Jammu: Groups of two communities clashed here Sunday over a land dispute, torching three vehicles and vandalising nearly a dozen others, and blocking traffic on the busy Jammu-Srinagar highway, police said.
Clashes erupted between members of the two communities over a piece of land measuring around 42 acres in Bari Brahmana industrial estate, 15 km from Shaheedi Chowk.
The annual wrestling event scheduled to be held at this place could not be held as members of one community said they would not allow it since the land where the event was scheduled belonged to them.
This agitated members of the other community, resulting in violent clashes.
The mobs torched three vehicles, including two of the police, on the Jammu-Srinagar national highway bringing traffic on the busy route to a grinding halt, including vehicles carrying Yatris to the Amarnath Shrine in the Kashmir Valley.
Mobs also smashed the panes of around one dozen other vehicles.
Senior police officers rushed to the spot to bring the situation under control and restore traffic on the highway.
“Traffic on the highway has been restored. The situation is under control,” the officer said.
The district magistrate of Srinagar has issued an order under Section 144 of the Indian Penal Code, barring any gathering of five or more people at a time, in the old city areas in the state.(IANS)