700 Arrested in Crackdown on Extremists Blamed for India Riots

Police sealed the offices of Hindu and Muslim nationalist groups Sunday and arrested more than 700 people in a nationwide crackdown on extremists blamed for a week of communal rioting.

The government announced a casualty toll of 1,210 dead and 4,600 wounded in the mayhem that erupted after Hindu extremists tore down a 16th-Century mosque in Ayodhya on Dec. 6. More victims are still being discovered.

The arrests were part of Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao’s effort to assert the government’s authority and counter critics who called him weak and indecisive when he failed to prevent the mosque’s destruction.

Quiet returned to most areas after a week of the worst Hindu-Muslim clashes since independence in 1947. The only major incident reported Sunday was in Mysore in the southern state of Karnataka, where officials said 15 people were stabbed in a melee and police opened fire to disperse the rioters.

Curfews were lifted during daylight hours in most of the 135 cities where people had been confined to their houses for days, including India’s two largest cities, Calcutta and Bombay.

More than 20,000 people who fled because of fighting returned to their homes in Calcutta, but 10,000 others remained in refugee camps, city officials said.

Police in three states rounded up activists of Hindu and Muslim fundamentalist organizations that last week were banned for two years for allegedly encouraging communal hatred and violence.

The operation appeared to be the prelude to a sweep against extremists in all of India’s 25 states and seven territories. Hundreds of people were reported to have gone into hiding to avoid arrest.

About 565 people were arrested in Uttar Pradesh, the northern state where Ayodhya is located and a stronghold of Hindu nationalism.

Other arrests were made in the eastern state of West Bengal and in Kerala in the south, where extremist Muslim groups are strong.

Among the activists arrested were at least 22 Muslims belonging to two Islamic fundamentalist groups that were banned. The rest belong to the World Hindu Council, which organized the campaign to demolish the mosque in Ayodhya, and the more militant Hindu groups Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and Bajrang Dal.

A leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party and a member of Parliament who represents the party were among the Hindus detained. The Bharatiya Janata, the largest opposition party, championed the idea of building a Hindu temple on the site where the Muslim shrine had stood. Many Hindus believe the mosque was built on the birthplace of the Hindu deity Rama.