Vikash Yadav Philadelphia, PA
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17 killed in religious clashes in western India By RUPAK SANYAL, Associated Press
AHMADABAD, India (April 22, 2002 6:57 a.m. EDT) - A new wave of clashes between Hindus and Muslims in western India killed 17 people, including nine Muslims who died when police fired into a crowd gathered for a Hindu festival. At least 91 others were seriously injured with burns and bullet wounds, police said.
In Sunday's most deadly clash, police fired into a crowd that had gathered for the Hindu festival of Ramnavami, the birthday of the religion's supreme deity, Rama. The event turned violent after a clash between Hindu and Muslim neighbors, said police in Ahmadabad, the commercial capital of Gujarat state.
Both sides hurled stones and gasoline bombs, and officers had to intervene to stop the violence, said police officials in the state capital, Gandhinagar. Nine Muslims were killed when officers fired on the crowd, police said.
Three Hindus were killed, including one who died when he was hit by a gasoline bomb, police officers in Ahmadabad said on condition of anonymity. A police officer died after the crowd turned on him with knives.
Two other people were killed in the city, but their religion was not immediately known, police said. The remaining two deaths occurred in the Kheda district, about 20 miles north of Ahmadabad.
The new killings brought the death toll to at least 850 in religious clashes that began in Gujarat state on Feb. 27, when Muslims set fire to a train carrying Hindus returning from a religious pilgrimage. Retaliatory rampages erupted across the state. Most of the dead have been Muslims, many of whom died in fires set by Hindu rioters.
The renewed violence, which had tapered off in the last few days, came on the same day that Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee vowed to avenge the Gujarat deaths.
"The country belongs to people of all religious, ethnic and linguistic groups," Vajpayee was quoted as saying by the Hindustan Times newspaper. "My government will ensure their protection."
The inability of the state government to stop the rioting and allegations that police have supported the Hindu rioters provoked widespread demands for the dismissal of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, the top elected official.
Work in Parliament stalled last week because of the opposition demand for action against Modi, who is affiliated with Vajpayee's party. Both houses of Parliament were adjourned again Monday when the opposition began shouting out for Modi's dismissal, a debate on Gujarat and a vote on whether to censure the state's government.
The opposition blames the carnage on the Hindu nationalist party of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and its ideological affiliates.