INDIA: At least three Muslims died in the early hours of Monday morning when Hindu assailants set fire to dozens of homes of a Muslim community, in what came to be known as an alleged retaliatory attack in Eastern India, Al Jazeera reported.
The violence had apparently erupted on Sunday when the body of a young Hindu boy was found in Sarayian village, over a week after he went missing, Atul Prasad, a Bihar state administrator had said.
Prasad had said that the Hindu fishermen community blamed the Muslim community for the boy’s death as he was friendly with a Muslim girl from the village.
Officials had quoted him as saying that the police have arrested eight Hindu villagers in response to setting the huts ablaze in the Muslim community.
Of India’s 1.2 billion people, Hindus comprise more than 80 per cent while Muslims comprise nearly 13 per cent of the total population.
They largely live together peacefully in various parts of the country, but there are occasional incidents of sectarian violence.
