Hindu-Muslim riots broke out across India Monday after thousands of frenzied Hindus tore down a mosque built on disputed holy ground. The day of bloodletting cost nearly 200 lives.
The government ordered the army to take control of riot-torn sections of Bombay, India's business center, after 40 people died. Outraged Muslims stoned vehicles and stopped suburban railroads that feed the city of 8 million.Fights with homemade firebombs, knives, axes or stones engulfed dozens of towns, Indian news agencies reported, after Hindu zealots destroyed a 430-year-old Muslim shrine on a site in the city of Ayodhya where Hindus believe their god Rama was born.
The sacking of the mosque provoked angry reaction from the Islamic government of Pakistan. Anti-Hindu violence was reported in Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Britain.
Both houses of India's Parliament were adjourned to protest the government's failure to contain the crisis. The mosque dispute already had exploded into violence in 1990, when about 1,000 people died in riots after Hindus tried to raze the building. That unrest brought down a previous government and boosted the popularity of a Hindu fundamentalist party.
In Jaipur, Hindus and Muslims battled with daggers and iron rods, and 17 people were killed, Press Trust said.
In New Delhi, riots broke out in the morning in the walled old city, which has a large Muslim community, and police ordered everyone to stay indoors. Three people were later killed in clashes.
Many of the nearly 200 deaths, compiled by press agencies from police reports, were caused by police trying to contain the violence or stop looting mobs.