MUMBAI: At least two people were killed and another 46 injured on Saturday in south Mumbai when a rally to condemn deadly sectarian clashes in India's northeast suddenly turned violent, authorities said.
Three broadcast vans belonging to local television channels were set ablaze and windscreens of some police vehicles and buses broken after they were pelted with bricks and stones, a police official in India's financial capital said.
"Two deaths have been reported and 46 have been injured out of which 36 are policemen," Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde told reporters.
The police used tear gas and bamboo sticks to disperse hundreds of people after the demonstration suddenly turned violent at Azad Maidan -- a park near the landmark CST railway station -- where rallies are often held.
The demonstrators, wearing black bands, belonged to several Muslims groups, including Mumbai's Raza Academy, an organisation promoting Islamic culture that had made a call to denounce recent ethnic clashes in India's Assam state.
Last month, fighting erupted between indigenous Bodo tribes and Muslim settlers over long-running land disputes and immigration issues in the state bordering Bangladesh.
At least 77 people have died in the clashes, Home Minister Shinde told parliament earlier in the week, and some 400,000 have fled their homes and are living in crowded camps in the northeast.
The Mumbai rally "was peaceful and it suddenly turned unruly. It is unclear what sparked the violence", the city police official, asking not to be unnamed, told AFP.
"The situation is now under control," said Mumbai police spokesman Nisar Tamboli, adding that the area had been cordoned off, with security beefed up across the city to prevent violence from spreading.
"An alert has been sounded across the city. Whether the violence was a premeditated act or not will be known after investigations," Mumbai's police chief Arup Patnaik, who visited the spot, told the Press Trust of India.
Meanwhile, Raza Academy has distanced itself from the violence which briefly disrupted local train services.
"While we were protesting, some people got aggressive and started behaving violently," Mohammed Saeed, general secretary of the academy, told PTI.
"We never encourage violence and strongly condemn such acts."
Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said he had appealed for peace in the state of Maharashtra of which Mumbai is the capital.
COMMENTS (24)
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Today's news: Under a recently passed Maharashtra law, all those who cause destruction of property in such incidents and incur costs of policing will be required to reimburse the state all such costs. Evidence is being gathered from the CCTV cameras and other sources to determine what the amount RAZA Academy (which called for this protest) will be required to pay!
all the muslim groups involved issued unconditional apology to media and state for such ruckus. they are sensible but misguided and unaware of the the consequences to come
protest. but why burn buses?
They are protesting for illegal Bangladeshi Immigrants by Killing Indians and burning India Property...And vandelazing The memorial of Martyrs..Strange...Only country on the earth where Minority can do this thing...Can one believe Pakistani Hindus Burning Bueses..destroying public property for killing and forcefull conversion of Pakistani Hindu Girls..Seems like India holds many Pakistan in itself....Anyway Shame
@Khan101: "SSSHAMEEE —— Now the minorities can’t even raise their voices for their Basic rights in so called secular inida ????????"
Peaceful protest is everyone's right. Violent protest is not anyone's right. My parents live in Mumbai and happened to be around the scene of the fasaad. They were terrified when this crowd went crazy and started throwing stones on buses and taxis. And the worst part is that this violence towards their own city people had nothing to with any problem they themselves were facing but rather due to hostilities between illegal Bangladeshi immigrants in Assam where and the local tribals called Bodos who resent them.
@khan: it could be sign of degeneration of the community? why just here it is happening across the world
@Khan101:Any arab country is ready to accept poor muslims from Bangladesh as own citizen?
Can't even imagine Hindus, christians or ahmediyas staging such a large and violent protest and getting away with it in Pakistan. They would have been hunted down by the state and society.
@Zaid Hamid: Mumbai is ours, only ours
@Zaid Hamid: You a muslim Pakistani? sure you are.
@Khan101 very true. The minority simply are not allowed to burn buses n destroy soldiers memorial? What kind of secular country is this?
SSSHAMEEE ------ Now the minorities can't even raise their voices for their Basic rights in so called secular inida ????????
@khan: Your comments show that a racist and sick mentality knows no limits. Please don't hide behind a common last name, come out and tell the world who you really are!
@antanu g:
which one? the one you live in, or the one you were born in, or the one you have in your heart.
Hain? So many Muslims can comeout in open and create ruckus? As a Muslim Pakistani we always thought our Muslim brotgers aee oppressed and are not allowed to do anything.
A violent protest to condemn violence. :-).
@antanu g: 'your' country? we all know who you really are.
The day is not far when india will turnout into another pakistan.
They rallied for an issue that has very little to do with them. The same Muslim leaders will never hold a rally to extol their community to educate their kids or have smaller families that they can afford to care for. Had they perhaps done that, two people would still have been alive and it may have brightened the future for the coming generations.
Public buses are always target of protester and hooligans regardless of the reason for protest and than people complaint of poor bus service.
it is to introspect and understand why, world over, muslims are synonymous to death, violence, extremism... there is something going massively wrong. Anywhere you pick a story of violence, 99% of times it is related to unlawful activities of muslims.
all is well in our beloved country.
Oh in Mumbai too....
Bangladesh Zindabaad.