Communal clashes mar Hindu festival in India

By Shuriah Niazi

NEW DELHI (AA) – A curfew was imposed in several Indian cities on Monday after communal clashes during the Hindu festival of Ram Navami, said authorities.

At least one person was killed and several houses or shops were set on fire in four Indian states which witnessed violent clashes.

In Khargone in the central state of Madhhya Pradesh, the district administration on Monday demolished the houses of many Muslims, as it was alleged that they were involved in stone pelting a Hindu procession.

Following the violence that erupted during the Ram Navami procession in Khargone on Sunday, the district administration started demolishing the houses of those who were said to be involved in stone pelting and rioting.

The violence started on Sunday when the Muslim community objected to a DJ playing objectionable music in the procession. This was followed by stone pelting and arson at many places in the city, in which many people including Khargone’s superintendent of police were injured.

However, Madhya Pradesh Congress media chief KK Mishra said that the incident was pre-planned and the government was targeting Muslims through it.

He told Anadolu Agency: “Everything is being done under the supervision of the government. How the government and the authorities determined who were the persons involved in the rioting just within a few hours after the incident and without conducting any inquiry? What is the proof that the persons whose houses have been razed were responsible for the violence?”

After the incident, the district administration first imposed a curfew in the three police station areas and then in the entire city.

- Violence in Gujarat and also West Bengal

Clashes also broke out during Ram Navami processions in two towns in the western state of Gujarat -- Himmatnagar and Khambhat -- on Sunday. One person was killed while another was injured in clashes in Khambhat, according to local police.

The body of a 65-year-old man was recovered from the spot after a stone-pelting incident between two communities during the procession on Sunday afternoon, police said.

Another person was injured in the incident while some shops were torched.

In West Bengal, several people were injured in an attack on a Ram Navami procession in Howrah, adjacent to Kolkata and Bankura, bordering the state of Jharkhand.

In Bankura, there was an alleged attack on the car of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lawmaker and Union Minister Subhash Sarkar. Similarly, in Howrah there was allegedly stone pelting on the procession.

Local police arrested 17 BJP supporters following the incident.

While Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat are currently ruled by the Hindu nationalist BJP, West Bengal is ruled by the Trinamool Congress, an Indian political party predominantly active in West Bengal.

- Hindutva mobs said to provoke violence

Asaduddin Owaisi, head of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, said just in the last few days Hindutva mobs with the blessing of police provoked or participated in violence in many places.

“In many places Ram Navami yatras (procession) were used to make hate speeches against Muslims,” he said in a tweet.

Rajeev Yadav of Rihai Manch, a human rights group, blamed right-wing Hindu groups for this situation.

“The incidents were well-planned in which the people of Hindu organizations chose those places from where they could provoke violence,” Rajeev Yadav told Anadolu Agency.