BOMBAY: There was slight recrudescence of communal rioting in the affected areas after nightfall between 9.30 p.m. and 10 p.m. Three persons aboard tramcars were assaulted in the Two-Tanks area. Earlier in the evening, seven other cases of stray assaults were reported. What with the general scare in the city and the police order against assembly of more than five persons and prohibition against the carrying of lethal weapons, the streets in the affected areas look deserted where tramcars passing through them run empty.

The total casualty figures collected at 10 p.m. indicated 17 dead and 72 injured. … A visit to the morgue, where all the dead bodies were brought showed that most of the victims were milkmen and bakers, who go on their rounds during the early hours of the morning. The cause of the rioting has not been ascertained for certain, but the Police are wondering how so many soda water bottles could have come into the hands of the rioters at such an hour of the night when all restaurants and aerated water shops are compulsorily closed. … Police are also rounding up suspected bad characters. A number of arrests have been made…

Published in Dawn, September 28th, 2020