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| Sunday, 05 March 2006 |
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Toll in India's anti-Bush riots climbs to four LUCKNOW, India, March 4, 2006 (AFP) - The death toll from bloody riots in northern India sparked by US President George W. Bush's visit rose to four Saturday but the situation was calm, an official said. Twenty-three people were in hospital with injuries from Friday's clashes which turned into pitched street battles between Hindus and Muslim mobs in Lucknow, capital of Uttar Pradesh state, the official said. "The toll has gone up to four as 21-year-old Sunit Kumar succumbed to bullet injuries in hospital overnight," R. K. Mittal, a senior government official told AFP in Lucknow, capital of India's most populous state. Eight of the injured remained in serious condition, the official. Some of the mobs were armed with guns, sticks and firebombs. Orders banning gatherings of more than five people in riot-hit areas continued for a second day Saturday. People were asked to stay indoors as police and paramilitary troops patrolled the streets. Schools and offices remained shut. Annual examinations for students were cancelled in violence-hit areas. The clashes erupted when Muslims protesting the Bush visit asked Hindus in a commercial district to close their shops and the traders resisted. Rioters hurled stones at shops, smashed vehicle windscreens and set fire to property as the two sides clashed. "It started all of a sudden. A few people started pelting stones at shops while others reached there with hockey sticks and smashed window panes," Rohit Singh, a shopper hit by a bullet in his leg, told AFP. "Before we could realise what was happening, someone opened fire." Police used teargas to subdue the crowd. Trader Asfaq-ullah escaped the mob fury but his shop did not. "I was closing my garment shop when someone threw a petrol bomb. In a few minutes my shop was engulfed in flames. I lost everything," he said, crying. The three-day visit by Bush, who wrapped up his trip Friday after hailing India as a "strategic partner" before leaving for Pakistan, was met with nationwide protests by tens of thousands of Muslims and communist supporters. Most protests were peaceful aside from Uttar Pradesh and revolt-hit Indian Kashmir where nine people were injured Thursday. An Islamic insurgency has been raging against New Delhi's rule in Kashmir since 1989.
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