Clashes erupted between Hindu and Muslim groups on Saturday in the Beldanga town of West Bengal’s Murshidabad district, leading to the district administration imposing prohibitory orders, The Indian Express reported.

Six persons were injured in the clashes, the police said on Saturday. All of them are said to be stable.

The violence was sparked by an allegedly offensive message written on a neon sign board on a temporary structure set for the festival of Kartik Puja.

Mobs from both sides threw bricks at each other, and engaged in vandalism and arson. Several shops and homes were reportedly ransacked in the violence, The Indian Express quoted unidentified police sources as saying.

The police baton-charged the mobs to bring the situation under control. The district administration prohibited five or more persons from gathering at one place under Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita.

Seventeen persons were arrested in connection with the violence.

The Bharatiya Janata Party alleged in a post on X that Hindu homes were attacked in the area, while the police remained “spineless spectators”.

Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Mohammed Salim, on the other hand, alleged that there had been a “planned provocative display of abuse and disrespect to incite religious hatred” in Beldanga.

The police, in a social media post, denied that there had been any casualties in the violence, and urged citizens not to heed rumours. “Sternest possible legal action will be taken against law-breakers as also the rumour-mongers,” the police said.