November 13, 2002	Wednesday	Ramazan 7, 1423

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AHMEDABAD, Nov 12: The death toll in communal violence in Gujarat state rose to six on Tuesday when two people injured the previous evening died, a police spokesman said.

Twenty-one people were injured in Monday’s clash.

Mourners carrying the bodies of Monday’s victims, killed after an election rally addressed by Gujarat’s chief minister Narendra Modi, went on the rampage, looting and burning shops and damaging cars, police said.

Another body with stab wounds was found on a highway in Kheda, but police were not sure if the killing was linked to the violence.

More than 1,000 people, most of them Muslims, died in communal violence in Gujarat earlier this year.

Human rights groups have accused Modi’s administration of turning a blind eye to violence against Muslims.

Gujarat is scheduled to go to the polls on Dec 12.

In his electioneering, Modi has resorted to appealing to Hindu nationalist sentiment.

Rajkot: Police flooded the stadium in Rajkot where a one-day clash between India and the West Indies was played on Tuesday, as killings in Gujarat prompted players to demand circuitous air travel rather than face the roads.

Some 1,500 police officials were on guard at the 18,000-capacity Madhavrao Scindia cricket stadium in the town, about 200 kilometres from Gujarat’s main city of Ahmedabad.

Spectators were frisked before being allowed entry to the ground, while players had been given private security.—AFP