Six days after communal violence erupted in Maharashtra’s Nagpur, the police on Sunday lifted the curfew in all areas of the district, The Hindu reported.

“We have completely lifted the curfew,” the newspaper quoted Nagpur Police Commissioner Ravinder Singal as saying. “Normalcy has returned to Nagpur and the situation is peaceful.”

Singal said that 13 cases had been registered in connection with the incident and 104 persons were arrested till Saturday.

The violence in Nagpur on March 17 took place hours after Hindutva groups held a protest in the city demanding that Mughal emperor Aurangzeb’s tomb located in Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar be removed.

Subsequently, prohibitory orders barring public gatherings were imposed within the limits of 11 police stations of Nagpur.

On Thursday, the police had lifted the curfew in areas such as Nandanvan and Kapil Nagar, and had relaxed the prohibitory orders in other parts of the city between 2 pm and 4 pm for residents to buy essentials.

The orders were lifted from the remaining areas on Sunday, including Kotwali, Tehsil, Ganeshpeth and Yashodhara Nagar areas, The Hindu reported. Patrolling in sensitive areas would continue, Singal said.

Hindutva groups such as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal have in recent weeks stepped up their campaign to demand the removal of Aurangzeb’s tomb, claiming that the structure is a “symbol of pain and slavery”.

The two groups convened protests in several cities in Maharashtra on March 17.

Hours after the protest by a Hindutva group on March 17, clashes erupted in central Nagpur’s Chitnis Park at 7.30 pm. Stones were thrown at the police amid rumours that a cloth with the Islamic declaration of faith, known as the Kalma, had been burnt during an agitation by a Hindutva group in the late afternoon.

The police, however, denied that such a cloth was burnt.

Another clash erupted in Hansapuri, an area close to Chitnis Park, between 10.30 pm and 11.30 pm. The violence also spread to the Kotwali and Ganeshpeth areas.

A 38-year-old man who was injured in the clashes died at a hospital in the city on Saturday.

Later on Saturday, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said that the cost of damage to property during the violence would be recovered from the rioters.

Opposition to Aurangzeb in interest of nation: RSS leader

On Sunday, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh General Secretary Dattatreya Hosabale asked if iconising someone who was against the ethos of India was right, The Hindu reported.

Hosabale asked why persons “who advocate Ganga-Jamuni culture”, or the fusion of Hindu and Islamic cultural elements, “never thought of bringing Dara Shikoh forward”.

Dara Shikoh was the elder brother of Aurangzeb.

The statement came after RSS leader Sunil Ambekar on Wednesday said that Aurangzeb was “not relevant” today. The RSS is the parent organisation of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.

However, Ambekar had told The Times of India that the “glorification of Aurangzeb should stop”.

“The tomb issue is not irrelevant, Aurangzeb is,” the newspaper quoted him as having clarified.

At an RSS event in Bengaluru on Sunday, Hosabale said there had been a lot of incidents in the past in which the issue of Aurangzeb’s relevance had been brought up.

“There was an ‘Aurangzeb Road’ in Delhi, which was renamed Abdul Kalam Road,” The Hindu quoted him as saying. “There was some reason behind it. We never named Dara Shikoh a hero. He was Aurangzeb’s brother. Those who advocate the Ganga-Jamuni culture never thought of bringing Dara Shikoh forward.”

He said that if the movement against the British was fought for India’s freedom, then the fight against those who ruled the country before the British was also part of such a movement.

“Those who are symbols of the culture of the society and the nation should be our ideal, not those who are known for intolerance and do not represent the character of the nation,” the RSS leader said. “Opposition to people like Aurangzeb is not religious but in the interest of the nation and its unity.”

He added: “Although we gained political independence in 1947, mental colonialism is still a reality and it is necessary to end this mental colonialism.”