Six people died in overnight clashes between Muslims and Hindus as fresh violence flared in riot-racked Gujarat, police said on Wednesday. It was the highest 24-hour death toll in the past two weeks and came ahead of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's visit to the state on Thursday, his first since India's worst religious bloodletting in a decade erupted in late February, leaving more than 800 dead.

Police said they found the bodies of three men and two women, all Muslims, in Abasana village on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, Gujarat's main city.

"They were killed in Hindu-Muslim clashes," an Ahmedabad police official said. Another man died in Umbhrat town 70 km south of Ahmedabad as police opened fire to break up Hindu-Muslim clashes.
In Ahmedabad, 11 people were wounded as police opened fire to disperse Hindus and Muslims hurling petrol bombs and stones at each other in different areas. Bureau Report