During demonstrations provoked by a ruling party official's remarks regarding Prophet Muhammad, Indian police shot and killed two demonstrators and imprisoned over 130 others.

Since last week, when a representative for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's party made insulting statements about the Prophet during a heated television debate, anger has enveloped Muslims in India and overseas.

Muslims rushed to the streets in large numbers after Friday prayers throughout India and neighboring nations to protest the statements, with police opening fire on a mob in the eastern city of Ranchi.

"Police were forced to open fire to disperse protesters...resulting in the death of two," a police official from Ranchi, Jharkhand, stated. Later, authorities disconnected the city's Internet connections and imposed a curfew.

Officers said that the mob disobeyed their directions not to march from a mosque to a market and threw broken bottles and stones when police used a baton charge to disperse the gathering.

Disputes elsewhere

Several demonstrations were held in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, prompting police to use tear gas to disperse at least one rally.

Avanish Awasthi, a top government official in the state, stated that while the majority of protests concluded peacefully, demonstrators in other cities threw rocks at police and injured at least one officer.

Awasthi assured reporters, "We will take strict action against those indulging in stone pelting and violence," "Those working behind the scene, instigating violence, will not be spared at all."

Prashant Kumar, a senior police officer, stated that as many as "136 protesting miscreants" were apprehended in six districts surrounding Uttar Pradesh.

On Friday, significant demonstrations took place in cities throughout India, with some mobs burning effigies of Nupur Sharma, the now-suspended Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokeswoman whose statements sparked the uproar.

Nearly twenty countries have demanded explanations from India's envoys in response to Sharma's remarks, which have sparked a diplomatic storm.

After the anti-Muslim remark, leaders from nations including Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan demanded an apology from the Indian government.

The BJP has engaged in damage management by suspending Sharma and issuing a statement that insists it respects all religions.

Friday witnessed the most major street demonstrations to date in response to the outrage, with authorities estimating that more than one hundred thousand people mobilized across Bangladesh following midday prayers.

In the Pakistani city of Lahore, an additional 5,000 people marched to the streets at the request of a hardline religious group, demanding that their government take stricter action against India in response to the remarks.