One person was killed and about 14 injured when violence erupted following a scuffle between Muslim and Hindu school students in Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state of Gujarat, a senior administrative official said on Sunday.

A crowd of about 5,000 people attacked Muslim residents and set dozens of homes and vehicles on fire at Vadavali village in Patan district on Saturday after Hindu students complained of misbehaviour by Muslim students, said K. K. Nirala, the district's top administrative official.

Members of the Muslim community retaliated by throwing stones and police used teargas and fired seven rounds to disperse the crowd and control the violence, Nirala said.

Gujarat has a history of serious communal trouble.

Rioters killed about 1,000 people, most of them Muslims, in the state 2002, according to estimates. Modi was chief minister at the time and he was accused of turning a blind eye to one of the worst outbreaks of religious violence in independent India.

Modi denied any involvement in the unrest and in 2013 a panel appointed by the Supreme Court said there was insufficient evidence to prosecute him.

Nirala said the situation had been brought under control and three companies of the State Reserve Police have been asked to stay in the village to maintain peace.

Opinion

Editorial

Ties with Tehran
24 Apr, 2024

Ties with Tehran

THE official visit by Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, which ends today, has been marked by mutual praise, and...
Working together
24 Apr, 2024

Working together

PAKISTAN’S democracy seems adrift, and no one understands this better than our politicians. The system has gone...
Farmers’ anxiety
24 Apr, 2024

Farmers’ anxiety

WHEAT prices in Punjab have plummeted far below the minimum support price owing to a bumper harvest, reckless...
By-election trends
Updated 23 Apr, 2024

By-election trends

Unless the culture of violence and rigging is rooted out, the credibility of the electoral process in Pakistan will continue to remain under a cloud.
Privatising PIA
23 Apr, 2024

Privatising PIA

FINANCE Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb’s reaffirmation that the process of disinvestment of the loss-making national...
Suffering in captivity
23 Apr, 2024

Suffering in captivity

YET another animal — a lioness — is critically ill at the Karachi Zoo. The feline, emaciated and barely able to...