Police were on high alert in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad as Hindu groups called a general strike to protest the killing of five people in sectarian clashes, officials said.
"So far everything is under control. However, the situation is volatile and we are not taking any chances," R. P. Singh, Hyderabad's commissioner of police, told AFP Monday.
Many parts of Hyderabad have been under curfew since Saturday after violence erupted when Muslims accused Hindus of burning a black flag raised to protest the destruction of a historic 16th century mosque in the northern pilgrimage town of Ayodhya 11 years ago.
Five people were killed and 22 injured in the clashes. Five of the injured were in a critical condition in hospital, Singh said.
"There were no new incidents reported in the last 24 hours but we are considering extending the curfew to at least three new localities as a precautionary measure," he said Monday morning.
Many schools and markets remained closed Monday in response to the shutdown called by India's ruling Hindu nationalist BJP party and its rightwing affiliate the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP, World Hindu Council) to protest Saturdays violence.
Most of the victims of the bloodletting were Hindus who were killed after police opened fire to control the rioting mobs.
The administration in Hyderabad, which is the capital of Andhra Pradesh state, ordered a judicial probe into the violence following a tour of the riot-hit areas Sunday.
Meanwhile, rival political groups had begun accusing each other of instigating the riots in order to consolidate their vote banks before proposed state assembly polls scheduled in the next few months.
The Babri mosque in Ayodhya was torn down on December 6, 1992 by Hindu zealots who say the Muslim emperor Babur had built it on the site of a shrine marking the birth of the Hindu god Ram.
The destruction triggered India's worst Hindu-Muslim riots since independence in 1947, leaving more than 2,000 people dead across the country.
In Ayodhya Saturday, the anniversary of the mosque destruction, police deployed extra security personnel to prevent trouble as small groups of Hindus and Muslims staged rival demonstrations.