About 25 buses were vandalised by angry mobs at various locations in the city last evening.
After a weeklong lull, mob violence reared its ugly head in Pune once again yesterday, after an objectionable post on Dr B R Ambedkar went viral. Even though cops blocked the objectionable pages on Facebook, protestors took to the streets. Shops were shut down in fear. The most affected areas were Sinhagad Road, Dandekar bridge, Pimpri, Kalewadi and Bhatnagar.
Bike-borne youths pelted stones on buses and then fled from the spot, said police. Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited (PMPML) Public Relation Officer Deepak Pardeshi said, "PMPML buses were damaged in Kalyaninagar, Sinhagad Road areas in Pune city, and Kalewadi and Bhatnagar in Pimpri area."
Joint Commissioner of Police (Law & Order) Sanjay Kumar said, "We have detained 5 youths who were involved in stone pelting incidents on Sinhagad road. We got details of about 10 incidents."
He added, "The violence is being perpetuated by people who are forwarding the objectionable posts about Dr Ambedkar on Whatsapp, even after police blocked the posts on Facebook. We have deployed heavy bandobast to avoid any untoward incident and the situation is totally under control."