INTERNATIONAL: Police used batons to break up a clash between Hindus and Muslims after Eid prayers in India's northwestern Jodhpur city on Tuesday 3rd May.

Media reports said the tension between the two groups began on Monday 2nd of May when a flag marking the birthday of Hindu God Parshuram was raised in Jodhpur’s Jalori Gate, the same day as Muslims were celebrating Eid, the end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan.

The two groups clashed on Monday and media reports said police were injured. Clashes broke out again on Tuesday.

In recent weeks, religious clashes have broken out between the majority Hindu and minority Muslim communities during religious processions in several parts of the country.

The rule of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party has emboldened hardline religious groups in recent years to take up causes that they say defend the Hindu faith, although his party has denied any rise in communal tensions during Modi's reign.

While communal violence in India is sporadic, clashes erupted across the country in early 2020 over a citizenship law that Muslims said was discriminatory. Dozens of people died.