NEW DELHI: Communal violence witnessed a rise in 2015, with 751 incidents recorded across the country as against 644 in 2014. According to data put out by the government in reply to a Lok Sabha question on Wednesday, there was also a rise in casualties resulting from communal unrest last year, with dead and injured up at 97 and 2,264 from 95 and 1,921 respectively in 2014.Incidentally, though the indices of communal violence were 17% higher in 2015 as compared to 2014, they were lower than the 823 incidents, 133 deaths and 2,269 injured reported in 2013, largely on account of the Muzaffarnagar riots Among the top states in terms of communal incidents were Uttar Pradesh (155), Karnataka (105), Maharashtra (105), Madhya Pradesh (92), Bihar (71), Rajasthan (65), and Gujarat (55). While UP and Karnataka are ruled by the Samajwadi Party and Congress respectively, three of the above-mentioned states — Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Gujarat — are ruled by the BJP. A year-on-year comparison, however, shows that while incidents in Madhya Pradesh witnessed a sharp increase from 56 in 2014 to 92 last year, they declined in both Rajasthan and Gujarat.UP has not only retained its position as the state with the highest number of communal violence, but also showed higher incidents (155 as compared to 133 in 2014) and injured (up from 374 to 419). In fact, the number of injured last year was higher than even 2013, when Muzaffarnagar riots contributed to the state’s 360 non-fatal casualties.UP remains the worst-hit state in the first month of the current year as well, having reported 12 incidents, 1 death and 64 injured. Madhya Pradesh is a close second with 11 incidents, two deaths and 43 injured. The national figures for communal violence in January 2016 read 59 incidents, 6 deaths and 233 injured.Meanwhile, Bihar, which went to polls last year, saw 71 incidents and 20 deaths, up from 61 incidents and 5 deaths respectively in 2014. West Bengal, where polls are due in a couple of months, also saw a 100% rise in communal incidents (from 16 to 32) over the relevant period.The states that recorded low or almost nil communal violence were Andhra Pradesh (4 incidents), Assam (3), Chhattisgarh (2), Tamil Nadu (3), Kerala (3), Odisha (0) and Punjab (0). Though Haryana accounted for only 3 incidents, the number of injured was significantly high at 107 last year, nearly nine times the figure in 2014. This could be largely due to the communal disturbances at Atali, Faridabad, in May-June 2015, over construction of a mosque.Maharashtra too recorded a significant increase in casualties, with 322 persons getting injured due to communal clashes in 2015 against 198 the year before. A similar pattern was seen in Karnataka, where incidents grew from 73 to 105 and injured from 177 to 337.