People move to safer place to avoid further clashes in curfew bound Muzaffarnagar on Sunday.
Muzaffarnagar:
Security forces have been ordered to shoot rioters on sight, as sectarian violence spread in Muzaffarnagar in Western Uttar Pradesh, despite the curfew being enforced by the army.
Gunfire and street battles that erupted on have killed at least 30 people and left many more missing, the police said. Soldiers deployed to the region have been given orders to shoot rioters on sight, government official Kamal Saxena said.
By Monday morning police had arrested 90 people. Still, the violence spread to the neighboring districts of Shamli and Meerut overnight.
Authorities stopped all newspaper deliveries and TV broadcasts in the area, but incendiary rumors spread by mobile phones and social media were still fueling the violence and making it difficult for soldiers to restore calm, state police inspector Ashish Gupta said.
Hundreds of people, some packed into bullock carts, tried to flee areas where their community represents a minority. One family trying to leave Kuttba village was beaten with metal rods and wooden sticks when caught between fighting factions.
"The whole village was very tense. I wanted to send my family to a safer place," said Munavar, 24, who uses only one name, as his wife, 8-month-old daughter and 6-year-old niece lay on hospital beds nearby wearing bloody clothes and gauze bandages over their heads.
The violence began Saturday night after a meeting of thousands of Hindu farmers called for justice in the August 27 killing two brothers from Kawal village who had objected when their sister was being harassed. Officials say some politicians delivered hate-filled speeches at the meeting.
Clashes with Muslims broke out after the meeting.
One 26-year-old farmer, Anuvesh Baliyan, said he and others were attacked as they were returning home on a tractor by a mob wielding metal rods and swords."We hid in a field for a full night until troops arrived the next day," he said at Muzaffarnagar's hospital, where he was being treated for sword wounds to his head and leg.
Soldiers searched homes for weapons on Monday. Some 5,000 paramilitary officers joined the troops and thousands of local police on patrol.
Gunfire and street battles that erupted on have killed at least 30 people and left many more missing, the police said. Soldiers deployed to the region have been given orders to shoot rioters on sight, government official Kamal Saxena said.
By Monday morning police had arrested 90 people. Still, the violence spread to the neighboring districts of Shamli and Meerut overnight.
Authorities stopped all newspaper deliveries and TV broadcasts in the area, but incendiary rumors spread by mobile phones and social media were still fueling the violence and making it difficult for soldiers to restore calm, state police inspector Ashish Gupta said.
Hundreds of people, some packed into bullock carts, tried to flee areas where their community represents a minority. One family trying to leave Kuttba village was beaten with metal rods and wooden sticks when caught between fighting factions.
"The whole village was very tense. I wanted to send my family to a safer place," said Munavar, 24, who uses only one name, as his wife, 8-month-old daughter and 6-year-old niece lay on hospital beds nearby wearing bloody clothes and gauze bandages over their heads.
The violence began Saturday night after a meeting of thousands of Hindu farmers called for justice in the August 27 killing two brothers from Kawal village who had objected when their sister was being harassed. Officials say some politicians delivered hate-filled speeches at the meeting.
Clashes with Muslims broke out after the meeting.
One 26-year-old farmer, Anuvesh Baliyan, said he and others were attacked as they were returning home on a tractor by a mob wielding metal rods and swords."We hid in a field for a full night until troops arrived the next day," he said at Muzaffarnagar's hospital, where he was being treated for sword wounds to his head and leg.
Soldiers searched homes for weapons on Monday. Some 5,000 paramilitary officers joined the troops and thousands of local police on patrol.
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