NEW DELHI, India - Parliament resumed debate Monday over the government's handling of sectarian violence in western India, as seven more people were killed in religious clashes.
Some 910 people have been killed in more than two months of violence between Hindus and Muslims in the desert state of Gujarat, according to official figures.
But human rights groups have put the death toll closer to 2,000, when counting those who are still missing from the riots.
Opposition parties have accused Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's Hindu nationalist party, which also governs Gujarat, of not doing enough to stop the attacks, which have mostly been against Muslims.
The Rajya Sabha, or upper house, of Parliament is debating an opposition-sponsored motion to censure the government.
Vajpayee's Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition defeated a similar motion last week in Parliament's powerful lower house. But opposition parties hold a majority in the upper house and the government would face a humiliating defeat if the censure motion comes up for a vote.
Addressing the upper house, Vajpayee asked skeptical opposition lawmakers instead to pass the motion as a unanimous resolution calling on his government to do more to bring protection, relief and rehabilitation to the victims in Gujarat. Such a resolution would be less embarrassing than a full censure.
"Once the Parliament passes a resolution by consensus, it is a notice to the Gujarat government to act," Vajpayee told lawmakers.
Meanwhile, a fresh burst of sectarian violence claimed seven lives overnight. Two Muslims were stoned to death by a Hindu mob Monday as they were cycling to work in the Dhor Bazaar district in Ahmadabad, Gujarat's largest city and financial hub.
Dhor Bazaar is two kilometers (one mile) northeast of the biggest relief camp, where tens of thousands of Muslims are living in squalor after their homes were destroyed by Hindu mobs.
Authorities imposed a curfew in several parts of Ahmadabad on Sunday after Hindus and Muslims fought with handmade bombs, knives and iron rods in three adjoining residential areas, killing at least five people, including a toddler, police officials said.
A 40-year old man died Sunday from bullet wounds when police opened fire to disperse the mobs, hospital sources said. At least 40 people were injured in the clashes, including nine who were hit by police bullets.
Hindu rioters burned two Muslims alive in Dani Limbda and exploded a bomb that killed a 3-year-old Muslim boy in adjoining Behrampura on Sunday, said Deputy Commissioner of Police B.S. Jebaliya.
A Hindu was also stabbed to death in the clashes in Dani Limbda, Jebaliya said.
Sunday's violence followed three days of relative calm in Ahmadabad, which has been rocked by India's worst religious riots in a decade.
The clashes began in Gujarat when a Muslim mob set fire to a train carrying Hindu activists on Feb. 27, killing 60. Hindus went on a retaliatory rampage, destroying thousands of Muslim homes and businesses.
Vajpayee, who has been criticized for speaking out against Islamic fundamentalism, said his warning on the rise of religious extremism applied to all religions, including Hinduism.
"The type of Hindutva (Hindu-ness) that is being promoted now is wrong. We should shun this brand of Hindutva," Vajpayee told Parliament.