DAR AL HARB-INDIA: MOSLEM v HINDU RIOTS, THE POLICE CLAMP DOWN

Police clamp curfew on north Indian town following Hindu Muslim riots

LUCKNOW, India: Indian police clamped a curfew on a northern Indian town with orders to shoot violators on sight after Hindu activists rioted Monday, burning buses and pelting police with stones, officials said.

The unrest started Saturday night in the town of Gorakhpur when fighting broke out as a Hindu wedding procession clashed with a Muslim religious parade. A 24-year-old Hindu man was stabbed to death.

On Monday, Hindu activists led by Yogi Adityanath, a Hindu religious leader and member of Parliament, blocked roads in Gorakhpur, some 250 kilometers (155 miles) southeast of the state capital Lucknow, demanding the arrest of the killers.

After police arrested Adityanath, his supporters ransacked government offices, torched public buses and threw stones at the police demanding his release and the arrest of the killer.

"Yogi Adityanath was arrested on the charges of inciting communal hatred and has been sent to jail along with his supporters," said R.M. Srivastava, a senior state government official.

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Large parts of the town "have been brought under curfew and orders of shoot at sight have been issued," said Hari Om, the district magistrate. "The situation is tense but under control."

Relations between India's Hindus and minority Muslims are generally peaceful but violent riots have erupted in the past.

Hindus make up more than 80 percent of India's billion plus people and Muslims — at 14 percent — form the country's largest religious minority.


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