PATNA, India — Indian police shot dead two protesters and
arrested more than 130 others during street rallies sparked by a ruling party
official’s remarks about the Prophet Mohammed, authorities told AFP Saturday.
اضافة اعلان
There have been
widespread protests in the
Muslim world since last week, when a spokeswoman for
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party commented on the relationship between the
prophet and his youngest wife on a TV debate show.
In India and
neighboring countries, Muslims took to the streets in huge numbers after Friday
prayers to condemn the remarks, with police firing on a crowd in the eastern
Indian city of Ranchi.
“Police were
forced to open fire to disperse protesters ... resulting in the death of two,”
a police officer in Ranchi told AFP.
Officers said
that the crowd had defied their orders not to march from a mosque to a market
and had thrown broken bottles and stones when police attempted to disperse the
rally with a baton charge.
Authorities cut
internet connections in the city and imposed a curfew, with local resident
Shabnam Ara telling AFP the atmosphere remained tense on Saturday.
“We are praying
for peace and harmony,” she said.
Police in
Uttar Pradesh fired tear gas to disperse at least one rally after several
demonstrations were staged across the northern Indian state.
Most protests
ended peacefully but demonstrators in some cities threw stones at police and
injured at least one officer, said Avanish Awasthi, a senior government
secretary in the state.
“We will take
strict action against those indulging in stone pelting and violence,” Awasthi
told reporters.
“Those working
behind the scenes, instigating violence, will not be spared at all.”
Prashant Kumar,
a senior police officer in the state, told AFP that up to “136 protesting
miscreants” had been arrested from six districts around Uttar Pradesh.
Cities around
India saw sizable demonstrations on Friday, with some crowds burning effigies
of Nupur Sharma — the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokeswoman whose comments
set off the furor.
Authorities also
cut internet services for the weekend in several districts near the eastern
megacity of
Kolkata, after protesters blocked a railway line and mobbed a
police station.
Diplomatic storm
Sharma’s remarks have embroiled India in a diplomatic storm, with the
governments of nearly 20 countries calling in Indian envoys for an explanation.
Since coming to
power nationally in 2014, Modi’s government and the BJP have been accused of
championing discriminatory policies towards followers of the Islamic faith.
His government
proposed a controversial law that granted citizenship to refugees in India, but
not if they are Muslim, while state BJP governments have passed laws making it
harder for
Muslims to marry outside their religion.
The foreign
ministry last week rebuked US officials for what India termed “ill-informed”
and “biased” comments made during the release of a religious freedom report
that accused Indian officials of supporting attacks on minority worshippers.
Sharma’s
comments sent the BJP into damage control, with the party suspending her from
its ranks and issuing a statement saying it respected all religions.
Friday saw the
biggest South Asian street rallies yet in response to the remarks, with police
estimating more than 100,000 people mobilized across Bangladesh after midday
prayers.
Another 5,000
people took to the streets in the Pakistani city of Lahore at the call of a
radical religious party, demanding that their government take stronger action
against India over the comments.
The row follows
anger across the Muslim world in 2020 after
French President Emmanuel Macron defended the right of a satirical magazine to publish caricatures of the
Prophet Mohammed.
French teacher
Samuel Paty was beheaded in October 2020 by a Chechen refugee after showing the
cartoons to his class in a lesson on free speech. Images of the prophet are
strictly forbidden in Sunni Islam.
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