Mumbai, July 11: Ten persons were killed and 26 others were injured on Friday in police firing at Ghatkopar in north-east Mumbai after a mob went on a rampage to protest the desecration of a Babasaheb Ambedkar statue. Those killed include a child and 2 women.

The entire opposition in both Houses of the state legislature has condemned the "indiscriminate firing on innocents" and demanded the immediate dismissal of the Shiv Sena-BJP government in the state. A memorandum in this regard has been submitted to state governor PC Alexander.

Opposition parties have given a call for a Mumbai bandh on Saturday. The decision to give a call for Maharashtra bandh (excluding Mumbai) is likely to be taken on Saturday.

Chief minister Manohar Joshi and deputy chief minister Gopinath Munde later announced a judicial inquiry into the incident. Compensation worth Rs 1 lakh would be given to the families of deceased and Rs 25,000 to the injured, they said.

Joshi told reporters he would talk to the chief justice of Mumbai High Court over who should head the judicial inquiry into the police firing.

The probe, which would be conducted under the Commissions of Inquiries Act, would inquire into the firing as well as the desecration of the statue.

He denied the firing was "indiscriminate" and said a due procedure was followed before opening fire. He said police swung into action immediately after the desecration was noticed, adding there was no need for Munde, who holds the home portfolio, to resign.

Munde said the police resorted to firing to "stop the violent mob at Ramabhai Nagar, Ghatkopar, from trying to set ablaze five tankers''. He added that the firing was ordered by the inspector of state reserve police force.

If the tankers, which included a diesel and a petrol tanker, had caught fire, the resultant blaze would have caused a grave loss to life and property in the vicinity, Munde told the state council. A debate was initiated by opposition leader Chhagan Bhujbal who had visited the spot.

Opposition members barged into the well of the House and displayed banners condemning the "Joshi-Munde government for its role in the incident" even as Munde was speaking.

"The present SS-BJP government in the state has lost its moral right to stay even for a single minute in power after this incident," Bhujbal said.

Munde expressed the state government's resolve to "protect the interests of dalits at all costs''. He said additional arrangements have been deployed all over the city and an alert has been sounded all over Maharashtra to avoid any untoward incidents. Orders have been issued to arrest anti-social elements, he added.

Munde said the desecration of the statue first came to the notice of the residents at around 6.15 am and the police reached there within an hour. The violent mob had till then resorted to a rasta roko and set afire two luxury buses, Munde said. Some trucks were also damaged in the stone pelting, he added.

In his reply to an adjournment motion moved by RR Patil and Dilip Valse Patil (both Congress), Joshi said 50 rounds were fired to control the violent mob. The mob had assembled on the street after noticing that Ambedkar's statue had been garlanded by chappals.

Protesting the desecration, the violent mob stopped vehicular traffic on the eastern express highway and indulged in massive stone pelting, Joshi said. "The police lathicharged in vain and then resorted to firing to save lives of thousands of innocents who otherwise might have been caught in the violence," Joshi stated.