DATE= 03/18/02

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE= INDIA / VIOLENCE / S

NUMBER=2-287670

BYLINE= JIM TEEPLE

DATELINE= NEW DELHI

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

// Re-issuing, clarifying final grapoh of text //

INTRO: At least four people have died in India's western Gujarat State,

in continuing violence between Hindus and Muslims. V-O-A's Jim Teeple

has details from our New Delhi bureau.

TEXT: Hindu and Muslim mobs defied a dusk-to-dawn curfew in Gujarat's

largest city, Ahmedabad, and fought pitched battles until dawn, Monday.

Two Hundred kilometers south of Ahmedabad, in Baroda, two Muslim men were killed by a Hindu mob, while being escorted to safety by police. A police official has been suspended in the incident. Two other men died in police shooting.

The rioting is the worst in more than two weeks, when more than 700 people -- mostly Muslims -- died in sectarian violence in Gujarat.

Behind the violence is a dispute over whether Hindu hardliners will be allowed to build a temple near the site of a mosque destroyed by a Hindu mob in 1992, in the northern city, Ayodhya.

Last week, Hindu hardliners called off plans to hold a prayer ceremony at the site. India's supreme court had declared any such demonstration illegal. But tensions remain high in cities where Hindu's and Muslims have clashed in the past. (Signed)

NEB / JT / WD