Renewed Rioting in India Raises Death Toll to 70

Riots flared across India for a second day Thursday, raising the death toll to 70 in a Hindu-Muslim dispute that has threatened the government of Prime Minister Vishwanath Pratap Singh.

Police opened fire in Calcutta to quell mobs, killing four people and injuring 10, the United News of India reported. Clashes also were reported for a second day in the western state of Rajasthan, where four people were killed, reports said. In three other states, at least eight people were killed in clashes.

The Press Trust of India, compiling police reports from four states, said 54 people were killed Wednesday during a nationwide strike called by the Hindu right-wing fundamentalist Bharatiya Janata Party. Authorities also reportedly enforced curfews and ordered the army to patrol several cities.

The party supports the construction of a Hindu temple on the site of a 16th-Century Muslim mosque, an issue that prompted the violence.

Hindus believe the mosque at the site in Ayodhya, 300 miles southeast of New Delhi, stands on the birthplace of the god Rama and claim it is as important to them as Mecca in Saudi Arabia is to Muslims. Muslim leaders refute the claim.

The march on Wednesday was staged to protest the arrest of the party’s president, L. K. Advani. Advani was taken into custody after he failed to heed a government warning to call off a pro-temple procession.

The arrest also prompted the party, which holds 86 parliamentary seats, to withdraw its support to Singh’s centrist National Front coalition, reducing the government to a minority in Parliament and putting it close to collapse.