Gujrat Communal Clashes: Modi’s home state under curfew after rioting

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AHMEDABAD: Thousands of security officers were being deployed Wednesday to the main city of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state after overnight rioting and arson by a caste demanding preferential treatment.

Eight persons were killed and more than 100 injured as a statewide shutdown in Gujarat called by the Patidar Arakshan Andolan Samiti, seeking reservation for the Patel community, turned violent on Wednesday, officials said.

The Gujarat government imposed a curfew in parts of Ahmedabad and four other cities and towns across the western state and called in paramilitary reinforcements after members of the affluent Patidar caste went on the rampage.

gujrat communal clashes

Stone-throwing Patidars or Patels torched cars, buses and police stations over the arrest late Tuesday of their firebrand leader who had hours earlier led a massive protest in Ahmedabad, senior officers said.

At least a dozen officers were injured in the violence, prompting the first curfew in the state since 2002 when communal riots left at least 1,000 people dead, Gujarat Director General of Police P.C Thakur said.

The curfew was imposed following large scale arson and rioting by members of the Patidar community in different cities of the state late on Tuesday,” Thakur told AFP.

“There was heavy stone pelting of police vehicles and torching of police stations in Unjha and Kalol towns,” he said.

Army conducts flag march in Ahmedabad on 26 Aug 2015 (Photo – IANS)

Thirty companies of paramilitary forces will be arriving in Ahmedabad from the centre (New Delhi) today morning.” The companies number several thousand officers in total.

Shops, other businesses and schools were closed in the tense areas of Ahmedabad under curfew and hundreds of police were already patrolling its largely deserted streets, an AFP reporter in the city said.

As news of the police action on Patel spread, angry Patidars reacted violently, attacking public and private property, buses, vehicles, as Chief Minister Anandiben Patel’s appeal for peace went unheeded.

Released after two hours, Patel on Tuesday had appealed for peace and restraint to his followers. He also announced a state-wide shutdown on Wednesday to prevent further escalation of the situation.

However, violence continued to spread during the night in which the homes of at least two cabinet ministers were attacked. Stone-pelting, clashes, torching of a police outpost near Ahmedabad, and arson to public and private buses were also reported.

As many as 100 buses were torched and property damaged in the violence in Ahmedabad, Surat and Mehsana cities and the towns of Unjha and Visnagar, senior local officers said.

About half a million Patidars rallied in Ahmedabad on Tuesday, paralysing the city, to demand preferential treatment.

The Patidars, one of the state’s most affluent castes, who make up around 12 percent of its population, say they are struggling to compete with less privileged castes for jobs.

India sets aside a proportion of government jobs and university places for Dalits, known as “untouchables”, and for so-called “other backward castes” under measures intended to bring victims of the worst discrimination into the mainstream.

State authorities have already ruled out granting the Patidars’ request, but their campaign has gathered pace in recent weeks. – AFP

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