Police battled crowds of Muslim demonstrators Monday, one day after a young protester was killed trying to stop the arrest of a religious leader in this southern city, police said. At least 10 people were injured, some of them police officers. The violence broke out as thousands of people poured through the streets as the body of Mujahid Saleem Azmi, 20, who died Sunday after being shot twice by a police officer, was taken from a hospital to his home. Police fired tear gas canisters into the crowd and charged protesters with bamboo batons after demonstrators began hurling stones at police. At least six police vehicles were burned, and an Associated Press reporter saw 10 people, several of them police officers, injured. The violence had not been brought under control by midafternoon Monday. Azmi was shot Sunday night as he joined hundreds of people attempting to prevent the arrest of Mohammed Naseeruddin, who is wanted in connection with the killing of a Hindu nationalist leader in March 2003, said Hyderabad Police Commissioner R.P. Singh. The head of the police team that went to arrest Naseeruddin fired into the crowd after police failed to disperse them with batons, Singh said. Naseeruddin was arrested and is being held. The government of Andhra Pradesh state, where Hyderabad is located, has asked the police chief for a detailed report on Azmi's death. It was not immediately clear if action would be taken against the officer who fired the shots that killed him.
