BOMBAY, 6 September 2003 — Three police officials were hurt yesterday in a clash between Hindus and Muslims in the western town of Godhra, in the riot-torn state of Gujarat, police said.
During the clashes, which took place during a Hindu festival, police fired at least four rounds when a mob attacked a police post and damaged a police vehicle.
Authorities immediately clamped a curfew on parts of the town, which was at the center of communal riots last year that rocked Gujarat for three months and left some 2,000 people dead, most of them Muslims.
Police Inspector General Rakesh Asthana of the town of Baroda, which adjoins Godhra, told AFP by telephone that the clashes had occurred when a procession of Hindus came under attack in a Muslim area.
He said Hindus had shouted insults at Muslims, who had retaliated by throwing stones at the procession.
He said the situation had calmed late yesterday and added that the curfew would be lifted once the Hindu procession and ceremony were completed. Last year’s violence was triggered in Gujarat after a mob believed to be Muslims burnt a train carrying Hindu activists and devotees in Godhra, killing 59. The incident sparked Hindu-Muslim riots that ravaged the state for months.
