Two killed in India as police fire at battling mobs

INDIA: Police fired bullets and tear gas to disperse battling mobs of Hindus and Muslims, killing two people as hundreds rioted in western India after authorities demolished a small Muslim shrine, a police officer said.

Police imposed a curfew in the Fatehpur neighborhood of the city of Vadodra as Hindus and Muslims burned at least four shops, Police Commissioner Deepak Swarup told The Associated Press. The city is in the state of Gujarat.

At least 18 people were injured either by the gunfire from the police or stones hurled by rioters, he said.

The trouble started as area Muslim residents objected to the shrine demolition and demanded that it be declared a heritage site.

But authorities said it was obstructing vehicles and pulled it down, Swarup said.

He said Muslim community leaders in the area had earlier agreed to the shrine's removal.

The tension soon led to clashes between the two communities.

Vadodra and some other parts of Gujarat state were the scene of one of India's most violent religious riots in recent years, triggered by a 2002 attack on a train in which 60 Hindus were burned to death while returning from a religious pilgrimage. Hindu nationalists blamed Muslims for the train attack, and Hindu mobs killed more than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims. Many were buried in mass graves - some dug by killers, others by relatives.

Ahmadabad, Tuesday, AP.