 Sectarian clashes during a procession to mark Ashura left three people dead and 20 injured in northern India on Sunday, officials said. The violence erupted as the Shia procession wound its way through the narrow streets of Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh, India's largest state, said Anuradha Shukla, a district magistrate. Some Sunnis shopkeepers objected to the Shia procession passing through their neighbourhood, and both sides started throwing stones at each other, she said. At least 14 shops and houses were burned. The mobs then fired at each other before police reached the site of the clashes and dispersed the protesters. A curfew has been imposed in parts of the city, Shukla said. |