Court upholds school hijab ban in India's south

The southern Indian state of Karnataka was on edge for several weeks after a small group of girls in their late teens were prevented from wearing the hijab on school grounds at the end of last year.

An Indian court upheld a local ban on the hijab in classrooms on Tuesday, weeks after the edict stoked violent protests and renewed fears of discrimination against the country's Muslim minority.

The southern Indian state of Karnataka was on edge for several weeks after a small group of girls in their late teens were prevented from wearing the hijab on school grounds at the end of last year.

Demonstrations snowballed across the state and police used tear gas to disperse angry crowds as more schools imposed their own bans and radical Hindu groups staged boisterous counter-demonstrations.

After weeks of deliberations, Karnataka's high court ruled that wearing the hijab was not an essential Islamic religious practice.