Hindu-Muslim Rioting in Bombay Spreads

Hindu-Muslim bloodshed spread to new parts of Bombay on Saturday as rioters fought gun battles with police and burned shops and cars, taking the death toll in four days of clashes in India’s business capital to 90, police said.

At least 20 people were killed Saturday as shops, a cinema and homes were set ablaze. Rioters pelted fire engines with stones and gasoline bombs to try to stop them from putting out scores of fires.

“We’re not getting any protection from the police,” complained an officer at the fire control center of the city of 12 million people.

Police commandos shot dead seven Muslim militants in a battle with automatic weapons across the rooftops of apartment buildings in the city center, witnesses said.

In the slum area of Jogeshwari, where firefighters reported that at least eight people were burned to death Friday, rioters rolled blazing tires in front of police patrols, residents said.

Angry mobs besieged a police station demanding the release of those arrested earlier in the riots.

Extra troops and riot police were rushed to Bombay, which has been tense since nationwide religious riots, sparked by the destruction of an ancient mosque by Hindu zealots in northern India, killed more than 1,100 people last month.

Indian Defense Minister Sharad Pawar said after urgent talks with Bombay police chief Shreekant Bapat and Maharashtra chief minister Sudhakarrao Naik that security forces had been told “to take appropriate and ruthless action” to restore order.

Bapat told reporters that 90 people had been killed in the four days of bloodshed and that more than 300 were wounded. Of those killed, 71 were stabbed to death.

Police fired tear gas and later resorted to rifle shots to clear angry mobs setting fire to shops owned by Muslims.

Muslims using loudspeakers urged women to take to the streets, apparently to form a shield for armed men, witnesses said.

Bapat, while not identifying the women as Muslims, said this tactic had made things more difficult for police who had used tear gas “to disperse mobs of ladies.”

He said round-the-clock curfews had been imposed on two new areas of the city, taking the total to nine.

Bapat said 102 cases of arson were reported in the four days. Police had opened fire to disperse rioters in 34 places.