by winston » Fri Aug 28, 2015 6:53 am
Calm returns to Indian state after deadly riots
Thousands of troops patrolled Gujarat after at least nine people, including a police officer, died in the worst violence to hit the Indian prime minister's home state in more than a decade.
Schools were closed as authorities imposed a curfew in the worst-hit areas after nearly two days of rioting following a rally in the main city of Ahmedabad by an estimated 500,000 members of the Patidar caste.
Protesters torched cars, buses and police stations after the detention late Tuesday of Hardik Patel, the firebrand leader of a mass movement to demand preferential treatment for jobs and university places for the caste.
The Patidars or Patels are one of the state's most affluent communities, but they say they are struggling to compete with less privileged castes for jobs.
India sets aside a proportion of government jobs and university places for some castes under measures intended to bring victims of the worst discrimination into the mainstream. But the policy causes resentment among other communities who say it freezes them out.
The streets were calm yesterday in Ahmedabad with shops and businesses beginning to reopen in some areas and large numbers of security personnel on the streets.
The violence began there on Tuesday, but spread quickly to other cities including Surat, the center of India's lucrative diamond trade, which is dominated by members of the Patidar community.
Many of the victims were killed when police opened fire on rioters, but one officer died in hospital late Wednesday of injuries sustained in the clashes.
It is the first time troops have been deployed in Gujarat since religious violence in 2002 left more than 1,000 people dead, most of them Muslims, shortly after Narendra Modi took over as the affluent state's chief minister. Modi, who led the state until his party won last year's Indian elections, appealed for calm.
Source: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
It's all about "how much you made when you were right" & "how little you lost when you were wrong"