Two Karnataka residents were killed and six were injured on Thursday in clashes over an interfaith relationship in the Koppal district, the Hindustan Times reported.
Members of the Valmiki and Muslim communities attacked each other with sticks and weapons in the Hulihyder village, the police said.
The two persons who died have been identified as Venkappa (60) and Basha (22), Superintendent of Police Arunangshu Giri said. The injured persons are undergoing treatment at hospital, he added
He added that the violence took place after a minor argument between Basha and a person from the Valmiki community in connection with an interfaith relationship.
An unidentified police official with the Kanakagiri police station told the Hindustan Times that the village had already been tense after the couple eloped and started to live together. “We brought them [the couple] back and handed them to their respective families after the woman’s family filed a missing complaint,” the official said. “The woman, however, returned to the man’s house, further adding to the tension.”
After the clashes, the district administration prohibited the assembly of four or more persons in the village and two kilometres around it till August 20.
The police have taken more than 25 persons into custody in connection with the violence, Giri said, according to ANI. “We will file the first information report,” he said.
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