News: Police fire on mob. 11 killed.

[Harshal Chhaya <hchhaya@epsilon.pair.com>]

This just in...

More details at <http://www.yahoo.com/headlines/970711/international/stories/india_8.html>

- 'shal


[Fri Jul 11]
Police Fire on Mob in India, 11 Killed

By Dev Varam 

BOMBAY (Reuter) - At least 11 people including two children were killed 
when police fired on a crowd protesting against the desecration of a social 
activist's statue in India's commercial capital on Friday, eyewitnesses and 
hospital sources said. 

Demonstrators accused police of indiscriminate firing during what they said 
was an orderly protest. Police said they were provoked during the incident at 
Ghatkopar, 10 miles from Bombay's city centre. 

[snip..]

The dead included an 11-year old boy and a 12-year old girl -- both apparently 
bystanders -- and an old woman. 

Twenty-five were wounded and treated in hospital. 

Hospital authorities put the death toll at 11 while police said it was four. 

Police said trouble started when a statue of Bhimrao Ambedkar, a revered 
leader of the lower social classes, was found garlanded with shoes, viewed as 
a insulting gesture. 

When police reached the scene a crowd of Ambedkar supporters who had 
surrounded the statue pelted them with stones, police said. 


[snip..]

Residents said at least four vehicles were set ablaze in the rioting -- but 
all of them after the police opened fire. 

Police in riot gear patrolled the streets amidst isolated incidents after the 
initial rioting. 

Authorities closed the busy highway near the statue, causing traffic jams. 

Ambedkar, known as the father of India's constitution, is treated like a 
god by the lower social classes in India's rigid Hindu caste system. 
-- 
      http://www.mumbai-central.com  <-- Creating a Bombay without borders

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