Mumbai protest against northeast unrest turns violent

Police on Saturday used tear gas and bamboo sticks to disperse an angry crowd in Mumbai after a protest march against recent deadly sectarian clashes in India's northeast suddenly turned violent. A broadcasting van belonging to a local television channel was set ablaze while a police vehicle and some buses were pelted with stones. It was unclear what sparked the violence, police said. "The situation is now under control," a police official told AFP, adding that there were no injuries. The demonstrators had gathered in south Mumbai following a call by a city-based Muslim organisation Raza Academy to denounce the clashes in India's Assam state. Last month, fighting erupted between indigenous Bodo tribes and Muslim settlers over long-running land disputes and immigration issues in the state bordering Bangladesh. At least 77 people have died in the clashes, India's Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde told parliament in New Delhi earlier in the week. Some 400,000 people have fled their homes and are living in crowded camps in the northeast.