Hindu-Muslim clashes claim 2
19/06/2006 10:02  - (SA)  

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Lucknow - Rioters set fire to more than 100 houses, killing at least two girls, during Hindu-Muslim clashes in northern India sparked after unidentified gunmen killed a local Hindu leader, said police on Monday.

Prem Prakash of police said the violence on Sunday in Pratapgarh followed the shooting death of village council leader Ashish Pathak in a crowded market.

Prakash said that Pathak supporters later took to the streets, destroying shops and setting fire to Muslims' homes. He said: "More than 100 houses were burned, and two girls were charred to death."

He said that riot police were patrolling the town on Monday, but the situation was still tense. Pratapgarh was about 200km southeast of Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh state.

Relations between Hindus, who made up more than 80% of India's billion people, and Muslims, at 14% the country's largest religious minority, had been largely peaceful since India's independence from Britain in 1947.

Still, there had been sporadic bouts of violence. Three people died in Aligarh, north of Lucknow, while four others were killed in Lucknow in separate clashes between Hindu and Muslim groups last month.