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Bangalore: Federal police were deployed and schools were shut in India's technology hub of Bangalore on Monday after communal rioting between Hindus and Muslims left one 12-year-old boy dead and dozens of people hurt. Authorities lifted a curfew in violence-hit parts of the city on Monday, news reports said. An overnight curfew was imposed in the Bhartinagar district of Bangalore on Sunday after police gunfire killed one person and injured three others, the Press Trust of India news agency quoted Police Commissioner N. Achuta Rao as saying. Muslims protesting against the execution of Iraq's toppled president Saddam Hussain clashed with police on Friday, ransacking shops owned by Hindus and burning at least 15 cars.
Protesters at a rally on Sunday of the Hindu nationalist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (National Volunteer Corps) then attacked shops owned by minority Muslims and stoned vehicles, forcing police to fire on rampaging crowds. Riot police patrolled empty streets of downtown Bangalore on Monday but operations in the city's numerous software firms and call centres, mostly outside the city centre, were unaffected. "We are working. There is no change in our schedule," said a spokeswoman for Infosys Technologies Ltd. India's second-largest software exporter. No further violence was reported on Monday, the CNN-IBN television news channel reported. Authorities closed schools for the day in the troubled region. "All steps are being taken to bring the city to normalcy," Karnataka State Home Minister M.P. Prakash told reporters. Police said at least 150 people had been arrested on Sunday.
Bangalore is capital of Karnataka state, which is ruled by a coalition of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party and a regional party. Industry representatives said they were concerned that the violence would affect Bangalore's image abroad. Known as the Silicon Valley of India, Bangalore is known for its international call centres and business process outsourcing industry.
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