AHMEDABAD (India), March 2: A Muslim youth died in India’s Gujarat state after police opened fire on Hindu and Muslim cricket fans who clashed after India’s World Cup triumph against Pakistan, police said on Sunday.

The 18-year-old died overnight after police fired to disperse dozens of Hindu and Muslim fans hurling stones at each other late on Saturday in the Muslim old quarter of Ahmedabad, the capital of the state of Gujarat, which saw religious riots a year ago.

“He died in the hospital, the wound was on his chest,” a senior police official told Reuters. “At least six were hurt in stone-pelting but the situation’s quiet now.

“We’ve got routine police patrols out on the streets,” added additional commissioner of police Satish Verma, saying there had been scattered violence across the state but no injuries.

Elsewhere fans across India partied until dawn on Sunday to celebrate their team’s decisive over Pakistan that was splashed across newspaper front pages. “We did it. Now for the Cup,” blared the Hindustan Times in a banner headline.

“Everyone’s ecstatic,” said bleary-eyed New Delhi medical student Dheeraj Rai, 24. “I’ve been out on the roads, going from place to place ever since India won, partying with my friends.”

Revellers draped the Indian tricolour over their shoulders and did victory jigs in the streets, shouting themselves hoarse.

In Kolkata, fans massed outside Indian captain Saurav Ganguly’s house roaring, “Long live India”.

But in Pakistan, the streets were silent amid disappointment over the country’s crushing defeat and details of the loss were pushed to newspapers’ back sports pages.

“Indian ace outclasses Pakistan pace,” said a headline in the News daily. “Thank God it was only a game. No irreparable loss...(only) loads of frustration,” columnist Nasim Zehra wrote.—Reuters

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