Death toll rises as anti-Muslim riots simmer in India

08/10/2008| IslamWeb

Police recovered six bodies in India's northeastern state of Assam, raising the death toll from a week of ethnic violence between local tribes and Muslim settlers to 53, officials said on Wednesday.

 

Police said the toll could rise as they reach remote regions and retrieve more bodies. The six recovered overnight were of victims killed in previous clashes that have also left 85,000 people homeless and taking shelter in government camps.

 

Hundreds of police have fanned out to keep the peace and look for bodies of riot victims. Officials said there was tension.

 

"No violence took place in last 24 hours," said Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta, a senior police officer in charge of law and order.

 

Violence broke out between mainly Hindu tribesmen and Muslim Bangladeshi settlers in the oil and tea-rich state on Friday.

 

More than 40 percent of Assam is Muslim, mainly immigrant settlers. Some of the tribespeople are Christians.

 

The violence is some of the worst since 1983, when more than 2,000 people, mainly Bangladeshi Muslim immigrants, were killed in clashes with tribal people in central Assam.

 

The current conflict was sparked by an increasingly strong student movement that has been campaigning against immigrants, analysts say.

 

Locals accuse New Delhi of taking away the region's mineral and forest resources, neglecting development and allowing in a flood of outsiders.

 

PHOTO CAPTION

 

Police patrol after violence in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad, September 15, 2008.

 

Reuters