The Ahmedabad Bandh coincided with the Guru Purnima celebrations organised by the Ashram.

The injured include mediapersons covering the Guru Purnima celebrations at the Ashram in Motera village and several men and women who were on a protest march to the premises demanding justice over the deaths. About 40 cars and other vehicles were burnt to cinders, though the police say they have accounted for only eight.

Significantly, the Ashram did not send out a single appeal to stop its marauding devotees, all through the day.

The police initially chose to do nothing while the devotees armed with swords, lathis and even firearms, went berserk. Later they fired in the air and lobbed more than three dozen teargas shells when the protestors rallied to take on the attackers in a hand to hand fight.

Angry locals soon converged into mobs prowling the Sabarmati area and other city locations pelting stones, setting vehicles afire and mounting retaliatory attacks.

The mayhem began at about 11 am with a 2,000-strong mob of Ashram inmates coming out of the Ashram premises in trucks and on feet, attacking locals who had gathered to protest nearby.

The devotees also resorted to heavy stone pelting at the gathering, and one of those injured early on was Gandhinagar Superintendent of Police Piyush Patel.

The initial attack by the Ashram devotees saw the protestors flee for their lives. The fleeing crowd was pursued and the stragglers were brought down with lathi blows. The devotees also broke into the nearby housing societies on the trail of those who had ran into them, ransacking and damaging property, even the parked vehicles.

Though locals soon rallied to put up a resistance to the devotees, they were badly outnumbered in many places. The attack lasted well over half an hour, with the police displaying no more than a pedestrian interest. This was while the attackers left behind a trail of injured people, including a woman reporter of a national news channel.

"The Ashram vasis (inmates) just barged in and damaged at least 20 vehicles parked in our society,'' said Rajesh Kumar, a resident of the Stadium Villa Bungalows in the area.

Soon, local people began collecting in large numbers, targeting Ashram devotees on their way to take part in the Guru Purnima celebrations at its premises. The Sabarmati Chowk near the Sabarmati Bus Stop bore the look of a mini-battleground with angry mobs pelting stones throughout the day, and several dozen vehicles burning on the roadside

The Joint Commissioner of Police, Ahmedabad, Mohan Jha refused to comment on the police role in the violence. DIG J K Bhatt said the situation has been brought under control. He said the police have arrested "10 to 15 people from the spot." Ashram Administrator Uday Sangani was unavailable for comment.