WASHINGTON, March 1: The United States has condemned the spiral of communal and sectarian violence in India and Pakistan, saying it was saddened by the train burning incident in Gujarat, the subsequent attacks on Thursday and the firing on a mosque in Rawalpindi.

State Department deputy spokesman Philip Reeker described the incidents as acts of senseless violence at a briefing for foreign journalists on Thursday afternoon. He said the US would urge the people of Pakistan and India to avoid being provoked into retaliatory acts in which there was violence against innocents.

At least 76 people were killed in Ahmadabad on Thursday in mob attacks against Muslim shops, houses and offices following Wednesday’s attack on a train bringing “kar sevaks” home from the site of the destroyed Babri Masjid. It is reported that 58 Bajrang Dal activists were killed in the train attack.

Earlier, nearly a dozen people were killed in firing on worshippers in a mosque in Rawalpindi in what is described as a sectarian motivated attack.