11 KILLED IN TWO CLASHES IN INDIA

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32706, 8 September 1971, Page 17

11 KILLED IN TWO CLASHES IN INDIA

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) NEW DELHI, September 7. Eleven persons were killed in the Indian state of Maharashtra when police opened fire on demonstrators in two separate incidents.

The Press Trust of India also reported that at least 173 people were injured in yesterday’s clashes —• one as people demonstrated in favour of a breakaway state and the other as peasants and workers tried to loot a food grain warehouse.

Six persons were killed in the city of Nagpur when police opened fire on a crowd of about 15,000 which attacked them with stones, sticks, spears and daggers. Earlier, the police fired hundreds of tear-gas shells in an unsuccessful attempt to disperse the crowd, who were demonstrating for the establishment of a breakaway “Vidarbha state” from the

state of Maharashtra, which stretches east to west across 530 miles of central and western India.

The demonstrations came after police attempts to arrest a pro-Vidarbha member of Parliament who called a strike to coincide with the opening yesterday of a session of the Maharashtra State Legislature in Nagpur, about 400 miles south of Delhi.

In the second incident five people died when police opened fire on a crowd of peasants and workers armed with bamboo staves and iron implements who were marching towards a Government grain warehouse at Vairag, a small Maharashtra commercial centre, 340 miles southwest of Nagpur. An official report said the police tried to stop the advancing column by firing teargas shells. They then used rifle fire when the demonstrators launched a bombardment of stones. Official said that the demonstrators were determined to loot the warehouse.

At least 50 people were injured in this clash, one seriously, while at least 123 people, including 70 policemen, were injured in the Nagpur clashes, according to Nagpur’s police chief. One policeman lost his left eye. More than 600 arrests were

made in Nagpur, and a ninehour overnight curfew was imposed after demonstrators set fire to a factory and a police station. The Maharashtra Chief Minister (Mr V. P. Naik) told the State Legislature that the Nagpur police fired in selfdefence after they had been attacked.