JEHANGIRPUR, INDIA‘: In a small, empty room on the edge of this silent, terror-stricken village in northern India lie the broken bangles, abandoned caps and shoes of children who suffocated when a Hindu mob set fire to their home, testimony to the brutality that is sweeping towns and cities of India’s north, west and south.

About 300 people have been killed in the riots, and 12 cities are under curfews in those regions. More than 3,000 people have been detained in connection with the violence.

The room was part of a Moslem home that the mob tried to burn down on Dec 13 with 21 members of a family trapped inside.

Thirteen of my relatives died, my wife, our two sons, a brother and nine other children,” said Ali Jan, who lived in the house. “They. Shouted slogans like, ‘Long live Lord Rama!’ Rama is a Hindu god who is worshiped across the nation.

There were stories of courage too, in which Hindus protected and hid terrorized Moslems from the mobs.

”One of them faced the crowd and shouted at them, ‘If you want to kill him, you’ll have to kill me first,” said Mohammed Yamin, a clerk. The stunned crowd moved away.

At least 44 people have been arrested on charges of murder and illegal possession of weapons, the local police said.

HYDERABAD, INDIA :A Hindu mob stabbed to death a Moslem man and woman ending a motorcycle in this southern Indian town Dec 13, witnesses said.

They said the mob forcibly stopped the couple, aged 30 to 35, and then knifed them, the two were easily recognizable as Moslems because the wife wore the traditional veil over her face.

At least seven other people, including five women, died in continuing Hindu-Moslem clashes since Wednesday night. More than 136 people were killed in seven days of violence here.

Nationwide, at least 235 people have been killed in stabbings in five or more cities after Hindu fundamentalists revived a campaign to build a temple that would replace a mosque in the remote northern town to Ayodhya.

Women, old men and at least 28 children were among the victims in Hyderabad, a city of 2 million people. Most were knifed or axed to death.

 LUCKNOW: Chandra Shekhar, on a short visit to Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh held discussions with chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav and senior state Officials, on the law and order situation in the state.

Violence continued in Parts of Uttar Pradesh with fresh killings of 60 more people till Monday night, official reports said here. Twelve persons were burnt to death in Bulandhshar and four killed in Aligarh.

Meanwhile, situation continued to be tense in Kanpur and Varanasi districts where curfew has been imposed.

Later talking to newsmen Yadav said he had discussed with prime minister the law and order and economic situation in the state and explained the various steps taken in this regard.

He said the central forces present in the state at the moment were enough and, if necessary, more would be sought.

The chief minister said civil disobedience movement by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) at Ayodhya had been conducted peacefully and hoped that something positive would emerge at the talks between the Babri Masjid action committee and VHP January 10.

Article extracted from this publication >> December 21, 1990