Originally posted by the Voice of America.
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Coronavirus Rumors Spark Communal Violence in India

Shaikh Azizur Rahman

   TELINIPARA, INDIA - Squatting in the middle of her badly charred room,
   its tiled roof blown off, Hena Tabassum described how on May 12 a Hindu
   mob launched a fiery attack on her brick-and-tile shack.

   "We were fasting for Ramadan. It was around 12:30 p.m. Suddenly the mob
   attacked. They threw bombs, petrol bombs, and also dropped a gas
   cylinder into the room, before setting it aflame. I was inside the
   room. I was rescued by some neighbors before I got burned," said
   Tabassum, 20.

   "Everything in the room turned to ashes," she told VOA.

   While all of India was under strict coronavirus lockdown, a rumor
   spread in the town of Telinipara, 45 km north of Kolkata, that
   "hundreds of Muslims" had been infected with COVID-19 and were
   infecting members of the town's Hindu majority.

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