Daily Mail
September 10, 2013
Violent riots has killed 26 people in northern India after Hindu and Muslim groups turned on each other with guns and knives to settle a street brawl.
The riots were sparked by the killings of three villagers who had stepped in to defend a young woman being harrassed in Kawal, Uttar Pradesh state last week.
Anger has brewed in the area since the incident, but the violence turned deadly on Sunday when a journalist, a police photographer and several villagers die as a result of the violence.
Over two dozen people died from their injuries received during Saturday’s clashes in Muzaffarnagar district, after which the violence spread to several neighbouring villages.
The Government has responded by deploying hundreds of troops to quell the riots and search the area for weapons, while a state of high alert has been declared for Uttar Pradesh, an area home to 200 million people.
Violence broke out Saturday afternoon after thousands of Hindu farmers held a meeting in Kawal village to demand justice in the August 27 killing of three men who had spoken out when a woman was being verbally harassed.
The state’s minority welfare minister, Mohammad Azam Khan, said attendees had been giving speeches calling for Muslims to be killed in response to the death of the three villagers.