The World - News from Dec. 27, 1988

At least 19 people died when angry mobs went on a rampage after assailants with axes killed a state legislator in the southern Indian city of Vijayawada, news reports said. Army and paramilitary troops were called in, and a 24-hour curfew was imposed on the city of 500,000 in Andhra Pradesh state. The rioting began after Mohanaranga Rao, a legislator from Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s Congress-I Party, and two supporters were killed by intruders near his home. Rao, 48, reportedly had been on a hunger strike to protest alleged police harassment.