gelatik
01.03.02, 03:10
AHMADABAD, India - Angry Hindus set fire to homes in a Muslim neighborhood
Thursday and then kept firefighters away for hours, dragging out one former
lawmaker and burning him alive. At least 58 people died in revenge attacks
triggered by a Muslim assault on a train.Police in western Gujarat state
appeared outnumbered or unwilling to act to quell what appeared to be the worst
rioting to hit the country in nearly a decade.
The officers stood in bunches, watching as groups of Hindus, wielding iron rods
and cans of gasoline or kerosene, roamed Ahmadabad attacking Muslims in their
homes, shops and vehicles.
The government promised to send the army to Ahmadabad, the region's main city,
to end the rampage. But there were fears the violence would spread Friday, when
Hindu nationalists called for a nationwide strike.
In Thursday's worst attack, 38 people — including 12 children — died when some
2,000 Hindus set fire to six homes in an affluent Muslim neighborhood.
Some trapped residents made frantic telephone calls to police and firefighters.
But police said they arrived two hours later and firefighters were delayed by
more than six hours because of blockades by rioters.
A former lawmaker, Ehsan Jefri, fired at the rioters when they tried to enter
his house, but he was dragged out and burned alive.
Elsewhere in Ahmadabad, rioters pulled a Muslim truck driver out of his vehicle
and killed him at a roadblock, police said. Other Hindus made bonfires with
goods looted from shops, and 20 men tore down a small mosque.
J.S. Bandukwala, a Muslim and human rights activist, said his house was
attacked by Hindus who "lobbed burning rags and pelted stones," before his
Hindu neighbors took him to safety.
In a few instances, police opened fire on rioters, killing two and wounding six
in Ahmadabad and two other towns, police said.
The violence was in retaliation for an attack Wednesday in Godhra, a town south
of Ahmadabad, where Muslims set fire to a train carrying Hindu nationalists,
killing 58 people, including 14 children.
Tensions have been growing between Muslims and Hindu nationalists who have been
using the train to go back and forth to Ayodhya, in northern India, where the
World Hindu Council plans to start building a temple next month on the ruins of
a 16th-century mosque.
The 1992 destruction of the mosque by Hindus sparked nationwide riots that
killed 2,000 people — and the government has called for calm, fearing bloodshed
could spread quickly in this nation of more than 1 billion, where Hindu-Muslim
fighting killed nearly a million people after independence in 1947.
This week's violence is believed to be the worst Hindu-Muslim fighting since
1993 riots in Bombay — also related to the destruction of the mosque in
Ayodhya — killed at least 800 people.
Narendra Modi, chief minister of Gujarat state and a member of the ruling Hindu
nationalist party, called the assault on the train earlier this week
an "organized terrorist attack."
Indian officials often blame longtime rival Pakistan for internal strife. Some
police and state officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, suggested that
Pakistan's spy agency, or the Islamic militant groups with which it is linked,
may have incited Muslims to attack the train.
They provided no evidence, and no official has drawn any link between the
violence in India and the al-Qaida terror network of Osama bin Laden (news -
web sites).
Wednesday's attack came after Hindus on the train refused to pay for food taken
from Muslim vendors at the station and shouted slogans — a common occurrence in
recent days that has fueled Muslims' resentment, police said.
Officials said 58 people died in Thursday's violence, and at least 150 people
were admitted to Ahmadabad hospitals, mostly with stab wounds. Police gave no
estimate of how many people were arrested.
On highways in the state, Hindus set up roadblocks, stopping cars to look for
Muslims. Smoke billowed across Ahmadabad's skyline from 70 burning buildings.
In many areas, rioters prevented firefighters from putting out fires, said
Mayor Himmatsinh Patel. "There was a complete breakdown of law and order. I
have been calling for the army but no action has been taken," he said.
Modi said soldiers would deploy in Ahmadabad on Friday and may also move into
26 other towns that saw violence and were placed under curfew.
The chief minister denied police had been derelict in dealing with the riots,
saying the region's Hindu majority had "shown restraint" in their response to
the train attack. His state government supported a strike called by Hindu
nationalists on Thursday.
Hindu activists called for that strike to be extended across the country on
Friday to protest the train attack, and they said they would set up barricades
in the capital, New Delhi.
Rajendra Singh, the police superintendent in northern Uttar Pradesh, said
10,000 paramilitary troops had surrounded Ayodhya to prevent violence. Some
20,000 Hindu activists have gathered to pray for the temple construction.
