DHAKA: With normalcy returning to riot-hit areas of the district, curfew was relaxed for seven hours on Thursday.

‘The administration has decided to relax curfew in three police station areas between 10am to 5pm,’ district magistrate Kaushal Raj Sharma said, reports The Times of India.

Though the shops opened, all schools and colleges would remain closed till September 15.

Strict vigil was being maintained during the relaxation period and police and paramilitary forces are on high alert.

The administration had imposed curfew in Kotwali, Civil Lines and Nai Mandi areas of the district on Saturday last following communal clashes.

Curfew was relaxed for five hours on Wednesday in Muzaffarnagar while Baghpat witnessed a communal clash leaving a constable injured.

ADG (Law and Order) Arun Kumar had said on Wednesday that two bodies were recovered from the Ganga canal taking the death toll in the communal violence in Muzaffarnagar to 38.

BDST: 1413 HRS, SEPT 12, 2013
RoR/BSK