HYDERABAD : At least three persons died and 28 others were injured, three of them police constables, as fresh riots broke out in parts of the Old City late on Saturday.

Till midnight , security forces fired 145 rounds in the air to bring the bands of rioters under control. Three of the injured were reported to be in a serious condition at the Osmania General Hospital .

Violence began after a seemingly peaceful day, when several groups enforced a Black Day bandh to commemorate the demolition of the Babri Masjid.

Around 8 pm , a group of people, after attending a prayer meeting at Ashok Ki Lathi in Gowlipura, apparently raised flags against the Black Day bandh. This was seen as a provocation by a rival group and by late evening, parts of Sultan Shahi became tense.

A band of troublemakers reportedly torched an electric transformer plunging the entire area into darkness.

A little later, mobs went into the pitch dark lanes and raided several homes, witnesses said. The situation soon spun out of control and the police and the Rapid Action Force fired volleys and lobbed tear gas shells to scatter the rioters.

But till late at night, the neighbourhoods witnessed bursts of violence with mobs pouring out through the narrow lanes and evaporating just as fast, with policemen chasing them back.

Through the day, the neighbourhoods in and around Charminar simmered, despite repeated appeals from the ulema, community leaders and intellectuals to be restrained and not to stoke communal passions.

However, some shrill slogans were heard at a couple of protest marches that were taken out in the Old City . In fact, additional commissioner of police AK Khan told television channels in the evening that thanks to the efforts of all these groups, peace could be maintained in the city on Saturday.

But by 9.30 pm , it was full fledged rioting on the streets of the Old City . Groups clashed with swords and rods. Agitated youngmen went about ransacking houses and throwing stones, smashing window panes and shop fronts.

The police — deployed in strength to prevent such flare-ups — fired at Gowlipura and Sultan Shahi. At least 28 persons were wounded in the riots, five of them were admitted to the Osmania General Hospital with stab wounds. Ten of the injured suffered bullet injuries.

City police commissioner RP Singh said trouble started at Gowlipura and spilled over to Sultan Shahi, Lal Darwaza, parts of Bhavani Nagar and Shahalibanda. He confirmed that 12 persons were wounded, of whom one person had received stab wounds.

The fire services department said that it rushed three fire tenders to the Old City around midnight after receiving reports that a house went up in flames. However, there was no confirmation if this incident was related to the riots.

The police had to struggle in the darkness for quite sometime as the area was sealed off and nobody, including power utility officials, were allowed to enter the riot-hit area. Several political leaders of different parties, including a minister, visited the OGH late at night.

Doctors attending to the patients said that the presence of the politicians was hampering their work. They apparently raised slogans. The police were forced to deploy RAF personnel inside the hospital to restore peace.

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