From: ramani@saathi.ncst.ernet.in (S.Ramani)
Subject: India - 200 Deaths Reported, Violence Continues Unabated In Bombay
Organization: NCST, Bombay
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 93 12:46:31 GMT


Sender   : Srinivasan Ramani
Source   : Times of India
Date     : Jan 12, 1992
Country  : India

                               * * * * * *

*  48 killed in unabated violence in Bombay, India  - reports Times of India
   By The Times Team:    
   Bombay, January 11

        The city totters on the brink of a precipice,  inspite  of  fresh
        army  contingents  being  flown  in.   There were fewer major in-
        cidents of arson and violence today, but the death  toll  climbed
        to 48 nevertheless. (Yesterday's toll was 62).

        At the time of going to press, the number of dead reported by the
        city's  hospitals was 48.  To this must be added the figure of 11
        corpses recovered this evening from a  truck  at  Gandhinagar  in
        Worli  by  the  police.  According to a police source, the bodies
        appear to have been charred in a fire that  broke  out  two  days
        ago.

        The police put the figure of dead at 23.  This took the  official
        toll  during  the  last six days of rioting to 137.  Figures from
        the city's hospitals, however, indicate at least 200 deaths.

        Violence was very sporadic in the south and central areas of  the
        city  all through the day.  The unrest appeared to be moving out-
        wards to the western and  eastern  suburbs  from  which  numerous
        scattered incidents of arson and rioting were reported.

        Especially at Ghatkopar, Santa Cruz, Vile Parle and  Vokola,  the
        police had their hands full dealing with arsonists.

        Even as the paper went to press, there were reports late  tonight
        of large-scale disturbances in Malad.  The additional police com-
        missioner, Mr AA Khan, was at the scene as at  least  five  major
        incidents were registered.

        The Malad police said they were forced  to  open  fire  at  Silia
        colony,  after  a  police party was fired upon by a sniper.  Four
        people have been seriously injured.  There  was  also  widespread
        looting and arson on Linking Road, Bandra (west).

        The army opened fire at Ranade Road in Dadar around 8 am today to
        quell  a  rioting  mob  which attempted to set fire to a pavement
        hawker's stall, the police said.  In the firing, nobody  was  ei-
        ther injured or killed.

        However, residents at the scene, Vishnu Bhavan, just opposite Da-
        dar  railway  station,  said  the mob targeted a shoe shop on the
        ground floor and set it afire.  In the ensuing blaze,  the  shops
        on  either  side  were  gutted,  as  was  part of the upper three
        storeys of the building.

        To help the police control the situation, 39 columns and two com-
        panies of the Border Security Force (BSF) arrived in the city to-
        day.  More troops will shortly be rushed in, army sources said.

        "The army has been asked to seize control of the situation wherev-
        er  violence  erupts,"  sources said.  Lt.Gen. AS Kalkat, general
        officer commanding Southern Command, is camping in  the  city  to
        monitor the situation.

        In the police firing at Carmichael Road, one  person  was  killed
        and two others injured.  Two bodies were recovered in Dharavi and
        four others, in a highly-decomposed state, delivered to JJ Hospi-
        tal.

        City-bound state transport buses were being terminated at  Panvel
        in  Raigad district, or at Thane, the minister of state for tran-
        sport, Mr Shivajirao Shendge, told journalists.

        Local trains ran to schedule, but with few commuters and the BEST
        took  the  bulk  of  its fleet off the roads.  Against the normal
        milk supply to the metropolis of 620,000 litres,  nearly  90  per
        cent  or 550,000 litres arrived today.  But supplies continued to
        be hampered, because distributors refused to accept milk  or  be-
        cause of the absence of staff at government milk centres.

        In response to news agency reports that the  Rapid  Action  Force
        (RAF)  was  on its way to the city, the commissioner Mr SK Bapat,
        claimed to be unaware of any such thing.  He  had  not  requested
        this kind of help, he said.

        Three people died when police opened fire at  Chinchpokli  Bridge
        to disperse a mob.

        At Nirmal Nagar last night, army and police  personnel  were  in-
        jured  when rounds were fired at the police station from a build-
        ing nearby.  Combing of the building yielded nothing.

        However, combing operations at Agripada, proved more  successful,
        with  30  people  being rounded up last night.  Weapons like acid
        bombs, choppers and iron bars were recovered in two separate  in-
        cidents.

        In Ghatkopar, fires were reported  from  Indira  Nagar,  Sanghani
        Estate and Sainath Nagar.  At Asalpha village, a timber depot was
        set ablaze.

        "However, this was nowhere near as large  as  the  timber  market
        blaze  at Reay Road yesterday," the police commissioner Mr Bapat,
        said.

        Near Ghatkopar station, three shops were looted, and a number  of
        buses  owned by a driving school and cars parked on the road were
        torched.  In the same area, around one kilometre away there  were
        two  small  huts  set afire.  At Kannamwar Nagar in Vikhroli, the
        police had to open fire to disperse a mob that had  burnt  a  few
        tin sheds.  One person was injured in the firing.

        Residents from hutment colonies on both sides of the airport road
        lined  up  to  confront  each  other with knives and iron bars at
        around 1 p.m.  this afternoon.  Police resorted to teargas shells
        and  firing  in the air to disperse the mob.  At least one person
        was injured.

        At Worli's Ferguson road, defiant mobs gathered and dispersed  at
        intervals  during  the  night,  defying  police orders all along.
        When the police opened fire, the mob ran away and no one was  in-
        jured.  Twenty-five people were later rounded up.

        The police also opened fire  at  Bhoiwada  during  the  night  to
        scatter a mob since the mob kept reassembling, the army had to be
        stationed there.

        Areas under day and night curfew are Dongri, Pydhonie,  VP  road,
        Nagpada,  Koliwada,  Kalachowky,  Mahim,  Jogeshwari and Byculla,
        along with Santa Cruz and Vakola.  Night curfew has been  imposed
        in Ghatkopar (W) and will be continued in Nirmal Nagar, Kherwadi,
        Nehru Nagar and Deonar.

        "An effort will be made to relax curfew for a longer period  each
        day from tomorrow - 6 a.m. to 10 a.m.." Mr Bapat said.

        But most essential commodities are already beginning  to  dry  up
        and  supplies  from the wholesale markets in New Bombay have com-
        pletely stopped since the riots broke out.  The supply  of  grain
        from  the wholesale markets at Dana Bunder has also been affected
        adversely.

        So far, 1,364 persons have been arrested for  specific  offences,
        the  police  commissioner said.  Preventive arrests number 1,502.
        Seven cases had been registered as of yesterday against  the  or-
        ganisers  of maha-arati programme of the BJP, believed by many to
        have contributed in no small way  to  the  violence  rocking  the
        city.

        Queried about this, Mr Bapat said, "Essentially, the issue is the
        same, whether of namaaz or arati.  Where the gathering blocks the
        road, we will register cases and pursue them in the courts."

        A rumour doing the rounds was the cessation of water supply  from
        the  Bhandarwada  reservoir at Mazagaon was a ploy on the part of
        the authorities.  A 600-strong mob broke into the office  of  the
        concerned  deputy  municipal  commissioner and broke glass sheets
        only to find that it was  actually  the  result  of  a  technical
        hitch.

        According to the police, 139 deaths have been reported since  the
        beginning of the riots.  A hundred of these were due to stabbing,
        19 people were killed in police firing and 18 in  the  fires.   A
        total of 393 people were injured so far, they say.

        There have been 307 incidents of arson and the police have had to
        open  fire 112 times.  At least 58 "private" firings, that is, by
        members of the public, have been recorded.

        "Ninety per cent of the calls received at the police control room
        turned  out  to be completely without substance"  Mr Bapat said,
        explaining the difficulties the police have had to contend with.

        "These are just instances of madness and how long it will contin-
        ue  I  just cannot say," he said, when asked for an assessment of
        how soon normalcy would be restored.

        He disagreed, though, with the perception  that  the  4,500-  odd
        people leaving Bombay for their homes in other parts of the coun-
        try reflected negatively on the police force.
 
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