A theft in a warehouse owned by a person from the minority community sparked off a Hindu-Muslim riot that left several persons injured last Sunday. The police had to fire two rounds in the air and lob several tear gas shells to disperse the two groups, which were pelting stones at each other.

Gaekward Haveli police inspector, R M Chauhan said, "A total of five persons have been arrested on charges of rioting. Police investigations are going on at the moment."

Police officers say issues like these sparking off communal riots are not new. Trivial matters like a cricket ball hitting someone by accident, or a collision between two bi-cycle riders have provoked Hindu-Muslim riots in the sensitive areas of the city like Dariapur, Gomtipur, Karanj, Shahpur, Kalupur, Rakhiyal, Gaekward Haveli and Madhavpura in the past.

"I would say that more than 95 per cent of all communal clashes in the city are provoked by trivial reasons. According to me, the main reason for such incidents is lack of interaction between the two communities and their latent insecurities," said Joint Commissioner of Police (sector 2), Rakesh Asthana.

He said, "A quick response time to contain such incidents on time and strict action against the accused has helped police control such skirmishes between members of the two communities."

Police said it was merely the news of a new Muslim neighbour going to occupy one of the closed houses in the Hindu dominated Motisalepari Ni Poll area in Dariapur in the walled city that caused a riot on Tuesday afternoon.

According to the case details, a former resident of the area, Natvar Darbar had sold off his house to one Bava Miyan Hussain Malek about four years ago. "The locals, however, came to know about this on Tuesday morning, when Malek and his family members started cleaning the house before shifting there. Some people started pelting stones on the Maleks and the incident immediately provoked a major stone pelting between members of the two communities," Dariapur police inspector, J H Panchal said, adding that the situation was soon brought under control by the police.

Earlier on January 15 this year, a major bout of stone pelting took place between two communities in Gomtipur area of the city, after a minor altercation between the two on the issue of kite flying.