COMMUNAL VIOLENCE: CLASHES ERUPT IN INDIAN CAPITAL AMID GROWING ANTI-ISLAM SENTIMENT

On Saturday, clashes erupted during a Hindu religious procession in the Indian capital, New Delhi, injuring several civilians as well as police officials.

According to eyewitnesses, violence broke out between Muslims and Hindus during the march in Jahangirpuri, a New Delhi suburb.

The source of the disruptions was still being investigated, according to police.

“We are still assessing how many people are injured … some policemen have also been hurt,” said Deependra Pathak, a police official in Jahangirpuri.

The violence broke out during a procession to mark the Hindu festival of Hanuman Jayanti, police said without giving further details.

Earlier on Saturday, protesters in New Delhi shouted slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government saying Muslims had been violently targeted by authorities last week in the aftermath of Hindu-Muslim clashes in parts of three states ruled by Modi’s Hindu nationalist party.

Visuals from the clashes show huge groups of people on different sides of a road pelting stones at each other and quickly falling back as the police try to intervene. 

Delhi Police Commissioner Rakesh Asthana said that it’s not just Jahangirpuri but other adjoining and sensitive areas have also seen clashes. 

“The situation is being monitored. Additional forces have been sent to troubled areas and senior officials have been asked to stay in their respective areas to monitor the situation and supervise patrolling. Two companies of the Rapid Action Force (RAF) have also been deployed in and around Jahangirpuri. Two policemen have been injured but the nature of injuries can only be known after investigations,” he told NDTV.

The clashes last Sunday during a religious festival prompted police to impose a curfew in one town and ban gatherings of more than four people in parts of the states.

Local authorities tore down the homes and shops of suspected Muslim rioters in central Madhya Pradesh state in the aftermath of last weekend’s violence that broke out during the Hindu festival of Ram Navami, said a police official who did not want to be named.

In Modi’s home state, Gujarat, authorities demolished makeshift shops belonging to those they said were involved in the riots in which one man was killed.

Opposition politicians have accused Modi’s right-wing Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party of stoking tensions between majority Hindus and Muslims in states that it rules.

“We are extremely anguished at the manner in which issues related to food, dress, faith, festivals and language are being deliberately used by sections of the ruling establishment to polarise our society,” the leaders said.

U.S. monitoring

Earlier this week, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States was monitoring what he described as a rise in human rights abuses in India by some officials, in a rare direct rebuke by Washington of the Asian nation’s rights record.

“We regularly engage with our Indian partners on these shared values (of human rights) and to that end, we are monitoring some recent concerning developments in India including a rise in human rights abuses by some government, police and prison officials,” Blinken said on Monday in a joint press briefing with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and India’s Defense Minister Rajnath Singh.