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LUCKNOW, INDIA, March 23, 2001: The sectarian riots and violence in Uttar Pradesh’s largest industrial town in Kanpur, sparked off by the alleged burning of pages of the Koran in Delhi by Hindu activists, claimed 16 lives last week. The police opened fire to control the rioters and some persons in the mob retaliated by firing AK47 rifles. The authorities have imposed a curfew in all sensitive areas of the city, located about 42 miles from the state capital of Lucknow. Reports on March 19 said the situation had been brought largely under control. The Kanpur riots, and violence in towns of Maharashtra, were apparently in reaction to a photograph put out by a Web site showing people burning pages of a text, claimed to be the Koran, during a demonstration in New Delhi on March 5 to protest the demolition of the Bamiyan Buddhas by the Taliban in Afghanistan.

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