October 28, 2001	Sunday	Shaba'an 10, 1422

MUMBAI, Oct 27: A western Indian town was tense on Saturday a day after police fired on a crowd of Muslims when a campaign for a boycott of US and British goods because of their military strikes on Afghanistan descended into violence.

The death toll from the shooting on Friday in Malegaon, 250kms from Mumbai, rose to seven after four people died in hospital, police said on Saturday.

Three people were killed in the shooting on Friday when violence erupted near a mosque in the Maharashtra town after a police officer tore up a pamphlet being distributed by a Muslim group calling for a boycott of US and British goods.

“No fresh violence has been reported since yesterday (Friday) afternoon. But tension still prevails and curfew has been clamped,” a police official said.

Police said 14 people were injured and were in hospital. “The pamphlets asked people to ban all foreign goods made in America and Britain,” the state’s home minister, Chhagan Bhujbal, told reporters.

Bhujbal said more security forces had been sent to Malegaon and the army was out in the town on Saturday morning to show the situation was under control.

A delegation representing five Muslim groups met Bhujbal to demand a judicial inquiry into the shooting.

“The United States says the attacks on the two cities on Sept 11 were an act of terrorism, then the killings of innocent people and children in Afghanistan by America and Britain also amount to terrorism,” said a member of the delegation who declined to be identified.

“Hence we are asking for boycott for their goods.”

There have been protests in several Indian cities by Muslim groups since the start of the strikes in Afghanistan.—Reuters