20 killed, nearly 200 injured in Indian capital violence

NEW DELHI - The death toll in the communal violence in the Indian capital city on Wednesday rose to 20, while as nearly 200 persons were injured, officials said.

"So far 20 are dead and 189 are injured in our hospital," Dr Sunil Kumar, medical director of Guru Teg Bahadur hospital told media. "The condition of some of the injured is serious but the majority of them are stable."

Authorities say they have deployed adequate police and paramilitary in the affected areas. However, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said Wednesday that curfew should be imposed and army called in to contain the violence.

According to Kejriwal, police was unable to control the situation.

"Army should be called in and curfew imposed in rest of affected areas immediately," Kejriwal wrote on twitter.

Unrelenting communal violence broke out in the northeastern part of the city following which mobs armed with sticks and rods resorted to arson, looting and vandalism.

Reports said many people especially Muslims are leaving their homes in the affected areas and taking shelter in other safer locations.

The clashes broke out between pro- and anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) groups in the northeastern part of the city on Sunday and took an ugly turn on Monday and Tuesday.

Protests against the controversial new citizenship law were triggered on December 11 last year, the day India's upper house of parliament passed the law. Since then there has been no let-up in the protests.

The law aims at granting citizenship to illegal immigrants belonging to six religions - Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, Jainism, Parsi and Christianity - from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan. However, it has kept out Muslim immigrants from applying for citizenship.