A video from Uttar Pradesh’s Kasganj town has surfaced on social media in which unidentified youths can be seen brandishing swords, sticks and guns, according to NDTV report.

As per media reports, the police are investigating the authenticity of the video and sequence of the footage, which is purportedly recorded on 26 January. Not long after the video, mobs had vandalised multiple shops, house and buses.

The video which was shot from a rooftop also has several gunshots sounds.

Meanwhile, the situation in Kasganj is slowly returning to normalcy with no untoward incident reported in the past 24-hours, said a home department official.

Peace Committees are also doing the rounds of the affected areas. The director general of police (DGP) OP Singh has issued a circular directing SPs and SSPs to step up vigil in communally sensitive areas and ensure police presence and patrolling there. The circular has also urged the police personnel to be proactive in reacting to ‘small flash points’ and ‘settle them promptly’ so that they do not flare up into big incidents.

The police have also been asked to be vigilant about social media and ensure that inflammatory and communally sensitive posts, pictures and videos do not find way to social media sites and are not distributed through mediums like Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp.

Instructions have also been issued to install CCTV cameras at vantage points and in communally sensitive areas.

Earlier, UP Governor described the clashes as “shameful”, and said that this was for the first time in the last 9-10 months that such an incident occurred in the state.

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Under fire over the violence, the UP government went into damage control mode and shunted out Kasganj Superintendent of Police Sunil Kumar Singh to “a less significant post”, according to officials.

Piyush Srivastava was appointed the new Kasganj SP, officials said. Singh was sent to Police Training School, Meerut, in the same rank, they said.

The state authorities also presented a cheque of Rs 20 lakh to family members of Chandan Gupta, who was killed in the violence.

At least three shops, two buses and a car were torched after Gupta was killed in clashes following stone- pelting by a mob on a motorcycle rally taken out to celebrate Republic Day.

Volunteers of organisations like the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), Hindu Mahasabha and ABVP had taken out the rally – ‘Tiranga Yatra’. After passing through the Kotwali area, they were about to pass through a Muslim dominated area when some people objected to its passage.

This resulted in heated exchange of words and eventually escalated to firing in which Gupta lost his life, according to officials.

As many as 118 people have been arrested in connection with the violence following which security forces are maintaining strict vigil.

District authorities in Kasganj, said the situation was returning to normal even as more arrests were being made in connection with the violence.

The state authorities also presented a cheque of Rs 20 lakh to family members of Chandan Gupta, who was killed in the violence.