — across markets and residential areas on deserted roads as shops downed shutters and residents bolted themselves in. The rioters clashed with the police, too, but the heavy deployment helped contain the violence.