India State’s Police Disarmed After Dispute

Gujarat state’s 59,000-member police force has been disarmed after a union dispute and was replaced Sunday by army and federal paramilitary troops, government television reported.

In Gujarat’s industrial city of Ahmedabad, thousands of striking police officers rioted to protest the arrest of their union chief, burned a jeep and hurled rocks at paramilitary troops, who fired back with live ammunition and tear gas, authorities said.

The rioting officers were among those who walked off the job last week after the collapse of contract talks with the government.

Government television reported that four of the western state’s seven police unions were ordered disbanded and that the police force “has been disarmed.”