Riot police were patrolling urban neighbourhoods near India’s capital on Wednesday following a second night of sectarian riots that have killed six people so far.
The unrest started on Monday when mobs in the primarily Muslim district of Nuh, about 75 kilometres south of New Delhi, stoned a Hindu religious procession and set cars on fire.
The following evening, arson and vandalism attacks broke out in some areas of Gurugram, a nearby satellite city of the capital and a significant business district where Nokia, Samsung, and other multinational corporations have their Indian headquarters.
One neighbourhood saw a mob of around 200 people armed with sticks and stones loot several meat shops and set fire to a restaurant while chanting Hindu religious slogans.
Haryana state chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar said six people had been killed in the violence and 116 arrested so far.
“Those who are found guilty won’t get off easy. We care about the public’s safety,” he told reporters on Wednesday.
According to state police, two of those killed on Tuesday were security personnel who were en route to Nuh to assist in quelling the unrest.
Police in New Delhi claimed that as a precaution, they had stepped up security in some neighbourhoods.
Local media reports said tensions first flared after prominent Hindu nationalist activist Monu Manesar, a member of the radical right-wing group Bajrang Dal, announced he would attend Monday’s procession in Nuh.
Manesar is wanted by police over accusations that he was responsible for the lynching of two Muslim cattle traders in another part of Haryana state.
The alleged vigilante leader regularly posts videos celebrating attacks on Muslims accused of transporting or killing cows, which are considered sacred by Hindus.
Manesar allegedly did not join the procession because he was trying to avoid being arrested, according to the police.
India has experienced numerous incidents of violence between its 200 million-strong Muslim minority and its majority Hindu population since Prime Minister Narendra Modi took office in 2014.
Since taking office, the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party has come under fire from critics for allegedly marginalising the Muslim community.
Religious riots in New Delhi left 53 people dead in 2020.
And at least 1,000 were killed in 2002 during violence in Gujarat, where Modi was serving as chief minister at the time. Most of the victims were Muslims.
In February, after the British broadcaster aired a documentary on Modi’s behaviour during the riots, tax officials searched the BBC’s India office.
In 2012, a probe ordered by India’s highest court reported that it had not discovered any proof of Modi’s wrongdoing.
