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Hundreds of troops have been deployed to quell deadly riots and clashes between rival communities in northern India, sparked by the killing of three villagers who had objected when a young woman was being harassed.
Indian television station NDTV said at least 31 people had been killed in two days of violence in Muzaffarnagar district of Uttar Pradesh state, 105km north east of New Delhi.
An Indian broadcast journalist and a police photographer were among the dead after the two groups set upon each other with guns and knives in Kawal village.
The violence quickly spread to neighbouring villages in Muzaffarnagar district on Saturday night.
“A curfew has been imposed in three riot-hit areas of Muzaffarnagar,’’ the head of the state’s home ministry, R M Srivastava, said. “The situation is still very tense, but under control.”
An army contingent of up to 800 was dispatched to the area on Saturday night, as armed gangs of Jats, a group practising Hinduism, stormed a mosque and a village with Muslim residents, he said. Soldiers were going door to door to search for weapons. A state of high alert was declared for the entire state of Uttar Pradesh, which has a population of 200 million people.
The clashes broke out after thousands of Hindu farmers held a meeting in Kawal to demand justice in the August 27 killing of three men who had spoken out when a woman was being verbally harassed. — AP
Londile Moyo
Online Reporter