Army Tries to Quell Rioting in Bombay

Army units Tuesday tightened their grip on Bombay to try to halt what one newspaper described as a virtual pogrom against Muslims, but police said at least 14 more people died in fresh clashes across the city.

Police opened fire in 12 places to suppress new outbreaks of rioting and arson, and Bombay remained tense after weeklong Hindu-Muslim clashes that have paralyzed the city of 12 million people, India’s business capital.

Many streets were deserted. Most shops, banks, schools and the stock exchange remained closed. Thousands of people jammed railway stations, trying to escape the riots.

At least 480 people have died in the riots in Bombay, triple the official toll, the Times of India reported today. It quoted coroners contacted at six Bombay hospitals as saying the death toll since Jan. 6 during communal riots was 481 and likely to top 500.

Official figures have varied, but the police control center today put its death count at 153.

At least 77 people have also died in communal bloodshed in the city of Ahmedabad, north of Bombay.

The riots that began last week are the second spasm of Hindu-Muslim violence to erupt in two months. More than 1,200 people died in a week of nationwide riots in December after Hindu zealots destroyed a mosque in the town of Ayodhya that they say was built on the birth site of a Hindu deity.