New Delhi - Violent clashes broke out between rioting Muslim protestors and the police in the eastern Indian city of Kolkata Wednesday, bringing the commercial districts of the city to a standstill, news reports said. The Army was called in to assist the police as the protestors set up road blockades and hurled bricks, stones and bottles at the police, NDTV television network reported. They also set a public bus and a private car on fire.
A group known as the All India Minority Forum (AIMF), an umbrella organization of several small Islamic organizations, had called for a three-hour roadblock to protest the state government's handling of the situation in Nandigram, a cluster of villages about 140 kilometres south of Kolkata, and the granting of an Indian visa to Bangladeshi author, feminist and human rights activist Taslima Nasreen.
The forum has been demanding the revocation of the visa to Nasreen, who now resides in Kolkata. Nasreen is in self-imposed exile from Bangladesh, where fundamentalist Islamic groups have issued a fatwa against her for alleged blasphemous writings, some of which are critical of Islam.
Nandigram has seen months of strife between villagers opposing and supporting a proposed industrial hub, which the government announced it was aborting earlier this year. Muslim groups have been supporting the villagers opposed to the land acquisition.
As protestors brought traffic to a standstill in the busy commuting hours of Wednesday morning, the police responded with tear gas and baton charges to clear the roads.
The protestors retaliated with brickbats, and a couple of policemen, including Deputy Commissioner Jawed Shamim, were injured as they tried to remove a blockade, PTI news agency reported. It was not clear how many people were injured in the clashes.
The state police's rapid action force was called in to assist, but as the violence escalated, the government decided to call in the Army, possibly fearing a communal flare-up, NDTV reported.
A senior police official was quoted as saying that the situation was still tense but under control.
