The Chief Minister has directed the administration to provide houses to the affected families under the CM Awas Yojana. (File Photo)

Around 10 houses of Dalit families were set on fire after a clash with Muslims at Batheti village in UP’s Jaunpur district Tuesday night.

By Wednesday evening, police had arrested 37 of the 57 named in the FIR lodged on a complaint filed by the Dalit community. More force has been deployed and the district administration has sent SHO of Sarai Khwaja Police Station, Sanjiv Mishra, to police lines.

Police said the clashes erupted after two groups of Dalit and Muslim boys had an altercation. “On Tuesday evening, some Dalit and Muslim teenagers were grazing buffaloes and goats when they started quarrelling. The village head intervened. Later, some boys from the Muslim community returned to the Dalit basti where a Dalit man slapped a Muslim boy, and the matter escalated… There was stone-pelting from both sides and people alleged that firearms were used. Eleven boys from both the communities were injured in the stone-pelting. Later, a group of Muslim men set fire to Dalit huts,” Mishra, the outgoing SHO, told The Indian Express.

In the complaint filed by Dalit community, it was alleged that the fight began after the Muslim boys hurled casteist slurs “When this was opposed, they started beating up my cousins… When some family members, including mothers of my cousins, went to inquire about the incident to the house of the accused, they had to face abuses … Around 6 pm, 57 identified and 20-25 unidentified people from the Muslim community came to our basti with sticks and weapons threatened to kill us… Women and children had to take shelter in the nearby village and 10 houses were burnt by the Muslims,” the complainant has told police.

While police have booked the accused for rioting, attempt to murder and breach of peace, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has ordered police to invoke the Nation Security Act and Gangster Act against them. The accused have also been booked under Disaster Management Act, Epidemic Diseases Act and under SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

The Chief Minister has also directed the administration to provide houses to the affected families under the CM Awas Yojana.