AUTHORITIES in India's Gujarat state have arrested at least 40 people after late-night clashes between Hindus and Muslims in the city of Vadodara.
They have also suspended mobile phone usage, the internet and bulk text messaging services for four days.
The trouble in Vadodara is thought to have started with a Facebook post that some Muslims thought offensive.
Crowds from the two religious communities pelted each other with stones and set several vehicles alight until police dispersed them using tear gas after days of tensions in the city.
Gujarat is the home state of Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is currently in the US and is scheduled to meet President Barack Obama.
The state has a majority Hindu population and a history of religious conflict. At least 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, died in Gujarat in 2002 in violence between Hindus and Muslims. Mr Modi was chief minister of the state at the time.
Police said text messages and other social media had been used to spread messages about rioting and to inflame religious tensions.
Emboldened by Mr Modi's emphatic election victory in May, Hindu hardliners have been agitating in parts of India against religious minorities.
A prominent right-wing Hindu group has warned Muslims and Christians against taking part in the Hindu Navratri festival.
A senior state government official said yesterday: "Not many people are out due to fear of recurrence of violence.
"We are keeping a close eye on the situation."
Critics accused Mr Modi of allowing the 2002 riots to happen but courts found no evidence to indict him.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article