AHMADABAD, India (AP) - Vengeful Hindu mobs torched Muslim homes, killing scores, and rioting spread through western Gujarat state Saturday as the death toll in India's worst religious strife in a decade reached 408, officials said.
The violence continued unchecked for a fourth day despite army troops being deployed with orders to shoot rioters on sight. A strict curfew was imposed in 37 towns in the state. In a national television broadcast, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee appealed for peace and restraint.
Though the bloodshed was spreading, it seemed confined to Gujarat state, where police reported rioting and arson in the cities of Surat, Bhavnagar, Vadodra and Ahmadabad, the state capital and city worst-hit by violence. Mobs set fire to Muslim shops in at least three neighborhoods Saturday and prevented fire trucks from approaching, fire brigade officials said.
In the eastern town of Vadodra, at least seven Muslims working at a bakery were burned alive Saturday, police said. On Friday, at least 122 Muslims were burned to death by Hindus in three separate attacks in Ahmadabad and two other villages, police said.
The bloodshed began Wednesday when Muslims torched a train carrying Hindus returning from the northern town of Ayodhya, where a temple is planned on the site of a 16th-century mosque that was razed by Hindus in 1992. The planned construction of the temple has long been a cause of Hindu-Muslim tension.
Fifty-eight people died in the train fire in the town of Godhra, south of Ahmadabad, sparking a retaliatory rampage by right-wing Hindus who have roamed the streets looking for Muslims to attack, and set fire to homes and businesses. Muslims have accused police and soldiers of standing by and doing nothing as residents - including women and children - have been slaughtered, often with swords and sticks.
State government officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the death toll in four days of carnage is 408, including more than 40 killed in police firing. The state police put the toll at 383.
These are the worst religious clashes in India since 1993, when 800 people were killed during Hindu-Muslim riots in Bombay.
``It's not a good thing what happened but this chain reaction is normal. Now everybody has to suffer,'' said Satish Aggarwal, a Hindu who operates a dairy kiosk in Ahmadabad.
A small crowd of Hindu residents gathered at Aggarwal's kiosk said Muslims were to blame for the events of the last few days. ``It's the Muslims' fault, it's the Muslims' fault,'' they shouted.
Gujarat is the home state of Mohandas Gandhi, India's independence leader and an icon of nonviolence who struggled for reconciliation between India's Hindu majority and Muslim minority during the post-independence religious riots of 1947. About 12 percent of India's 1 billion people are Muslims, while Hindus comprise 82 percent.
In Ahmadabad, many hotels, shops and restaurants have been destroyed and looting has been widespread. Bodies blackened by fire lay in the streets, along with burned-out furnishings and vehicles, shredded clothes and other personal belongings.
Muslims in many areas said police were favoring Hindus. Muslims streamed into hospitals, for treatment of stab wounds and burns, but also for refuge
The origin of the violence lies in the World Hindu Council's campaign to build the temple in Ayodhya. The 1992 destruction of the mosque by Hindus sparked nationwide riots that killed 2,000 people. Hindus claim the site is the birthplace of their most-revered god, Rama.