As Muslims worldwide celebrate Eid el Fitr today having ended a one-month spiritual exercise of fasting and praying, their counterparts in Jos, Plateau State, may not have it so blissful as the exercise has turned bloody, resulting in the death of at least 17 persons from violent riots that erupted in some parts of the city. As many as 30 cars and several houses were also burnt in the riots which escalated to Massalasi Jumat, Angwa Rukuba and Angwa Rogo, all in Jos North Local Government. Meanwhile, the state government, while condemning the violence, said it was working in conjunction with hospitals treating the injured victims. Addressing the press together with the Special Adviser to the Governor on Media, Mr. Ayuba Pam, the Commissioner for Information and Commu-nication, Mr. Yiljap Abraham, said the casualty figure could not be ascertained “at the moment”. He added that “government and security agents would be meeting by 4pm where they would brief government on casualty and other developments”. He assured residents of the state that adequate security measures were being put in place to avoid further escalation and breakdown of law and order. “This is to ensure that the Muslim festival which starts in earnest tomorrow (today) is observed peacefully,” he said. The Muslims had on Sunday evening gone to clear one of their prayer grounds at Rukuba road, an area dominated by “indigenes”, when they were allegedly warned by the people in the area that they would not be allowed to use the ground this year. They were reportedly advised to observe the prayers in their domain. But the Muslims allegedly insisted on observing their prayers there yesterday morning, their own group having completed their fasting a day earlier. But while the Muslims were returning from the prayer ground, the “indigenes” allegedly attacked them, leading to a riot that escalated to other parts of the city. It took the combined efforts of the military Special Task Force (STF) and the police who had to use their Toyota Hilux vans to convey the Muslims from the prayer ground back to the domain of the “settlers”. At the time of this report, the streets of Jos had been deserted with commercial activities paralysed, even as smoke from burning buildings and cars filled the air. Police and military aircraft also hovered over the city.