The violence started on 24 October 1989, and the violent incidents continued for 2 months, affecting the Bhagalpur city and 250 villages around it.

[1] Bhagalpur has a history of communal violence, and in 1989, the Hindu-Muslims tensions had escalated during the Muharram and Bisheri Puja festivities in August.

[8] A curfew was imposed by the state government immediately in the afternoon of October 24, and all the civilian assemblies were declared illegal.

The mob attacked shops owned by the Muslims on the Nathnagar road (later renamed to Lord Mahavir Path).

As the news of the violence reached the other Ramshila processions at Gaushala, the Hindus went on a rampage, killing Muslims, looting their shops and destroying their property.

KS Dwivedi, the Police Superintendent accused of being anti-Muslim, was asked by the Bihar Chief Minister Satyendra Narayan Sinha to hand over the charge to Ajit Datt on the same day.

However, during a tour of the riot-affected area, the Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi overruled Dwivedi's transfer at the demand of a mob composed of policemen and VHP supporters.

The same day, 18 Muslims including 11 children were killed in full public view, in the Nayabazar area of Bhagalpur.

[1] Hindustan, a Hindi daily in the state capital Patna, reported that on 31 October, the army soldiers had recovered Pakistan-made arms and ammunition from some miscreants in the Tatarpur area.

However, the District Magistrate Arun Jha dismissed the report as "sheer nonsense", and termed the 'foreign hand' theory as "silly".

He provided them with police protection, and left with an assurance that he would return in the morning with an army unit to evacuate them to safety.

In the early next morning, a large number of Yadavs, Dusadhs and Kurmis arrived at Sheikh Mannat's house.

The police later filed charges against 38 people in the case, out of which 16 were convicted and awarded rigorous life terms; the other 22 were acquitted.

[10] The victims accused the Congress government of doing little to stop the riots, and also of not providing them with adequate relief and rehabilitation.

He alleged that the decision was "not only an encroachment of the Constitutional right of the state government but also a step detrimental to ongoing efforts to ease tensions".

Sinha also stated that after being dismissed as the Chief Minister, he informed Rajiv Gandhi about the "role of some Congress leaders" in the riots.

[16] The Muslims in Bihar had traditionally served as a Congress (I) vote bank, but after the 1989 violence, they shifted their loyalty to Lalu Prasad Yadav, who became the Chief Minister of the state in 1990.

[5] On 12 May 2005, a Bhagalpur court sentenced 10 people to life imprisonment on 12 May for the murder of five Muslims in Kamarganj village of the district in the riots.

This led to the re-trial of Kameshwar Yadav, who had earlier been acquitted and given a citation by the state police for "maintaining communal harmony".

It was alleged that he "benefited from his proximity to both RJD and BJP and, most importantly, due to JD(U)’s alliance with these parties and the Congress.