NEW DELHI, April 16 – Clashes erupted during a Hindu religious procession in the Indian capital New Delhi on Saturday, leaving several people injured, including police officers, police said, days after similar religious clashes Violence in three states.
Eyewitnesses told Reuters that violence erupted between Muslims and Hindus during the procession in Jahangirpuri, a New Delhi suburb. The police said they were still investigating.
“We are still estimating how many people were injured… some police officers were also injured,” said Deependra Pathak, a police officer in Jahangirpuri, who was wearing riot gear.
The violence erupted during a procession to mark the Hindu festival of Hanuman Jayanti, police said without giving further details.
Earlier on Saturday, protesters in New Delhi chanted slogans against Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, which said Muslims were violently attacked by authorities after clashes between Hindus and Muslims in parts of three states ruled by Modi’s Hindu Nationalist Party. Continue reading
Last Sunday’s clashes during a religious festival prompted police to impose a curfew in one city and ban gatherings of more than four people in parts of the states.
According to a police officer who asked not to be named, local authorities demolished the homes and businesses of suspected Muslim rioters in the central state of Madhya Pradesh after violence erupted during the Hindu Ram Navami festival.
In Modi’s home state of Gujarat, authorities demolished makeshift shops owned by those they said were involved in the riots, which killed one man, said an official in Gujarat’s Anand district, where the clashes broke out.
Police and local authorities told Reuters after the clashes that they were impartial and acting within the law.
Opposition politicians have accused Modi’s right-wing Hindu nationalist party, Bharatiya Janata, of fueling tensions between the majority Hindus and Muslims in the states it governs.
Leaders of 13 opposition parties have issued a joint statement calling for peace and harmony and after the religious clashes.
“We are very concerned at the way in which issues related to food, dress, belief, festivals and language are being deliberately used by sections of the ruling establishment to polarize our society,” the leaders said.
Police in India’s most populous state of Uttar Pradesh on Friday arrested nine people from a hard-line Hindu group suspected of setting fire to the home of a Muslim man who married a Hindu woman.
Additional reporting by Saurabh Sharma in Lucknow and Sumit Khanna in Ahmedabad, writing by Shilpa Jamkhandikar, editing by Rupam Jain and Ros Russell