K. Kumaraswamy, a joint commissioner of police, said Friday night’s violence in Gujarat state was not related to the second anniversary of sectarian riots in 2002 that killed 1,000 people, mostly Muslims.
The latest clash appeared to be retaliation for an attack Thursday on more than 500 Shiite Muslims by Hindus in the Gujarat town of Vadodra at the beginning of the Islamic month of Moharram, he said. One Muslim was killed and 11 people were injured when police opened fire to quell those clashes.
On Friday night, some Muslims allegedly dragged a 35-year-old Hindu into a corner and fatally stabbed him with a knife in the Bavamanpura district of Vadodra, Kumaraswamy said.
Another 23-year-old Hindu on a scooter was attacked and killed with swords by a mob of nearly 400 Muslims in a nearby district, he said.
The attacks sparked riots in Vadodra that injured at least 28 people, including three who received gunshot wounds when police opened fire to control the mob, he said.
Muslim-Hindu clashes were also reported in the nearby Memon and Sulemain districts in Vadodra, but there were no casualties as police separated the rival groups.
Police arrested 28 people in an attempt to prevent further violence ahead of a funeral procession planned later Saturday by the hardline World Hindu Council, Kumaraswamy said. On Feb. 27, 2002, Muslims set fire to a train carrying Hindus to a holy site in Gujarat, killing 60 pilgrims and sparking nearly three months of religious violence in the state.
The rioting created a sharp divide between India’s majority Hindus and minority Muslims, who comprise nearly 14 percent of the country’s more than 1 billion people.
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