A member of Rapid Action Force fires a tear gas shell to disperse a mob in Vadodara on September 26 (Photo: Reuters)
140 people have been arrested in Vadodara, Gujarat, in connection with communal violence in the city allegedly triggered by an image posted on Facebook. Two men were stabbed yesterday during riots, the police said. No incident of violence has been reported today.
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"We arrested 140 people on Sunday evening after two men were stabbed," the city's police commissioner, E Radhakrishnan, was quoted by Reuters as saying. "The injured are under medical observation and those who have been arrested are being interrogated," he said.
There is heavy security in riot-affected areas. Riot police have been deployed to control the clashes in city. The police have appealed to religious leaders to intervene to curb violence.
Mobile telephone and Internet services and bulk text messaging have been suspended for four days, till September 30, as a precautionary step.
The violence has been restricted to a few localities of Vadodara, 110 kilometres from Ahmedabad, said the police, adding that senior officials have been camped in the affected areas.
Trouble reportedly began on Thursday last after a controversial image was widely distributed on social media site Facebook; Muslim groups said it was offensive to Islam, officials said.
On Saturday, Hindu and Muslim groups clashed and pelted each other with stones, setting vehicles on fire in some places, the police said.
Vadodara in Gujarat is one of the two constituencies that Prime Minister Narendra Modi contested and won in this year's national elections. He gave up the seat in favour of Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh and his party the BJP won Vadodara again in a by-election held this month.
This weekend's violence coincided with Mr Modi's visit to the United States, where he is set to meet President Barack Obama later today on a trip emphasizing India's economic potential.
The PM was shunned for years by the US, which denied him a visa in 2005 over the communal riots that left more than 1,000 people dead in Gujarat in 2002, during his first term as Chief Minister. Mr Modi was chief minister of Gujarat for 13 years till he took over as PM in May this year.
Since he emerged as the front-runner for the country's top job with a high-blitz campaign last year, Mr Modi has been courted by world leaders, including leaders from the US.
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