NEW DELHI: Indian police arrested 14 people in connection with violent clashes between Hindus and Muslims during a Hindu religious procession in the country’s capital, New Delhi.
The violence erupted in Saturday between Muslims and Hindus during the procession in Jahangirpuri, a suburb of New Delhi, after a Hindutva procession allegedly attempted to wave a saffron flag in front of a local mosque.
Six police officers and several others were injured during scuffles. Police said the remaining rioters are being identified for strict legal action. There were no reported deaths from the incident.
The incident reportedly involved stone-pelting from both sides and even gunshots fired from a pistol. Some vehicles were reportedly set ablaze during the incident. “Things escalated and both communities started pelting stones at each other. They damaged public property and torched some vehicles,” a senior police officer said.
In recent weeks, religious clashes have broken out between the majority Hindu and minority Muslim communities during religious processions in several parts of the country.
Earlier on Saturday, protesters in New Delhi shouted slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government saying Muslims had been violently targeted by authorities last week in the aftermath of Hindu-Muslim clashes in parts of three states ruled by Modi’s party.
The clashes last Sunday during a religious festival prompted police to impose a curfew in one town and ban gatherings of more than four people in parts of the states.
Local authorities tore down the homes and shops of suspected Muslim rioters in central Madhya Pradesh state in the aftermath of last weekend’s violence that broke out during the Hindu festival of Ram Navami, said a police official who did not want to be named.
In Modi’s home state, Gujarat, authorities demolished makeshift shops belonging to those they said were involved in the riots in which one man was killed. Opposition politicians have accused Modi’s BJP of stoking tensions between majority Hindus and Muslims in states that it rules.
