November 3, 2003	Monday	Ramazan 7, 1424

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NEW DELHI, Nov 2: Four people were killed and 40 injured in communal violence which broke out on Sunday in Viramgam town, some 70 kms from Ahmedabad (Gujarat) leading to imposition of an indefinite curfew on the entire town.

In Aligarsh also, an indefinite curfew was imposed after two communities clashed over the route of a funeral procession.

In Viramgam, the unrest broke out when Muslim boys were playing cricket and their ball strayed into a Hindu temple, officials said.

“When they tried to get the ball, they were beaten up by Hindus after which there was heavy stone-pelting between the two communities,” provincial Home Secretary K. Nityanandam told AFP.

Rival crowds burned down several shops and traded potshots with guns and rocks until police opened fire to disperse the rioters, he said.

Three people died from bullet wounds and 35 others were injured, eight of them from firing and the rest from stones, Nityanandam said.

The injured, including three children, received shrapnel wounds and were admitted to different hospitals, added the report quoting police sources.

The match was being played at the Gandhi Maidan area of the town. Heavy stone pelting occurred in some areas but the extent of damage was not yet known, he stated. Patrolling in sensitive areas of the town has been intensified and there is no report of further escalation of violence, police said.

ALIGARH: Indefinite curfew was imposed in three police stations of Aligarh after clashes between members of two communities in which several people were injured.

In the clash, arms were freely used by both the communities over the route of a funeral procession.

The two groups fired at each other resulting in bullet injuries to a person. The clashes broke out in the old city area after members of a community objected to the route of a funeral procession being taken to a cremation ground adjacent to a graveyard, PTI reported.—Agencies