Tension gripped Surat on Sunday night with mobs setting ablaze a BRTS bus and vandalising a bus stand apparently in protest against the arrest of a aide of Patidar quota agitation leader Hardik Patel by the Ahmedabad Crime Branch in an old sedition case.
The bus was set ablaze in the Yogi Chowk area and the bus stand in the Varachha area.
The mobs also burnt tyres on roads and indulged in stone pelting.
Patel's aide, Alpesh Kathiriya, is a leader of the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS), an outfit organising protests demanding reservation for the Patidar community. He was arrested by the Crime Branch in Ahmedabad when he was on his way to stage a symbolic fast.
Surat Police Commissioner Satish Sharma said the situation was under control, and the police were trying to ascertain who were behind the violence.
"A BRTS bus was set ablaze and a bus stand damaged by mobs, but we have brought the situation under control. We are trying to ascertain who all were behind the violence. It appears that those behind the violence are PAAS members and those sympathising with the outfit," he said.
Sharma added that patrolling was intensified since Sunday evening, anticipating violence, after Kathiriya, who is from Surat, was arrested by the Ahmedabad Crime Branch in an old sedition case.
Kathiriya was detained, along with Patel, who is spearheading the protest demanding reservation for the Patidar community, and seven others by the Ahmedabad Crime Branch on Sunday morning when they were on their way to a protest site to observe a symbolic fast. Patel and other associates were soon released.
While eight of them were released on bail after being booked under IPC Sections 143 (punishment for unlawful assembly) and 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions), Kathiriya was shown as arrested in a sedition case dating back to 2015, in which he was an accused, a Crime Branch official said.
This had apparently irked the PAAS members and sympathisers, who indulged in violence, Sharma said.
Meanwhile, Patel released a video clip, appealing for peace after the violence in Surat.
"I request the people to maintain peace and not destroy public property. Whatever the police did was not right, but what is being done now is also not right. Protest, but peacefully and constitutionally, not by destroying government property. I appeal for peace," Patel said in the clip.
Patel had sought permission for using a ground in Nikol, in eastern Ahmedabad, to sit on a indefinite hunger fast from August 25 in support of his demand for reservation for Patidar community, loan waivers for farmers and several issues concerning the common man.
While the permission was denied, Patel wrote to Chief Minister Vijay Rupani requesting permission for a day's token fast on Sunday. The government rejected the request and detained Patel and his supporters when they were on their way to Nikol.
August 25 will mark the third anniversary of Patel's mega rally in Ahmedabad, which brought him to centre stage in Gujarat politics. In the violence that broke out after it, 14 Patidars lost their lives in different parts of the state.
(With inputs from Nandini Oza)