Click to play videoNew Delhi: Indians and other Asians are being targeted as violent protests have broken out in Uganda over an Indian firm's plans to develop part of a rainforest reserve.
One man was stoned to death and two other people were also killed in Thursday's violence, during which military police in armored vehicles fired tear gas into the crowd.
Many Asian-owned shops were closed in the Ugandan capital Kampala on Friday and many Ugandan Asians had not reported to work and were keeping their children home from in school.
Indians say they are living under great fear. "We are not comfortable at all, in this atmosphere no body can do business, we are worried about our properties," said businessman Dikan Kalyani.
Troops have been deployed in central Kampala after police fired tear gas and live ammunition to stop rioters attacking Indian businesses and a Hindu temple.
Police rescued more than 100 Asian men besieged in a Hindu temple and elsewhere, and rushed them to a police station.
Locals say they want the Indians to go back home. "The one who is trying to take our forest is an Indian. Others are selling pancakes here. Now there are many coming. In Uganda we don't want them to come," said a Kampala resident Henry Nsubuga.
The protests are over a plan to cut down nearly a third of a rain forest reserve to expand the sugarcane plantations of a company owned by an Indian.
The company is a subsidiary of the Mehta Group, which is run by Ugandans of Indian descent, and it wants to use 7,000 hectares (17,000 acres) – nearly a third of the Mabira Forest Reserve – to expand the plantation.
Critics say cutting part of Mabira would have grave ecological consequences, from increased soil erosion to the drying up of rivers and rainfall, and the removal of a buffer against polluting nearby Lake Victoria.
An Asian community association in Uganda on Friday said it is going to petition Mahendra Mehta, a director of the Mehta Group, to stop the company's planned expansion of its sugar plantation.
Earlier also, former dictator Idi Amin had expelled Indians from Uganda in 1972.
Thousands have returned, but they are viewed with suspicion by some Ugandans who resent their domination of many businesses.
(For updates you can share with your friends, follow IBNLive on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest)
More on IBNLive Right Now
TOP NEWS
MOST SHARED
PHOTOGALLERY
