Ahmedabad, May 5
Seven persons were killed and 50 others injured today in the fresh violence that erupted after those returning to their houses in the Behrampur area of Ahmedabad city from relief camps were blocked by their neighbours.

Altogether seven persons were killed in the police firing and stabbing in both areas. Curfew was immediately reimposed there.

People from relief camps were prevented from returning to their homes in the Behrampur locality in Ahmedabad, resulting in tension in the area which led to violence. Two persons were burnt alive and many injured in incidents of stabbing and arson. Many shops were set on fire during the clashes.

The violence also spilled over to the neighbouring Kabadipura in Danilimda and many shops there too were burnt. Curfew was immediately reimposed on both areas.

Miscreants also hurled a crude bomb at a bus in the Aslai area of the city in which nine persons were injured, the reports stated.

Curfew was also reimposed on the Shahpur area after mob torched houses.

The toll in the communal violence in the state since February 27, the day some coaches of the Sabarmati Express were set afire, has risen to 909 dead.

Earlier in the day, two groups of people clashed and indulged in heavy stone-throwing in the Dudeshwar area of Madhupura police station, the police said.

Chief Minister Narendra Modi and senior Home Department officials and police officials held a meeting to review the law and order situation in the state.

Meanwhile, Mr K.P.S. Gill, Security Adviser to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, has suggested that leaders of Hindu and Muslim communities should hold a dialogue with each other to help restore peace in the trouble-torn state.

“It is important that the communities’ leaders start a dialogue with each other,” he told reporters here.

He said it was for the state government to take steps to contain the violence and these steps would have to be devised from day to day depending on the emerging situation.

Mr Gill said he would hold discussions with Mr Modi from time to time and work out modalities of how to contain the violence.