India's Udaipur murder: Top cop says peace key for livelihood of locals, curfew relaxed

A senior police officer has appealed to Udaipur's residents to maintain peace and not get instigated by rumours amid the outrage over the killing of tailor Kanhaiya Lal by two Muslim men last week.

He further said any such disturbance affects the livelihood of residents of the city of lakes as it is a tourist spot.

Speaking to news agency ANI, Udaipur's additional director general of police (ADGP) Dinesh MN said, "Every incident cannot be viewed as communal. There are individual incidents. Udaipur is a tourist spot and any disturbance affects the daily livelihood of people."

The tourism industry in Udaipur has been affected following Lal's murder. A report by PTI on Sunday said that over half the hotel bookings made for the next two months were cancelled and industry players fear that the tailor's killing will harm the tourism season beginning September.

The Udaipur ADGP also urged locals to approach the administration and police in case there is any issue and a solution will be found.

His comments come as curfew was relaxed in Udaipur for 10 hours on Sunday as the situation in the city gradually returned to normal. According to the district administration, the curfew was relaxed between 8am till pm.

The curfew was imposed in seven police station areas of Udaipur on June 28, hours after Lal was beheaded over an alleged social media post supporting suspended Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Nupur Sharma, who recently made derogatory statements against Prophet Mohammad.

The murderers – Riyaz Akhtari and Ghouse Mohammad – posted the video of the killing on social media stating they had avenged an insult to Islam. They also threatened to harm Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Both Akhtari and Mohammad were arrested hours after the murder from Rajsamand, and on Thursday two more accused who were involved in the recce of Lal's shop were arrested.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in Jaipur has sent all the four accused to ten-day custody for further interrogation.

On Saturday, the accused were attacked by an angry crowd while police were escorting them to the NIA court.