A second murder of a lower-caste person in the wee hours of Wednesday, the second such in less than 24 hours, rocked Saharanpur even as the Yogi Adityanath administration struggled to maintain the peace in villages surrounding Shabbirpur, where a Dalit youth was killed on Tuesday.

The state government scrambled to contain the situation, suspending Saharanpur District Magistrate NP Singh and Senior Superintendent of Police SS Dubey, and imposing Section 144 of the IPC, which prohibits the gathering of more than four persons at public places. And in an echo of Kashmir, it also ordered service providers to suspend all internet, messaging and social media services in the area until further orders. The administration said these services were being used by troublemakers to vitiate the peace in the district.