Police fired to disperse clashing Hindus and Muslims, killing one man, as fresh religious violence flared in India's riot-torn western state of Gujarat, police said on Sunday.
Sporadic clashes have continued in Gujarat since more than 750 people, mostly Muslims, were killed last month in a wave of reprisal killings after a Muslim mob torched a train carrying Hindu activists, burning 59 people alive in late February.
Seventeen people were injured in separate incidents of violence across the state on Saturday night as shops were torched and Hindu and Muslim mobs hurled petrol bombs and stones at each other, a state police official said.
Police opened fire in Kapadwanj town, 70 km (45 miles) south of Ahmedabad, Gujarat's main city, after Hindus and Muslims clashed in a local dispute, the official said.
"Curfew was imposed late on Saturday night and the situation is now under control," the official said.
Eight people were injured in the clashes and paramilitary troops called in to patrol the town and prevent fresh violence.
In Ahmedabad, which bore the brunt of last month's revenge killings by Hindu mobs, eight people were injured as Hindu and Muslim mobs hurled crude petrol bombs and stones at each other in the Gomtipur area of the city.
"The clashes started after some miscreants burst crackers late last night which brought out crowds from both communities," the official said.
He said police first used tear gas and subsequently opened fire to end the fighting.
One Hindu man was stabbed in the city's Paldi area, the official said.
The violence in Gujarat, India's worst religious clashes in a decade, has plunged the federal Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led coalition government into its worst political crisis as allies and opposition groups have accused the BJP state government of failing to contain the conflagration.
They have demanded the BJP sack Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, accusing him of turning a blind eye to the killings of Muslims + charges Modi has denied.
The Hindu nationalist BJP has stood by Modi and rejected calls for his removal even as it has turned strident and vowed to stick to its hardline Hindu revivalist roots.
The BJP's critics have paralysed national parliament since it reconvened last week demanding a vote on a motion of censure over the Gujarat tragedy.
Efforts to resolve the deadlock failed on Friday as the government refused to agree to a vote and opposition groups are expected to block business when the chambers meet on Monday.
(China Daily April 22, 2002)
