At least 11 die in religious clashes in Gujarat, Maharashtra

According to the police, at least 11 people were killed and several injured in fresh clashes in Gujarat and neighboring Maharashtra.

"Two people died in police firing and one due to injuries from a sharp weapon at Gomtipur area of Ahmedabad city early on Sunday," a senior police official said on Sunday in Ahmedabad.

The official said police opened fire to disperse a large group pelted stones at each other in the area. Twelve people, including two police officials, were injured.

Police said a curfew had been imposed in Gomtipur and Army and paramilitary forces were patrolling the streets.

They said three people were killed later in another religious clash in Kambhat, a small town in Gujarat's Anand district. Hindu mobs also burnt several shops belonging to Muslims in Baroda district on Sunday, police said.

Police opened fire to disperse the rioting crowd but there were no reports of casualty.

State officials said police have been asked to make preventive arrests to avoid fresh outbreak of violence.

In neighboring Maharashtra, four people died and 11 were wounded on Saturday after police opened fire to halt clashes in Akola, police said.

A woman was stabbed to death in a separate incident.

"The town is now peaceful though it is under a curfew," an inspector in the police control room told Reuters.

The deaths were the first in Maharashtra stemming from religious clashes since the violence erupted last month in Gujarat where more than 750 people have been killed.