NEW DELHI: Authorities in eastern India have deployed hundreds of riot police personnel and cut mobile internet services in response to violent clashes that broke out during a Hindu religious festival in at least eight states.
The clashes were reportedly between majority Hindus and minority Muslims, and one person was shot dead in Bihar state on Saturday. The unrest occurred during celebrations of Ram Navami, with Hindu mobs setting fire to homes and shops in some areas.
Hindu festivals often involve hundreds of people, some brandishing swords and guns, marching through Muslim neighborhoods with religious music blaring from powerful sound systems.
Police had detained nearly 100 people over violence that erupted on Thursday when thousands of Hindu believers rallied on the streets and paraded through Muslim-dominated areas in Bihar.
Authorities have restricted mobile internet services in some areas and clamped down on the public movement in response to communal flare-ups in several cities.
In Rohtas, six people were wounded in an explosion inside a house where two persons were allegedly making a bomb, but police say it is not related to the recent unrest.
Sectarian violence in several states of India
Similar violence was reported in seven other states, with dozens wounded and hundreds arrested in at least 13 towns and cities.
The West Bengal chief minister accused the Prime Minister’s Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party of orchestrating the violence, while the BJP accused her of targeting Hindus.
Hardline Hindu groups have reportedly been emboldened since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s election in 2014.
Last year, similar clashes occurred across several cities on Ram Navami, resulting in one death in Jharkhand. The recent clashes have raised concerns about religious tensions in the country, particularly in the lead-up to the national elections in 2024.
Authorities are patrolling the affected areas and investigating the unrest, but tensions remain high.
