Following violent protests over the Citizenship Amendment Act in Delhi on Sunday, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has appealed forpeace peace.
"No one should indulge in violence. Any kind of violence is unacceptable. Protests should remain peaceful," he was quoted by ANI as saying.
Kejriwal also said that he had spoken to the Lt Governor to urge him to take all steps to restore normalcy and peace".
"We are also doing everything possible at our end. Real miscreants who caused violence should be identified and punished," he said.
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Sanjay Singh also toed the party chief's line condemning the violence.
"There is no place for violence in a democracy, The protestors should not indulge in any kind of violence. They should raise their issues in a democratic manner. The violence incident in Delhi is condemnable," Singh said on Twitter.
The Opposition BJP in the meantime blamed the Aam Aadmi Party for the violence in south Delhi.
BJP Delhi chief Manoj Tiwari, in a tweet, said that an AAP MLA was "provoking" the public and called Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal a "traitor".
"An AAP MLA is provoking people at the behest of Arvind Kejriwal. The Muslims of the country are with India and are not going to be influenced by traitors like you. Stop provoking people. The people of Delhi will teach AAP traitors a lesson. The sin of AAP is being exposed," he tweeted in Hindi.
He was responding to a video that showed AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan participating in a protest purportedly in the same area where the violent outbreaks took place in Delhi.
In another tweet, responding to the Chief Minister's appeal for calm, Tiwari accused Kejriwal of sending his MLA to incite violence.
The Okhla MLA, however, denies the accusations.
"Some TV channels have run the news that protesters under my leadership have torched buses, which is wrong. I protested near Shaheen Bagh where nothing untoward happened," he told reporters.
Similar to Tiwari, BJP leader Kapil Mishra also spoke out against the violence and criticised the AAP-led government. Likening the violence to the Godhra attacks he also added that it was "a terrorist attack".
"Setting afire a bus which has a CNG cylinder means that there was a conspiracy for a big blast. What do you call this if not a terrorist attack? This fire was started by Amanatullah Khan. They are readying to repeat Godhra incident in Delhi," he said.
As IANS described it, residents and commuters in the heart of the national capital ran for their lives as a raging mob of almost 1,000 people protested against the Citizenship Act on Sunday.
At least five buses were set ablaze or damaged, besides various cars and a bike that were targeted by the mob. Two fire officials were injured in stone-pelting as protests against the newly enacted Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2019, that seized parts of south Delhi for almost an hour as arsonists vandalised and the stone-pelting mob ran amok threatening residents. A photographer was also injured.
(With inputs from agencies)
