Police Arrest Hundreds Over Religious Clashes in India
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Version 0 of 1. NEW DELHI — The police have made hundreds of arrests in the past several days in an attempt to stop religious riots in the Indian city of Vadodara, in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state of Gujarat. So far, the violence has been confined to stabbings and the torching of around a dozen vehicles, D.J. Patel, a senior police official in Vadodara, said on Monday. Mr. Patel said that about 200 people were in police custody, and he called the atmosphere in the city “absolutely calm and very much under control.” “We have deployed a large enough number of police to control any situation,” he said. He said none of the injuries were serious. The clashes began last week, after a Hindu man posted an image to his Facebook account showing the face of a Hindu goddess superimposed on a stone venerated by Muslims, Mr. Patel said. A Muslim delegation went to the police to complain about the incident, and afterward, one or more members were involved in a motorcycle collision, leading to a physical altercation, he said. After that, Mr. Patel said, word of the confrontation spread through various neighborhoods. Vadodara was one of the two constituencies where Mr. Modi ran for a parliamentary seat in the most recent elections. |