India deployed troops on Saturday to quell deadly protests in West Bengal over legislation to change the way Muslim-owned property is managed.

Police fired tear gas to thousands of protesters gathered in the state’s Mershidabad area on Friday. Three people, including one child, included, police said Saturday.

“So far, 118 people have been arrested for violence,” said Jawed Shamim, a senior police officer in the state, adding that at least 15 police officers were injured.

The state’s high court ordered the deployment of federal forces. The WAQF amendment, which sparked protests, was passed earlier this month after fierce debate.

According to the ruling Indian nationalist government, it will increase transparency around land management by holding a responsible WAQF board, which controls property gifted by the Muslim Charitable Endowment Foundation.

But the opposition called the bill a “attack” against the polarization of Indian Muslim minorities. They accuse Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) of trying to win favor with a right-wing Hindu base.

After the bill was passed, Modi called it a “watershed”. Rahul Gandhi, head of the opposition Congress party, also said the bill “is directed at Muslims today but defines a precedent for other communities in the future.”

Modi’s decade as prime minister has seen him foster an image to become an aggressive champion of most Hindu beliefs in the country.

His government revoked constitutional autonomy in Kashmir, most of India’s Muslim majority and supported the construction of a temple on the ground where the mosque stood for centuries before being demolished by Hindu fanatics in 1992.