Death Toll Rises to Nearly 800 in India Rioting

The death toll from four days of fierce religious rioting neared 800 early today with thousands wounded across India as Hindu-Muslim clashes escalated in several areas despite strict curfews and a heavy police crackdown.

The worst-hit area has been in and around Bombay, the country’s largest city and commercial center, where police fired repeatedly on mobs and up to 215 people have been killed. Strikes and fear paralyzed much of the city of 12 million, with most schools and shops closed.

Witnesses said a sprawling, densely packed slum near the airport south of Bombay appeared a war zone, as acrid black smoke from burning vehicles and tires filled the sky. Angry mobs looted shops, set fires and battled riot police and each other with axes, firebombs and bottles of acid in the twisting lanes and muddy alleys of Dharavi, one of Asia’s largest slums.

Army troops were sent with shoot-on-sight orders to reinforce local police. Officials said many of the casualties were shot by police.

There were some signs that the crisis was easing, however. The cities of Delhi and Calcutta were quiet, if uneasy, as many people stayed indoors and armed troops enforced curfews and patrolled trouble spots. Other areas also saw a decline in fighting.

Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao met with opposition leaders Wednesday and appealed for his critics to unite against the violence. The Parliament was quickly adjourned until Dec. 16, however, after lawmakers disrupted the session with screaming matches and near-fistfights for the third straight day.

The communal fighting began Sunday after a frenzied mob of Hindu militants stormed and demolished a disputed Muslim mosque in the northern Indian city of Ayodhya.