Death toll rises to 30 in Delhi violence as Modi issues plea for calm

The sit-in where women had gathered to protest a new citizenship law was gone, the posters torn and trampled. The mosque next door stood charred and silent, its floor smeared with blood. Stillness filled a major road, empty except for stray dogs picking their way through debris.

A tense calm settled on a swath of India’s capital Wednesday after a stunning outbreak of communal violence this week left more than 30 dead. The riots are the worst such clashes to hit Delhi in decades and came as President Trump made his first official visit to India.… Witnesses said that instead of stopping the violence, police joined crowds shouting Hindu nationalist slogans and fired indiscriminately.…

This week’s violence marked the second time in Modi’s political career that he has presided over a significant episode of communal violence. In 2002, when he was chief minister of the state of Gujarat, more than 1,000 people were killed, mostly Muslims, in three days of riots. A court-appointed panel cleared Modi of involvement in the violence.…

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