Four decades of communal violence in UP

A quick look at some of the worst Hindu-Muslim clashes in Uttar Pradesh during the past forty years

November 1972 : Nonari and Sajni 
in Nonari, the riots began on 15 November after Muslims murdered a Harijan leader; a crowd of 10,000 attacked Muslim houses and shops and started looting and arson. In Sajni on 12 December, a crowd of 5,000 started looting and arson after a few Muslim boys tried to molest a Hindu Brahmin girl of another village. A Hindu boy, who was beaten up by the Muslims, saved the girl; rumor was spread the that the Hindu girl was raped
One dead

October 1977, Varanasi
Riots started when students from the Anglo-Bengali College and young men from the adjoining locality of Muslim weavers clashed over the question of whether the spreading of yarn by weaver boys on a part of a playground was restricting the space available for students to play
5 Muslims were stabbed after being dragged out of a cinema hall and several injured

October 1978, Aligarh
immediate reason for this riot was the murder of a Hindu. A procession was led demanding the punishment of the murderer but violence erupted when the procession was crossing the Muslim populated area.
30 dead

August 1980, Moradabad 
Id-prayers were disrupted and scores of people, including many young children, died in a stampede at the Idgah. The riot occurred on this particular occasion when a police constable on duty refused to chase a pig when asked by Muslims in the Idgah. A number of Harijan slums and Muslim refugee camps were attacked.
Deaths in stampede: 1,500 to 2,000

September 1982, Meerut 
Dispute over a Shiv temple and a Mazaar in two adjoining buildings in the highly sensitive Shahghasa area
12 dead

October 1990, Lucknow
After LK Advani started the Rath Yatra
33 dead

Source: Communal Riots in India, paper by by B Rajeswari, IPCS, 2004