More Indians expect sectarian violence

WASHINGTON, Dec. 8 (UPI) -- More Indians are predicting continued sectarian conflict between the Hindu majority and Muslim minorities in the country, a Gallup Poll indicates.

In a poll taken in June, well before last month's terrorist attacks in Mumbai that killed nearly 170 people, a greater number of Indians predicted more sectarian violence than was the case in a 2006 poll, the Gallup Organization said Monday in Washington.

Even though most Hindu and Muslim poll respondents said they expected violence to decrease in the next five years -- the same as the earlier poll -- the percentage of those who predicted more conflict nearly doubled from 12 percent to 22 percent in the two-year period.

During that time, there were 10 major terrorist attacks against civilians.

"Gallup Polls before the Mumbai attacks had already suggested strain on fragile relations between the country's Muslims and Hindus -- and the strain has likely only become greater since," pollsters said. "As India's psyche heals after Mumbai, it becomes imperative that its leaders do not allow terrorists and others to further exploit intercommunal tensions."

The poll included 2,000 adults in India, and carried a 3-percentage-point error margin.