Curfew was relaxed from 8 am to 6 pm in the Lohamandi and Tajganj areas on Friday as the city slowly limped back to normal after Wednesday's violence.

Women and children were allowed to come out of their houses for two hours in the morning to buy essential goods in the sensitive areas of Mantola and Nai ki Mandi.

Curfew was relaxed in all areas for two hours in the afternoon to enable Muslims to go to mosque for Friday prayers.

There was protest in the Dhakran crossing areas by non-Muslims who alleged that they were being arrested despite they had protected the police from brickbatting.

Police officials said they were being held on the basis of video tapes which showed them looting goods from trucks set on fire by mobs.

As the dispute threatened to grow into a mass protest, political leaders and senior police officials, including Inspector General, S P Singh, DIG Kamal Saxena and SSP Hariram Sharma, reached the spot and pacified the group.