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AHMEDABAD, India, Nov 12 (AFP) - The death toll in the riot-hit western Indian state of Gujarat has risen to six, with another two people killed in sectarian violence overnight, a police spokesman said Tuesday.

A Hindu and a Muslim were killed late Monday, after two groups clashed following an argument in Gujarat's Mehsana district, 40 kilometres (25 miles) from here.

Police said the men were killed during a firefight between the two groups.

Twenty-one people -- five Muslims and 16 Hindus -- were injured in the clash, the spokesman said.

On Monday, two Hindus were stabbed to death after an election rally in the Kheda district of Gujarat. A bomb later destroyed a shop in the same area, killing the owner and injuring his son.

Mourners carrying the bodies of the stab victims, killed after an election rally addressed by Gujarat's chief minister Narendra Modi, went on the rampage, looting and burning shops and damaging cars, police said.

Another body with stab wounds was found on a highway in Kheda but police were not sure if the killing was linked to the sectarian violence.

More than 1,000 people, most of them Muslims, have died in communal violence in Gujarat since February sparked by the torching of a train carrying Hindu actvists allegedly by Muslims.

Human rights groups have accused Modi's administration of turning a blind eye to violence against Muslims.

Gujarat is scheduled to go to the polls on December 12.

In his electioneering, Modi has resorted to appealing to Hindu nationalist sentiment.

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