VHP cow protector killed by Muslims

Surat: Kosamba town in the Surat district of south Gujarat was plunged into communal tension on Tuesday evening, following the killing of a VHP activist.

Local ‘cow protection committee’ member Jaswantbhai Darbar was killed in a clash with a group of people at the slaughter house when he had gone there to inquire into a reported incident of cow slaughter. As news of the killing spread, more than two dozens shops belonging to the minorities were set ablaze by mobs in the evening. Heavy stone-pelting between mobs of both communities followed.

A large contingent of police from Surat has been dispatched to the town, which was described as tense but under control. Political observers here have expressed apprehensions that the run-up to the assembly elections would see a rise in the number of such clashes which have the potential to degenerate into communal tension and resultant polarisation between the two communities.

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