Hundreds of federal police were drafted in Sunday to back up local forces in troubled Gujarat state as Hindu-Muslim clashes continued, police said Sunday.
The reinforcements arrived after a man was stabbed to death and another seriously injured late Saturday in Visnagar, 100 kilometres (62 miles) north of state capital Ahmedabad, police said.
Two companies (around 350 men) of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) from Faizabad arrived here early Sunday and will be deployed in sensitive parts of the city, police said.
"It is an additional reinforcement," said police commissioner P.C. Pande.
"One more company of the CRPF is expected to arrive Monday," he said.
The army, the State Reserve Police, Central Industrial Security Forces and the Rapid Action Force are already present in substantial numbers across the state.
Incidents of stone-pelting and stabbing were also reported from various parts of Ahmedabad city.
A rickshaw-puller stabbed a cyclist in the shoulder in the eastern part of the city Saturday, police said.
And police fired in the air to disperse stone-throwing mobs in the Kalupur area, also on Saturday.
The continuing clashes follow India's worst communal violence in a decade in Gujarat, triggered by the massacre of 58 Hindu pilgrims by a Muslim-led mob at the end of February. Around 750 people were killed in subsequent rioting.
Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, who visited the state on Thursday, urged the Gujarat state government to protect the life and property off all people without discrimination.
The army was called in three days after the violence broke out in the state.
(China Daily April 8, 2002)
