Four dead in communal clashes near India’s capital: police

NEW DELHI, INDIA — At least four people have been killed in violent clashes between Hindus and Muslims near the Indian capital New Delhi, police said Tuesday.

Mobs hurled stones at a Hindu religious procession and set cars alight on Monday in the predominantly Muslim district of Nuh, around 75 kilometres (45 miles) south of the capital.

“Three people have died so far, including two police personnel,” police spokesman Krishan Kumar told AFP, adding that the situation was under control.

Authorities rushed hundreds of riot police to the area and cut mobile internet service in parts of Haryana state after the violence.

A fourth person died in nearby Gurugram — a key business centre where Nokia, Samsung and other multinationals have their Indian headquarters — when a mob attacked a mosque in apparent retaliation.

Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar urged citizens of his state to keep the peace.

“The guilty will not be spared at any cost, strictest action will be taken against them,” he said on Twitter, which is being rebranded as X.

Since Prime Minister Narendra Modi took office in 2014, India has seen numerous outbreaks of sectarian violence between majority Hindus and its 200-million-strong Muslim minority.

Critics accuse the ruling Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party of marginalising the Muslim community since coming to power.

Religious riots in New Delhi left 53 people dead in 2020.

And at least 1,000 were killed in 2002 during violence in Gujarat, where Modi was serving as chief minister at the time. Most of the victims were Muslims.

Tax officials raided the BBC’s India office in February after the British broadcaster aired a documentary on Modi’s actions during the riots.

A probe appointed by India’s top court said in 2012 it did not find any evidence of wrongdoing by Modi.

— AFP