AHMEDABAD, India, 2 May 2006 — At least three people died and 18 were injured yesterday when mobs fought pitched battles with the police, protesting a demolition drive in a communally-sensitive city of India’s Gujarat state, police said.
Police opened fire at the violent crowd which threw stones when civic authorities came to demolish a Muslim shrine that was on the list of properties encroaching on roads in Baroda, 120 km south of Ahmedabad, Gujarat’s main city.
Two of those killed died in police firing, police said.
“Muslims objected to the anti-encroachment drive and pelted police and the demolition squad with stones,” Deepak Swaroop, the city police chief, said. “We had to take action,” he added.
Police imposed a curfew in the Fatehpur neighborhood of the city as Hindus and Muslims burned at least four shops, Swaroop said.
Swaroop said Muslim community leaders in the area had earlier agreed to the shrine’s removal.
All trains from Bombay to Baroda and other parts of Gujarat and trains passing through Baroda were rescheduled while some important trains were provided additional security.
Swaroop denied any bias against a particular community. He said the demolition was being carried out to implement a government decision to remove encroachments. The police, Swaroop said, will not buckle under pressure and would abide by government decisions which are for the development of the city.
The Congress party has demanded a judicial inquiry into today’s riots and police firing.
India’s federal government has asked the Gujarat state government to take all possible precautions to avoid any escalation of the situation.
Gujarat was rocked by Hindu-Muslim riots in 2002 when 59 Hindus were burned to death in a train fire that the Hindus blamed on Muslims.
Human rights groups say about 2,500 people — mostly Muslims — were killed in the ensuing clashes all over the state. Many were buried in mass graves — some dug by killers, others by relatives.
