JANUARY

Times of India 2 Jan 2002 Lashkar strikes again, kills six of a family JAMMU: An infant and an eight-year-old boy were among the six persons of a Hindu family killed in a gruesome massacre by Lashkar-e-Taiba militants in a village in the border district of Poonch, official sources said on Tuesday. In the second attack against minorities in the last three days in the Rajouri-Poonch belt, an unspecified number of militants wearing combat fatigues swooped down on the home of an ex-serviceman in a remote moutainous village, Mangnard, and fired indiscriminately at the family a little after midnight on Monday. The militants first cordoned off the village and barged into the house of Baldev Raj after breaking open the front door, the sources said. Five members of Baldev's family were killed in the firing and two others seriously wounded. The sources said that Lashkar militants were behind the massacre. One of the seriously wounded, Ashok Kumar, died on way to Poonch hospital while an injured woman was being airlifted to GMC hospital here. The sources said Baldev Raj was severely tortured with sharp edged weapons before being gunned down by the militants, the sources said. Suspected Lashkar militants killed four members of a Hindu family in Kathal area in Rajouri district last Saturday.

WP 4 Jan 2002 Sweating Over Kashmir By Jefferson Morley. The military confrontation between India and Pakistan has escalated since the Dec. 13 terrrorist attack on the Indian parliament and ignited a war of words in the news Web sites of the two countries. Pakistan: Confrontation and Conspiracy The Friday Times, a Lahore weekly, summarized a dominant view in Pakistan: that terrorism does not discredit its claim on Kashmir. "India's view is that if America can attack Afghanistan for hosting Al-Qaeda terrorists, why can't India follow suit against Pakistan for sustaining Islamic groups bent on 'terrorist' violence in Kashmir?" " But this argument is a non-starter. The fact is that the United States had obtained three UN Security Council resolutions sanctioning the Taliban regime in Afghanistan before September 11 and two more later before it took the decision to attack Kabul. Washington also had full NATO support. In India's case, no such legal backing or world support is available." India's demands for Pakistani action and refusal to talk prompted Dawn, the country's largest circulation English language paper, to ask "Why avoid talking?" "By ruling out talks at Kathmandu, New Delhi has made its motives clear: it wants to keep up pressure along the border, and a war-like situation in the region, for that is the only way it believes it can divert the world attention from Kashmir, where its massive troop deployment has failed to crush the insurgency." In the News International, free-lance columnist Humera Niazi voiced the common belief in the Muslim world: that the Dec. 13 attacks were a "raw ploy" by India to discredit Pakistan. Dismissing evidence that the the attackers were in league with Pakistani-based militants, Niazai described them as "plants" whose actions: "benefited the Indian government tremendously, [and were] additionally a bid to damage the Kashmiri freedom movement." A daily paper in Bangladesh, The New Nation, offered the same conspiracy theory. India: Patriotism and Politics In India, the range of commentary was wider, especially in Kashmir itself. Greater Kashmir a Srinagar news site, said the objectives of the Indian government "are crystal clear ….to curb the politico-religious freedom and rights of Indian minority and Jammu and Kashmir's majority Muslims, secondly to empower Indian forces and local police with extra-ordinary powers and to give them free hand with the provision of general amenity to serve Indian objectives of crushing the on-going movement through genocide." In Jammu, the Daily Excelsior made the opposite point, calling for an end to tolerance of Indian political parties that sympathize with the Pakistani agenda in the region. "This nation is littered with subtle and silent enemies who have been pushing the Pak agenda through one excuse or the other. Muslim League is one case in point. This was the party that got the nation partitioned and from its new abode Pakistan mounted the first attack on the Indian nation. There is little evidence that it has renounced its policies and politics. Yet it sits on the political spectrum of this nation as a respected entity. Why should sworn anti-nationals be groomed and guarded in this nation?" But The Hindu, a national daily, criticized Prime Minister Vaypayee for appealing to such anti-Pakistan sentiments. "Mr. Vajpayee, in a manner befitting more a rabble-rousing politician, has spoken in terms that are associated with a state of war. Almost in the same breath as making a reference to India going ahead with the nuclear tests in the face of stiff international opposition and sanctions, the Prime Minister declared that ``no weapon'' would be spared in ``self-defence''. The prime minister's actions, said the paper "will only be counter-productive for the reason that it will render it much more difficult for General Musharraf to act firmly against powerful Islamist groups that sponsor terrorism in India, for any such action will be seen as a capitulation to New Delhi." "In truth," said The Times of India "neither Pakistan nor India has the liberty to attack the other. That much has been taken care of by the United States, which will not allow any precipitate action by either of the nuclear neighbours. Unfortunately, words have a momentum of their own; even if they don't translate as actual war, they can vitiate the domestic environment, leading to polarisation of people on sectarian lines."

FEBRUARY

Times of India PTI 18 Feb 2002 Hurriyat condemns Rajouri massacre as anti-Islamic SRINAGAR: Hurriyat Conference on Monday termed the massacre of eight Hindus in Jammu region's Rajouri district on Sunday as "inhuman and anti-Islamic" and demanded an impartial international probe to unravel the "mysterious hand" behind the killings. In a statement here, the Hurriyat said "these type of incidents are engineered to malign the on-going freedom struggle in the state." It demanded an impartial international probe into the killings to unravel the "mysterious hand" behind the carnage. In a major strike, suspected Lashker-e-Toiba (LeT) militants on Sunday gunned down eight Hindus, including five children and two women, in sleep in a remote village in Rajouri district.

PTI (Press Trust of India) 20 Feb 2002 VHP warns of 'Hindu backlash' if temple construction opposed The Vishwa Hindu Parishad on Wednesday warned of a 'Hindu backlash' if its plan to build a Ram temple in Ayodhya was opposed and said about one million activists would arrive in the town by March 15 to start construction. "The Ayodhya temple movement is a public expression against militant Islam," VHP general secretary Pravin Togadia told reporters in Jaipur. 'Ram bhakts' being recruited by the VHP throughout the country would start reaching Ayodhya from February 24 onwards and by March 15 about one million would reach the town. "We cannot wait indefinitely for the government to find a solution," he asserted.

26 Feb VHP to go ahead with temple 'at all costs' A defiant Vishwa Hindu Parishad said on Tuesday that it was determined to go ahead with the construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya from March 15 "at all costs", despite the government's resolve to maintain the status quo at the disputed site. "We will go ahead with the process of construction from March 15 as announced earlier," the VHP's senior vice-president, Giriraj Kishore, told the Press Trust of India. "We are ready to face bullets or go to jail." He said Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had convened Tuesday's all-party meeting and given the assurance of maintaining the status quo on the suggestion of Congress president Sonia Gandhi "only to become popular". Kishore regretted that the opposition parties were not coming up with "constructive ideas" to resolve the issue and were instead creating an uproar in Parliament.

PTI 27 Feb 2002 Sangh leaders meet prime minister on temple issue Senior Sangh Parivar leaders met Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in New Delhi on Wednesday evening to "convince him of the legality of returning the land acquired by the government in Ayodhya to the Ram Janambhoomi Nyas" to facilitate the construction of the Ram temple from March 15. Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh leader Madan Das Devi, Vishwa Hindu Parishad international working president Ashok Singhal and former high court judge Justice Ram Jois attended the hour-long meeting at the prime minister's Race Course Road residence, sources said. During the meeting, Vajpayee appealed to Singhal and other leaders to postpone the ongoing movement at Ayodhya in view of the "tense situation" prevailing in Gujarat following the attack on the Sabarmati Express at Godhra, the sources said. Union Home Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani, Defence Minister George Fernandes and Law Minister Arun Jaitley were present at the meeting. Justice Jois, a leader of the Sangh Parivar's legal wing, the Adhivakta Parishad, informed Vajpayee and other ministers that there were no legal complications in the government handing over the land, they said. The meeting came close on the heels of the Godhra incident where about 55 people were killed when miscreants set afire four bogies of the Sabarmati Express and Advani's warning that the government would not hesitate to take action to maintain law and order in Ayodhya. Emerging out of the meeting, a visibly angry Ashok Singhal declined to talk to reporters.

27 Feb 2002 UP government fears terrorist attack in Ayodhya Sharat Pradhan in Lucknow With thousands of karsevaks arriving in Ayodhya, the Uttar Pradesh government apprehends a terrorist strike in the temple town. "We have received intelligence reports about possible attacks by the Lashkar-e-Tayiba and other Pakistani terrorist outfits on the devotees who are thronging to Ayodhya," Principal Secretary (Home) Naresh Dayal said on Wednesday. He said, "Thousands of Hindu devotees and leaders of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad are understood to be on the target list of these terrorists, who can sneak into the crowds and create serious trouble." Taking note of the reports, the administration has sounded an alert. "We have to take special care, particularly in view of the devotees who are converging in Ayodhya to participate in a ritual (purnahuti yagna) currently in progress," he pointed out. Some of the devotees are staying back in Ayodhya as part of the VHP's plans to build a Ram temple from March 15. Around 12,000 karsevaks who are now being called Ramsevaks are camping at Ramsevakpuram -- a temporary township erected to conduct the yagna. Asked about the steps being taken to prevent karsevaks from heading for Ayodhya, he said: "The central government had sent word to other states from where most of the devotees were arriving." According to him, the bulk of the karsevaks are arriving from Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Maharastra and Kerala. He said there would not be any local fallout of the attack on the Sabarmati Express in Godhra, Gujarat and maintained that the victims happened to be devotees returning from Ayodhya. "We have sounded a state wide alert to prevent any communal situation," he declared.

27 Feb 2002 Attack on Sabarmati Express premeditated: BJP The Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday said the attack on the Sabarmati Express at Godhra railway station in Gujarat was a "premeditated assault" by elements out to destabilise the nation. "The brutal murder by setting fire to the railway bogies in which they (the kar sevaks) were travelling, near Godra station of Gujarat, has shocked the nation. No words are strong enough to condemn this mass killing by elements who are out to destabilise the country," party president K Jana Krishnamurthy said in a statement in New Delhi. Details clearly indicated that it was a "premeditated assault", he said. Krishnamurthy appealed to the people of Gujarat to "cooperate with the state government to maintain absolute peace and tranquillity when the nation is fighting against terrorism from across the border". "The BJP is sure that the state government will take all necessary steps to vigorously pursue action to apprehend and arrest the culprits whoever they may be," he said. Blaming the Inter-Services Intelligence of Pakistan for the attack, party leader J P Mathur hoped that the "so-called secular leaders, instead of merely condemning the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and other organisations, should openly condemn the elements which are trying to provoke communal passions in the country".

PTI 27 Feb 2002 Sangh leaders meet prime minister on temple issue Senior Sangh Parivar leaders met Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in New Delhi on Wednesday evening to "convince him of the legality of returning the land acquired by the government in Ayodhya to the Ram Janambhoomi Nyas" to facilitate the construction of the Ram temple from March 15. Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh leader Madan Das Devi, Vishwa Hindu Parishad international working president Ashok Singhal and former high court judge Justice Ram Jois attended the hour-long meeting at the prime minister's Race Course Road residence, sources said. During the meeting, Vajpayee appealed to Singhal and other leaders to postpone the ongoing movement at Ayodhya in view of the "tense situation" prevailing in Gujarat following the attack on the Sabarmati Express at Godhra, the sources said. Union Home Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani, Defence Minister George Fernandes and Law Minister Arun Jaitley were present at the meeting. Justice Jois, a leader of the Sangh Parivar's legal wing, the Adhivakta Parishad, informed Vajpayee and other ministers that there were no legal complications in the government handing over the land, they said. The meeting came close on the heels of the Godhra incident where about 55 people were killed when miscreants set afire four bogies of the Sabarmati Express and Advani's warning that the government would not hesitate to take action to maintain law and order in Ayodhya. Emerging out of the meeting, a visibly angry Ashok Singhal declined to talk to reporters.

27 Feb 2002 UP government fears terrorist attack in Ayodhya Sharat Pradhan in Lucknow With thousands of karsevaks arriving in Ayodhya, the Uttar Pradesh government apprehends a terrorist strike in the temple town. "We have received intelligence reports about possible attacks by the Lashkar-e-Tayiba and other Pakistani terrorist outfits on the devotees who are thronging to Ayodhya," Principal Secretary (Home) Naresh Dayal said on Wednesday. He said, "Thousands of Hindu devotees and leaders of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad are understood to be on the target list of these terrorists, who can sneak into the crowds and create serious trouble." Taking note of the reports, the administration has sounded an alert. "We have to take special care, particularly in view of the devotees who are converging in Ayodhya to participate in a ritual (purnahuti yagna) currently in progress," he pointed out. Some of the devotees are staying back in Ayodhya as part of the VHP's plans to build a Ram temple from March 15. Around 12,000 karsevaks who are now being called Ramsevaks are camping at Ramsevakpuram -- a temporary township erected to conduct the yagna. Asked about the steps being taken to prevent karsevaks from heading for Ayodhya, he said: "The central government had sent word to other states from where most of the devotees were arriving." According to him, the bulk of the karsevaks are arriving from Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Maharastra and Kerala. He said there would not be any local fallout of the attack on the Sabarmati Express in Godhra, Gujarat and maintained that the victims happened to be devotees returning from Ayodhya. "We have sounded a state wide alert to prevent any communal situation," he declared.

27 Feb 2002 Attack on Sabarmati Express premeditated: BJP The Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday said the attack on the Sabarmati Express at Godhra railway station in Gujarat was a "premeditated assault" by elements out to destabilise the nation. "The brutal murder by setting fire to the railway bogies in which they (the kar sevaks) were travelling, near Godra station of Gujarat, has shocked the nation. No words are strong enough to condemn this mass killing by elements who are out to destabilise the country," party president K Jana Krishnamurthy said in a statement in New Delhi. Details clearly indicated that it was a "premeditated assault", he said. Krishnamurthy appealed to the people of Gujarat to "cooperate with the state government to maintain absolute peace and tranquillity when the nation is fighting against terrorism from across the border". "The BJP is sure that the state government will take all necessary steps to vigorously pursue action to apprehend and arrest the culprits whoever they may be," he said. Blaming the Inter-Services Intelligence of Pakistan for the attack, party leader J P Mathur hoped that the "so-called secular leaders, instead of merely condemning the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and other organisations, should openly condemn the elements which are trying to provoke communal passions in the country".

Guardian UK 28 Feb 2002 Fire attack on train shakes India 15 children dead among Hindu activists returning from disputed site of destroyed mosque Luke Harding in New Delhi Thursday February 28, 2002 The Guardian India was last night bracing itself for a bloody upsurge in religious tension after a crowd of angry Muslims yesterday set light to a packed train carrying Hindu activists, killing at least 57 people, including 15 children. Hours after the morning attack in Godhra, police were still pulling charred bodies burned beyond recognition out of the blackened carriages of the Sabarmati Express in the western state of Gujarat. Some 43 people were injured in the attack, many critically. Yesterday's incident appears to have started after some of the activists taunted a Muslim youth on the station platform and shouted pro-Hindu slogans. A crowd of Muslims then stopped the train soon after it set off towards its destination, Ahmedabad, three hours away. They poured kerosene into four carriages, and watched as the passengers tried to escape through barred windows. "I heard screams for help as I came out of the house. I saw a huge ball of fire," said Rakesh Kimani, 18, who lives nearby. "I saw people putting out their hands and heads through the windows trying to escape. It was a horrible sight." The local police chief, Raju Bhargava, said the known victims were 15 children, 25 women and 17 men. Asked whether Muslims were responsible, he said: "It appears so." The Hindu activists had been returning from the northern town of Ayodhya, where thousands have been gathering to campaign for the building of a temple on the ruins of a mosque, the Babri Masjid. Its destruction 10 years ago by Hindu zealots provoked the worst rioting in India since partition, killing more than 3,000 people. With the prospect of a wave of communal violence across the country, India's prime minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, last night appealed for calm. He cancelled a trip to Australia for the forthcoming Commonwealth summit in Brisbane. Extra policemen were drafted into Old Delhi and other urban areas with large Muslim populations, to prevent reprisals. Gujarat's Hindu nationalist state minister, Gorbardhan Jhorapia, last night claimed the attack on the train was "well-coordinated and pre-planned". As news of the massacre spread there were several attacks on Muslims across the state. Two people were stabbed in the towns of Anand and Baroda, while a mob set light to buses in Ahmedabad. Mr Vajpayaee, whose Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) swept to power in the mid-1990s, appealed to the World Hindu Council, or VHP, to abandon its plan to build a temple on the disputed Ayodhya site. "This incident is very sad, unfortunate," he said. "I would appeal to the VHP to suspend their campaign and help government in maintaining peace and brotherhood in the country." But the VHP said last night it would stick to its deadline for building work to begin in Ayodhya by March 15. In an attempt to dampen the growing crisis the government yesterday banned more Hindu activists from pouring into the town. It also stopped the trans port of temple pillars to the heavily guarded site, which is surrounded by razor wire. Ayodhya remains the most divisive and explosive issue in Indian politics. Although Mr Vajpayee's party emerged from the same Hindu revivalist movement as the VHP, he has increasingly distanced himself from the demands of his old and frequently unreasonable allies. He has called on the courts to resolve the temple dispute. India's hardline home minister, Lal Krishna Advani, who was at Ayodhya when the mosque was destroyed but denies charges of having encouraged it, also warned the VHP that anyone moving to build the temple would face legal action. "The Vishwa Hindu Parishad has embarked on a course of action in Ayodhya which is fraught with dangerous consequences," he said in a statement. "The developments in Ayodhya can thus precipitate a serious law and order problem." Why the mob, which witnesses said numbered several hundred, attacked the train at 6.30am was not immediately clear. Police in some areas of Godhra were ordered last night to shoot troublemakers on sight. The town of 300,000 was shuttered and the streets largely deserted. Muslims comprise about 40% of Godhra's population, compared to a national average of about 12%. The World Hindu Council has called for a state-wide strike today to protest against the attack - one of the most gruesome incidents of communal violence in a decade. "It will be done in a peaceful manner. We will not allow any violence," the council's vice-president Acharaya Giriraj Kishore said. Council officials in neighbouring Maharashtra state called for a similar strike. Flouting court orders banning any construction until the row is settled, the VHP has initiated a holy ceremony as a prelude to building the temple next month. All activity at the site has been frozen while a state court rules on the dispute. But hardline Hindus say it is taking too long and last year set a deadline of March for construction.

PTI 28 Feb 2002 We will not remain silent spectators: VHP Adopting an aggressive posture, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad warned that Hindus would not remain "silent spectators" if incidents like the attack on 'Ram sevaks' in Gujarat were repeated. "It is unfair to attack unarmed devotees who were returning home after attending the Sri Ram Yagya in Ayodhya," VHP joint secretary R S Pankaj told reporters in Ayodhya. Pankaj said the VHP would not in any circumstance change its programme to construct a temple at Ayodhya. Ram sevaks would start moving carved stones from the workshop to the acquired land under the direction of sants and seers as per schedule from March 15. Criticising the tight security measures in the town, he said they had created hurdles in the movement of vehicles carrying food for karsewaks. "The unnecessary curbs should be withdrawn and our religious functions should be allowed to be performed in peace," he said. According to official sources, 22 companies of the Central Reserve Police Force and 12 companies of the Provincial Armed Constabulary are posted in Ayodhya and another 60 companies of the CRPF and the Rapid Action Force from neighbouring states will reach the town in two or three days.

PTI 28 Feb 2002 VHP calls for bandh in Maharashtra, Rajasthan on March 1 The Maharashtra and Rajasthan units of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad have called for bandhs (general strikes) on Friday, March 1, to protest against the attack on the Sabarmati Express at Godhra in neighbouring Gujarat. "Various Hindu and social organisations and people across the state should participate in the bandh with a humanitarian aspect," Professor Vyankatesh Abdeo, an office-bearer of the Maharashtra unit of the VHP, said in a statement. In Jaipur, Jagannath Gupta, Rajasthan VHP president, said, "We appeal to the people to support this bandh and pay tributes to those who were killed while on their mission to construct the Ram temple at Ayodhya." The Shiv Sena and the BJP women's wing have extended support to the strike in Rajasthan. Abdeo said that at least 15,000 Ram sevaks would depart from Maharashtra for the purna-ahuti yagna at Ayodhya in the first week of March. Meanwhile, police strengthened security and vigilance in the sensitive cities of the state to avert any untoward incident, Inspector General of Police A K Jain told the Press Trust of India. PTI 2 mar 2002 Hindus protect mosque in Bihar Anand Mohan Sahay in Patna While Gujarat was burning, a small town in Bihar set an example of communal amity, when a group of Hindus got together and protected a mosque from being vandalised. During Friday's bandh in Muzzaffarpur, called by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad to protest the Godhra carnage, a group of hooligans tried to enter the Company Bagh mosque and vandalise it. A senior police official, who was present on the spot when the incident occurred, said that when the word spread about the bid by the hooligans to enter the mosque, almost 100 Hindus converged on the spot from the nearby Goriamath and Sariyaganj area and challenged them. A tussle broke out in which quite few Hindus were injured while guarding the mosque, but the hooligans had to beat a hasty retreat in face of stiff resistance, he said. By the time police reinforcement came in, the hooligans had done the vanishing act. Muzzafarpur has the distinction of never having witnessed a communal riot. "Thanks to timely intervention of local Hindus a major incident was averted," a senior police officer said, heaving a sigh of relief.

AP 28 Feb 2002 Muslim Housing Complex Torched in Western India At Least 38 People Killed in Hindu Reprisal By Ashok Sharma 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 appeared outnumbered or unwilling to stop the violence in western Gujarat state. They 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 quell the rampage. But there were fears 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. Narendra Modi, chief minister of Gujarat state and a member of the ruling Hindu nationalist party, called the assault on the train 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. 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.

MARCH

BBC 1 March, 2002, Indian press shocked by bloodshed Security forces are struggling to contain the riots Indian commentators fear that the current violence in Gujarat could spiral into nationwide chaos if plans go ahead to begin work on a Hindu temple in Ayodhya. The widely-read independent Hindi-language daily Rashtriya Sahara says the latest violence "puts the whole human race to shame". "Such an horrendous example of communal frenzy is perhaps unprecedented in independent India," says the daily. "Since the fundamentalist demon of both the Hindu and Muslim communities has been roused, it must be satiated." Conspiracy "The brutal killings were not the result of any immediate tension, but part of a well-planned conspiracy. It is possible that it was hatched by the fundamentalists," the paper says. This is the first phase of communal frenzy. Its reaction might be seen in more massacres since the root of the tension continues to be Ayodhya Rashtriya Sahara "This is the first phase of communal frenzy. Its reaction might be seen in more massacres, since the root of the tension continues to be Ayodhya ... all political parties must regard it as a national problem and start immediate discussions and find a solution acceptable to all," Rashtriya Sahara urges. The Asian Age, an English-language independent, voices fears about activists of the hardline Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) gathering in Ayodhya. "It is now imperative that instead of using the temple issue to create an atmosphere of uncertainty and insecurity, the government at the Centre lives up to its responsibility and calls off the squads that have started arriving in Ayodhya with the one-point agenda of fomenting tension and trouble," the paper says. Muslim fears The largest circulation Urdu daily in the Indian capital, Qaumi Awaz, calls for the VHP leaders to be arrested. "The Vishwa Hindu Parishad has threatened that the Ram temple will be built even if it leads to riots all over the country. In a provocative statement, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad has threatened to start communal riots in order to terrify the Muslims." If the Vajpayee government believes in the supremacy of law, the VHP leaders should be detained Qaumi Awaz Qaumi Awaz says that to destroy secular Indian society, the VHP "is intimidating the people through the prospects of riots all over the country." "If the Vajpayee government believes in the supremacy of law, the VHP leaders should be detained." Hindus 'unsafe' The largest-circulation Hindi-language daily, Dainik Jagran, says the train attack which triggered the riots proved that Hindus were at risk in their own country. "The manner in which pilgrims returning from Ayodhya were burned and killed is no ordinary crime but is the most obnoxious, horrendous, and unpardonable offence against humanity. The complicity of Pakistan's agents and terrorist organisations cannot be ruled out." Islam is absolutely safe in India. A Hindu is gradually becoming an orphan and helpless in his own country Dainik Jagran Dainik Jagran says the Hindu "is gradually becoming an orphan and helpless in his own country, without the least hope of help from any quarter". "Today's leaders, who mostly belong to the Hindu society, are the absolute epitome of cowardice. Nothing can be expected from them." However, Dainik Jagran urges the Hindu community "not to lose its self-control". "The Hindus should not forget that the Muslims in the country are their brothers and the Godhra incident could be part of a conspiracy hatched by foreign forces". Insanity Delhi's Hindustan Times speaks of "the insanity unleashed by the VHP" and accuses the BJP of "perhaps hoping that the VHP's belligerence will consolidate the Hindu vote behind it". Now the worst that was feared has happened in Gujarat. The communal conflagration can spread like wild fire unless preventive arrests are made immediately Hindustan Times "Now the worst that was feared has happened in Gujarat. The communal conflagration can spread like wild fire unless preventive arrests are made immediately and the government makes it absolutely clear that it will crack down on the miscreants wherever they create trouble." In Madras, the Tamil-language Dinamani says the plans for the construction of the Ayodhya temple on 15 March are based on "the auspicious day fixed by astrologers". "Central and state governments should take swift action to see that communal riots are not triggered off in other parts of the country. The evil forces that were responsible for this heinous crime should be identified and punished."

PTI 1 Mar 2002 AIR staff reprimanded for Godhra report Josy Joseph in New Delhi Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Sushma Swaraj has pulled up the top brass of All India Radio for its coverage of the attack on passengers of the Sabarmati Express at Godhra on Wednesday. According to officials, Swaraj took up the issue on behalf of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. The Gujarat CM objected to AIR reports, which said the entire trouble in Godhra started after some karsevaks, returning from Ayodhya, refused to pay up for the tea that they had at the station. The argument between the vendors and karsevaks flared into a carnage, the report said. The reports was used in the English news bulletins and almost every regional bulletin, most importantly in the Gujarat bulletin. Modi complained that the report was based only on rumours. The Gujarat government believes the Godhra massacre was pre-mediatated and was not spontaneous as the report indicated. Swaraj gave a dressing down to the top brass of AIR, officials said, though no action taken against anyone. But, fear and anticipation of future action hung heavily in the AIR newsroom where reporters pointed out that their report was not an isolated one. Similar reports had appeared in other media, including newspapers. When contacted, D R Malakar, director general, AIR, who retired on Thursday, said he was not aware of any such incident.

Afternoon Despatch & Courier (Bombay) 3 March 2002 CITY RAM SEVAKS OUT SMART POLICE Mock demo held at CST while real Sevaks leave for Ayodhya from Dadar BY HUBERT VAZ A batch of 500 `Ram Sevaks' this morning outsmarted the police and left for Lucknow, on their way to Ayodhya, by the Pushpak Express that departed from Dadar Station at 8.30 o'clock. According to the general secretary of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad's city unit, Mr. Mohan Salekar, their plan of diverting the attention of the police to Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, where a mock demonstration by some activists was held, was successful. The "real Ram Sevaks" boarded the Pushpak Express from Dadar Station, he said. The police and railway police were out in large numbers at CST this morning when the VHP activists carrying saffron flags and wearing bands on their foreheads sat on the CST outstation concourse demonstrating against the attempts to prevent them from going to Ayodhya. At least 20-25 police vans, besides around 10-15 specially requisitioned BEST buses, had been stationed outside CST to take them away. However, just three vans were sufficient when the police later arrested them for attempting to disregard the government directive. Those arrested included six young women. Mr. Salekar said the VHP had known about the police's intentions to stop the activists at CST and so staged a demonstration just to fool them. Those who left by the Pushpak Express did not go together and did not carry any flags or ribbons to give away their identity. He said that the VHP would be sending more batches "by hook or by crook" on March 4, 11 and 14. VHP city president, Mr. Ramesh Mehta, who also courted arrest along with the activists at CST, said: "No one can stop us from going to Ayodhya and building the Ram temple. This is our land we will not allow anybody to let Pakistani forces rule us." South Mumbai Bharatiya Janata Party MLA, Mr. Mangal Parbhat Lodha, who also joined in the demonstrations at CST, swore that Ram Sevaks from Mumbai would reach Ayodhya by all means and that no force in the country could stop them. Last night, the state government had issued a directive to thwart all attempts at sending Ram Sevaks from Mumbai to Ayodhya in view of the violent outbursts in Gujarat. The police and the railway authorities had been told to see to it that the activists did not make their way to Ayodhya in line with the prime minister's directive in this regard.

PTI 3 March 2002 Ahmedabad, In an apparent slip, Home Minister LK Advani on Sunday said the magnitude of violence on the innocents taking place in Gujarat was "terrorism" before retracting to label it as "communal violence". Addressing a press conference here, he said what has happened in Godhra and subsequently in Ahmedabad in which innoncents were targetted and killed was terrorism. "The Godhra incident and its fallout at Naroda and Meghaninagar was a blot on society and for country," he commented. Showing his distress, he continued "here innocents have been killed. Like we ask them (Pakistan), does killing innocents in Jammu and Kashmir mean freedom struggle for them. Many innocents have been killed here which was very unfortunate and this is what is terrorism," Advani said. But when a reporter asked him to clarify on his terming the Gujarat violence "terrorism", Advani retracted saying "it is not terrorism. It is communal violence." Indian Express Kar sewaks going but look who’s waiting » VHP says we don’t need trains, buses, its 25,000 UP cadre will simply cross the bridge over Saryu river SONU JAIN & RAKESH SINHA AYODHYA, MARCH 3: THE number of Ramsevaks dwindled to just 800 today — with the daily departures and no arrivals because of restrictions — but the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) wasn’t looking despondent. They say they have been holding a trump card for years which can swing the game their way if they believe they are not going to score enough points in this round of the Ayodhya campaign. One of the best kept secrets of the VHP is the rapid deployment strength of its Uttar Pradesh cadre. They are only waiting for word from New Delhi where the Mandir Nirman Samiti is meeting tomorrow. With the Centre being forced to take a hard line, the VHP has already held a strategy meeting of its six Prant coordinators with its central minister Rajendra Singh Pankaj. On eve of VHP meeting, first ally sends a warning Kumbakonam: DMK chief M Karunanidhi said his party will quit the NDA in the ‘‘unlikely’’ event of permission being granted for the construction of the Ram temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya. He added, however, that he was satisfied with Prime Minister Vajpayee’s handling of the issue. n New Delhi: The VHP postponed its Sunday meeting to Monday to finalise its stand on its current temple campaign. Finding it hard to climb down, VHP leaders met the RSS today and are said to be working on a face-saver although Ashok Singhal said that the March 15 plan remains unchanged. If the Delhi meeting leads to a situation that’s unacceptable to the VHP or doesn’t throw up a face-saving formula, the UP cadre would be called in to storm Ayodhya. According to the earlier VHP schedule, the UP cadre was to arrive in limited numbers from March 9. Ramesh Mani Dixit, prant sanyojak for Ayodhya, who is now in Balrampur, told The Indian Express that he plans to return to Ayodhya with at least 25,000 Ramsevaks on March 5. His writ runs over a huge area, stretching from Gorakhpur to Bahraich. Earlier, they would have entered the holy city in four separate groups on March 9, 13, 17 and 21. The VHP has divided UP into six prants — Avadh, Kashi, Ayodhya, Meerut, Uttaranchal and Braj. It’s sweep is both wide and deep. Each prant has at least 20 zilas, each zila at least 214 blocks. Each block has its own units of VHP and Bajrang Dal, making the region a fertile ground for the growth of the saffron brotherhood. These areas, especially the villages on the other side of the Saryu, have been cultivated with great care for more than 30 years because the distance to Ayodhya can be covered on foot if the need so arises. In these villages, Ramsevaks do not have to wait for trains and buses — they simply walk along the road which leads to the bridge over the Saryu. In fact, even in 1990 when Babri Masjid was first stormed, it was from the Saryu-end that people poured in. So huge was the number that the police had to resort to teargassing at several points. The VHP support base in villages which hug the road to Gonda, Balrampur, is quite strong. The approach road and other access points have been carefully studied and woven into the revised VHP strategy of calling upon the UP cadre at a short notice. ‘‘I am going to concentrate on the visits to Taraliganj and Manakpur which are the nearest blocks,’’ said Dixit. According to him, the Ramsevaks will try not to bring in their children but women would definitely be around in large numbers. Many are members of the Durga Vahini, the women’s wing which has played an active role in the temple movement. The Avadh prant has been asked to bring in a similar number on March 6. The organisers claim Union Home Minister L K Advani is familiar with most of their strategies but are confident that they have worked out a plan which can penetrate the security cordon of 70 CRPF companies and 22 state police companies.

Times of India 3 March 2002 Number of karsevaks dwindle in Ayodhya ] AYODHYA: The continuing administrative squeeze around Ayodhya and Faizabad got tighter on Saturday, with the cancellation or diversion of all trains reaching the twin towns till further notice. The last of the trains, carrying some 2,000 karsevaks from Ayodhya, left town on Friday evening. Ironically enough, it was the Sabarmati Express, bound for Ahmedabad in Gujarat, the same ill-fated train which was attacked in Godhra last Wednesday. The lack of easy transportation to and from Ayodhya has already begun to reflect in the numbers at Karsevakpuram, the VHP headquarters in Ayodhya. Just before noon, the site of the Purna Ahuti Yagna conducted every morning since February 24 looks deserted but for a dozen or so karsevaks. ``We have strict instructions not to let the media in,'' says the young volunteer in-charge of regulating the negligible human traffic to the holy fire. Local media in-charge of the VHP Sharad Sharma at first sullenly denied that the number of karsevaks had dwindled. Then he said since the trains were stopped on Friday, some 2,000 karsevaks arrived on Saturday by other means. The local BJP leaders, re-elected MLA Lallu Singh and the Faizabad district party president Mahant Manmohan Das, are more forthright. Because of the administration's dictatorial ban on rail and road travel, religious-minded karsevaks are being prevented from reaching Ayodhya, they complain. There are no exact estimates of how many karsevaks are still left behind in Ayodhya. The figure varies from an optimistic 4,000 to an improbable 10,000. Requests to visit Ramsevakpuram ^ the semi-permanent township which houses the VHP volunteers ^ for an independent assessment, are firmly turned down. ``The karsevaks have told us not to send anyone from the media there...Because the media can some times be too aggressive with its questioning,'' says Sharma. That might be so, but he clearly has other things on his mind. On Friday evening, a wire service photographer was manhandled inside Ramsevakpuram and his chain snatched. Just a stone's throw away from Karsevakpuram, the administration has, in the past 24 hours, part-sealed the workshop where stone pillars for the proposed temple are being chiseled and carved. The gate used for bulk transportation has been locked up, with a single-file side entrance allowed for individual access. The men in uniform posted outside have orders not to let anyone unlock the main gate. But none of this is having a reassuring impact in the Muslim areas of the temple town. From Kutia to Panjitola, Kajiara to Begumpura, the mood among the minorities remains grimly nervous. Many families have moved their women and young ones to safer areas. But it is impossible to ascertain how many. Mohammed Salim, nephew of Hashim Ansari, the man who filed the original court petition against the installation of Ram idols in 1949, claims that nearly every Muslim family in Panjitola located within shouting distance of the barbed-wire fencing that marks off the acquired land around the disputed masjid has seen some safety-driven migration. But in Faizabad, Khalil Ahmed Khan, of the Faizabad Helal Committee, has compiled a list complete as of Friday of those Muslim families who have left Ayodhya for safer destinations. While Khan feels that the administration has clearer directions today than in December 1992 ^ both from the court and the Central government to maintain the peace and the status quo, there is ample room for concern. But the last word belongs to a retired Muslim teacher: If the Muslims are migrating, can anyone blame them? Do you think a Muslim can really trust the system after what has happened in Gujarat in the last two days? Bangladesh pledges communal harmony

Scotsman UK 3 March 2002 Hindus torch more Muslims as Indian mobs defy their prime minister BETH DUFF-BROWN IN AHMADABAD VENGEFUL Hindu mobs continued to torch Muslim homes, killing scores, and rioting spread through western Gujarat state yesterday as the death toll in India’s worst religious strife in a decade reached 415. Among the dead was a British man who was killed while visiting family in the region. Mohammed Aswat Nallabhai, 41, from Batley, West Yorkshire, was attacked on Thursday along with three relatives . It is understood Nallabhai’s group were travelling in a minibus when they were attacked near Himmatnagar, about 100 miles from Gujarat’s biggest city, Ahmadabad. Two of his companions, men named as Saeed Dawood and Shakil Dawood, are missing. Consular officials are making efforts to trace them, the Foreign Office said. A third family member, Imran Dawood, also from Batley, is recovering in hospital in Bombay with "minor injuries". A Foreign Office spokeswoman said she had no further details about Nallabhai’s death. "I can confirm that one British male is dead and another is in hospital," she said. The violence continued unchecked for a fourth day despite troops being deployed with orders to shoot rioters on sight. A curfew was imposed in 37 towns and prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee went on television to appeal for peace and restraint, saying the violence was a "blot" on the nation’s reputation. "Whatever the provocation, people should maintain peace and exercise restraint," Vajpayee said. "The burning alive of people, including women and children, is a blot on the country’s face." But on the streets, some members of the country’s Hindu majority shunned their prime minister’s words. "Learn from us how to burn Muslims," said chilling graffiti on a wall in Naroda on the outskirts of Ahmadabad. Fresh rioting and arson were reported in the cities of Surat, Bhavnagar, Vadodra and Ahmadabad, the commercial capital of Gujarat. In Ahmadabad mobs set fire to shops in at least three neighbourhoods and prevented fire engines from approaching. In the eastern town of Vadodra, at least seven Muslims working at a bakery were burned alive by a mob. On Friday, at least 122 Muslims were burned to death in their homes by Hindus in three separate attacks in Ahmadabad and two other villages. The bloodshed was triggered by a Muslim mob burning a train carrying Hindu nationalists on Wednesday, killing 58 people. Since then, right-wing Hindus have been on a retaliatory rampage in Gujarat, one of India’s richest states. Muslim residents have accused police and soldiers of standing by and watching residents being slaughtered, often with swords and sticks. Authorities said they had begun moving Muslims in some parts of the state from mixed neighbourhoods to Muslim areas where security had been stepped up. State government officials said the death toll in four days of carnage was 415, including those killed in the train and 47 killed from fire. The religious clashes were the worst in India since 1993, when 800 people were killed during Hindu-Muslim riots in Bombay. "It’s not a good thing what happened but this chain reaction is normal. Now everybody has to suffer," said Satish Aggarwal, a Hindu who operates a dairy kiosk in Ahmadabad. A small crowd of Hindu residents gathered at Aggarwal’s kiosk said Muslims were to blame for the events of the last few days. "It’s the Muslims’ fault!" they shouted. Gujarat is the home state of Mohandas Gandhi, India’s independence leader, an icon of non-violence who struggled for reconciliation between India’s Hindu majority and Muslim minority during religious riots following the country’s independence in 1947. About 12% of India’s one billion people are Muslims, and 82% Hindus. During partition, many educated and professional Muslims left for Pakistan. Muslim leaders had ruled the Indian subcontinent until the arrival of the British in the 18th century. Although the majority of Indians are not religious extremists, the British and later Indian politicians including Gandhi have manipulated religious differences . In Ahmadabad many hotels, shops and restaurants have been destroyed and looting has been widespread. Bodies blackened by fire lay in the streets, along with burned-out furnishings and vehicles, shredded clothes and other personal belongings. Muslims streamed into hospitals, for treatment of stab wounds and burns, but also for refuge. The origin of the violence lies in the World Hindu Council’s campaign to build a temple at the site of a demolished 16th century mosque in the northern town of Ayodhya. The 1992 razing of the mosque by Hindus sparked nationwide riots that killed 2,000 people. Hindus claim the site is the birthplace of their most-revered god, Rama. The Hindus killed in the train massacre were returning from Ayodhya. A council spokesman said the plan to start building the temple would go ahead on March 15. About 10,000 security forces are deployed in the town.

Times of India 3 March 2002 VHP, BJP workers named in FIR on riots AHMEDABAD: Workers of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Bharatiya Janata Party have been booked for murder in FIRs filed in the Naroda-Patia violence on Friday which claimed nearly 65 lives. Interestingly, the FIRs filed at the Meghaninagar police station names shopkeepers of the area as being the culprits responsible for the killing of nearly 38 persons who were burnt alive. The five BJP and VHP workers named in the Naroda-Patia incident are Kishan Korani, PJ Rajput, Harish Rohera, Babu Bajrangi and Raju Noble apart from 10-15,000 people, in this complaint filed by police sub-inspector AK Solanki. At Chamanpura, the persons have been vaguely identified in the FIR as small-time traders in the area mostly operating around a temple in this area, that has always been in a state of communal frenzy. Their identities in the FIR run as those dealing in furniture, imitation jewellery and even country liquor. "The persons named in this carnage are Girish, identified as "who lived near the mandir" and "does furniture work", Ramesh "who lives near the mandir", Mangilal Dhulichand Adinath, Mukesh Mochi, Prabhu Mochi, ‘Gabbar’, ‘Abesh’, Ashish — the son of a chanawala, Ramesh of ‘Sadhna stores’, Deepak alias Pradeep who is a BJP worker and ‘Ghunghriya vaal wala’ (the curly-haired one) who deals in country liquor. This FIR was lodged by senior police inspector of the Meghaninagar police station KG Erda. Apart from murder, arson, rioting with deadly weapons, conspiracy, the accused in the Chamanpura case have also been booked for dacoity. The other sections under the IPC that have been applied on the accused are 143,144,147, 148, 323, 336, 337, 435,436, 427, 186, 188, and Section 135 (1) of the Bombay Police Act. Advani calls Gujarat violence terrorism before retracting

Hindustan Times 3 March 2002 Police indulgence towards Sangh led to carnage Rathin Das (Ahmedabad, March 3) The unfortunate conflagration that claimed more than 400 lives in Gujarat till now can directly be attributed to the police indulgence towards the Sangh Parivar activists over the last few years since the BJP has come to power in the state. By all accounts, most of the attacks on the minorities in Ahmedabad came in full view of the police, who remained mute spectators to the crime. The continued indulgence of the Gujarat Police towards the Sangh Parivar over the years has actually snowballed into Hindutva protagonists virtually acquiring quasi-police powers, calling the shots in almost every walk of life. The over-indulgence of the Gujarat Police towards the saffron brigade actually dates back to the BJP coming to power in early 1998 when the then Chief Minister, Keshubhai Patel, had described the torching of cola vans by the VHP, in protest against the economic sanctions following the Pokhran blasts, as a 'patriotic' act. Encouraged by Keshubhai's comment, the Sangh Parivar soon took the liberty of dictating terms in various fields. They disrupted fashion shows and beauty pageants, interrupted distribution of Christian literature, prevented Valentine's Day celebrations and tore off Christmas related festoons and decorations on the eve of the New Year. The situation acquired such a serious dimension that the State Director General of Police had to attribute the deteriorating law and order in Gujarat to the Sangh Parivar's increased 'belligerence' following the BJP's coming to the power in the state. Though the DGP's statement brought enormous embarrassment to the ruling BJP in Parliament, the Sangh Parivar continued to get police patronage in their quasi-police role in preventing what they perceived as moral decay in Indian society like fashion shows, inter-community marriages, conversions, celebrations of Valentine's Day or New Year. Two years ago, the Sangh Parivar's writ extended even up to preventing slaughter of animals during Bakri-Eid as it hurts the sensibilities of the Jains, an economically influential community in Gujarat. The pattern of identifying the minority victim and their establishments even without their typical beard and cap - as testified by some incidents in Gurukul and Sola Road areas this time - confirms the worst apprehension that the VHP had indeed completed its ethnic mapping to pinpoint the minorities in 'general' localities of the communally surcharged city. Not only that the state police had turned a blind eye to the moral policing by the Sangh Parivar, it remained silent when the state Bajrang Dal distributed to its members tridents with the cutting edge longer than six inches. The state police did not act even after the Central intelligence agencies pointed out that cutting tools longer than six inches, as distributed to nearly a lakh Bajrang Dal activists during a membership drive last summer, is a clear violation of the Arms Act. True, the police and the Sangh Parivar would certainly say that these tridents were not used in the current carnage, but the increased arrogance of the saffron brigade due to the police indifference must have surely added to the mood of revenge. And the Chief Minister's ambivalent statements blaming the victims for provoking the attacks added the necessary fuel to the already uncontrollable fire. And, giving the marauders a free hand for the first 48 hours also served their intended purpose of settling scores with the minority in the same fashion as the original carnage. Juxtaposing this 'eye for eye' strategy with the reports of many roadside dargahs being converted into small makeshift temples overnight brings out the Sangh Parivar's political statement that remains unfinished as yet at Ayodhya. In sum, the carnage, followed by building temples on demolished dargahs, has actually helped the BJP re-consolidate its position which was under serious threat as evident from a series of electoral reverses.

WP 3 March 2002 Trapped in House of Fire Wave of Religious Reprisals Ensnares Indian State By Rajiv Chandrasekaran; Page A01 SARDARPURA, India, March 2 – Carrying wooden sticks and plastic jugs of kerosene, the mob of 500 Hindus made no secret of its intentions as it swarmed into this tiny farming town late Friday night. "Kill the Muslims," they chanted. "Kill the Muslims." Trying to flee but surrounded on all sides by the Hindu crowd, most of the town's Muslims holed up in the one place they believed was safe: a one-room house with thick concrete walls and metal-barred windows at the end of their neighborhood. But the throng soon followed them there and encircled the house, seeking revenge for a Muslim attack on Hindu train passengers earlier in the week. "Get rid of the Muslims," some of the Hindus said, according to a Hindu man who witnessed the attack. Panicked and crying, those inside the house begged for their lives. "We said, 'Please forgive us. Please let us go,' " said Ruksanabano Ibrahim, 20, who was packed inside with a dozen family members. "We kept saying, 'We are not your enemies. What have we done to you?'‚" Then, just as it did moments earlier with shops, cars and other homes in the neighborhood, the mob doused cloth-wrapped sticks with kerosene, ignited them and hurled them through the windows. The terrorized occupants, who were locked inside the house, tried in vain to smother the flames with wool shawls and douse them with bottles of drinking water. When police officers arrived a half-hour later and broke down the door, 29 people were dead. Most of the 15 others in the house were seriously burned. The gruesome attack was the latest in a wave of retaliatory killings by Hindus that have plunged India's western Gujarat state into anarchy since Muslims firebombed the train on Wednesday, killing 58 Hindu nationalists who had been rallying to build a temple at the site of a destroyed mosque. Subsequent clashes have claimed more than 350 lives in the most severe religious strife in India in almost a decade. Although police imposed a curfew in 37 towns and army troops sent to the state received orders to shoot rioters on sight, the unrest continued today. In Ahmadabad, which was the scene of brutal slayings and arson attacks on Thursday and Friday, Hindu gangs set fire to shops in several Muslim neighborhoods. In the town of Vadodra, police said seven Muslims working in a bakery were burned alive by a Hindu mob. Police said more than 120 people were killed Friday in Ahmadabad, Sardarpura and another village in eastern Gujarat. Despite fears among some government officials that the fighting would spread to other states, most of the violence has been confined to Gujarat, which has a long history of Hindu-Muslim clashes. Police said they have killed 47 rioters in the state and arrested 1,200 people, including several dozen who allegedly participated in the train attack. Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee delivered a nationally televised address calling for peace. He said the attacks were "a blot on the country's face." About 12 percent of India's 1 billion people are Muslims, while 82 percent are Hindu. Although India is an officially secular nation, religious tension between Hindus and Muslims has existed for centuries. In 1947, when India gained its independence and was partitioned to create the Muslim nation of Pakistan, hundreds of thousands of people were killed as they tried to move between the countries. And in 1993, in the last major round of religious fighting, more than 800 people died in sectarian riots in Bombay. While the police and military have increased their presence in large cities, the revenge attacks appear to be spreading to rural areas like Sardarpura, where security forces are stretched thin. Local police officials expressed concern at their ability to stem a wave of vigilante attacks across the state's farming villages, many of which have small Muslim enclaves but lack full-time police protection. In Sardarpura, which has the largest Muslim population in a 30-mile radius, the violence began on Friday afternoon, when several hundred irate Hindus arrived from Jhantral, a nearby village. Claiming that two Jhantral residents were killed aboard the train on Wednesday, the mob used pickaxes to demolish a light blue mosque on the road into Sardarpura, located about 40 miles north of Ahmadabad. Forced to disperse from the mosque by police, the Hindus later regrouped and returned to the village around 9 p.m., police officials said. Once again, the police pushed them back by firing tear gas canisters, the officials said. But then, the 14-man police contingent left the town to patrol neighboring villages. As soon as they departed, the mob returned – with devastating consequences. "We couldn't just stay here," said B.K. Purohit, a police sub-inspector. "We had to patrol other areas." After an emergency call from the town, the officers headed back, but said they were stopped a few miles away by roadblocks. Muslims who used to live here, as well as those in other parts of the state contend security forces have been slow to respond. In some cases, they said, police and soldiers simply stood by as women and children were killed with sticks and swords. "The police were nowhere to be seen when we were attacked," said Fatima Bibi, 48, who hid with nine relatives in the home of a Hindu family. "They should have been protecting us." As the mob closed in on the Muslim neighborhood, the residents attempted to defend themselves by throwing stones and brandishing knives, said Sanju, a Hindu mechanic who witnessed the confrontation. But the Muslims quickly found themselves outnumbered and were forced to retreat, he said. Although some Muslims managed either to run away from the village or to hide in the homes of Hindu families, most made their way down a rutted dirt path, past burning cars and huts, to the concrete house. "We thought it would be the safest place because the walls are so thick," Ibraham said from her hospital bed today in a nearby city. But it also was the most crowded. By the time Ibrahim arrived with her relatives, the small house already was stuffed with people. So when the mob began throwing flaming sticks through the open windows, setting the bed and other furniture alight, there was no place to retreat, she said. "Those who could not move into the corners, they were sucked into the flames," she said. As new pieces of blazing material were tossed into the house and flames danced up the walls, Ibrahim and a few others kept moving around the room, tripping on the bodies of people who had collapsed. "We were filled with fear," she said. "We were crying, begging them to let us go." Ibrahim, who has a large bandage over her right eye, said she lost 10 relatives in the blaze, including her aunt, who owned the house. Police officers said they removed the 29 badly burned bodies from the house this morning. By this afternoon, the village was largely abandoned except for police officers and cows wandering the streets, which fleeing residents had been too panicked to take. Those Muslims who were not taken to the hospital ran off to other villages, where they planned to move in with relatives. Hindus joined the exodus out of fear that Muslim gangs might attempt to exact revenge. Hindus in the area neither praised nor repudiated the attack. A group of middle-aged Hindu men loitering outside the town said they were particularly upset by rumors that some of the women and children aboard the train had been raped. "They should be punished because they have done awful things to our people," one man said. Police officials said they have found no evidence that any of the passengers were raped. The train was returning from the northern town of Ayodhya, where hard-line Hindus want to build a temple to the god Ram on the site of a 16th-century mosque that was razed by Hindus in 1992. A Hindu group said it plans to start construction of the temple on March 15. Hindu and Muslim residents said they could not recall another incident of religious violence in the town, even when the Ayodhya mosque was torn down and riots engulfed Bombay. "Relations were always very good," said Nasir Mohammed, a Muslim driver. "Sometimes, we would even go into the homes of Hindus." But he and Ibrahim said they can no longer imagine returning to Sardarpura. Mohammed said he plans to continue living with relatives in a smaller village 35 miles away. Ibrahim said she has no idea where she will go after she leaves the hospital, but she said it likely will not be to a village where Muslims are in the minority. Analysts said those sentiments suggest that even if government forces quell the violence, the lingering polarization could set back India's efforts to foster a multi-religious society. "In one night, the Hindus ended years of harmony," Ibrahim said. "Why in the world would anyone want to go back?" Special correspondent Rama Lakshmi contributed to this report.

PTI Ram-Rahim Nagar: An oasis of peace SANJAY PANDEY AHMEDABAD: They have done it again. For the fourth time in a row Ram-Rahim Nagar slum residents in Behrampura have set a record of sorts. Once again their respective faiths did not come in way of the violence all around them or create a rift among them. After easily sailing through turbulent times in 1969, 1985 and 1992 the locality once again did not witness any form of violence or disturbance. When everything burnt in communal frenzy, harmony reigned supreme in these slums despite having a mixed population of Hindus and Muslims. A temple of Lord Hanuman and a dargah alongside summarises the brotherhood and peace at Ram-Rahim Nagar even in these turbulent times. Mutual trust helps 20,000 people living in this slum to overcome any communal hailstorm. "Humanity is our religion here," says Pyar Ali B Kapadia, President, Ram-Rahimnagar Jhupdawasi (slums) Mandal adding that nobody is worried about each other’s faith. This secular colony instead has become a refuge for some 300 riot-affected people housed in a nearby mosque. "Members have contributed on their own to arrange for food and shelter for these riot victims," says Taj Bano Sayyed, who is co-ordinating the relief measures. Poverty being their common enemy, co-existence of Hindu and Muslims is at its best. People here are least concerned about Mandir-Masjid issue. "Everytime Mandir-Masjid issue is raked up tension crops up and innocent people die," says A H Badami, a retired clerk from Central Excise and Custom adding that issue should be buried forever. Originally a resident of Bijapur in Karnataka he settled here in 1951 and today feels himself lucky to be here for obvious reasons. Home to some 20,000 people Ram-Rahimnagar never experienced the riots and its ugly aftermath. Since 1973 the Mandal, the local governing body comprising 21-member executive committee, has gifted peace and communal harmony to the residents. The secret behind the peace at Ram-Rahimnagar is its Mandal’s neutrality. Equal representation of both communities at the local body and official work sans money transaction are twin factors that have kept the Mandal’s role out of controversy or doubt. "If there are any disagreements we identify the root cause and nip it in the bud," says 30-year-old Mohammed Rafiq Sheikh, a member of the Mandal. "Everybody strives here to maintain peace," says Aljibhai Parmar, Vice-President who has been living in these slums for 35 years now. But peace does not come cheap. Residents now keep night-long vigil so that no outside elements can enter and spread rumours and hatred among them, explained Parmar on how peace was maintained in a locality surrounded by riot ravaged areas. "The residents seem to be uneducated and impoverished but they have great sense and maturity," says Abdul Salam, a local resident and tailor by profession. "Every celebration whether it is holi, diwali or uttarayan everybody joins in and revels," says Shabbir Khan ‘Master’, a teacher at nearby Behrampura municipal Urdu School. Today, Ram-Rahimnagar personifies that proverbial oasis of peace in a city where rioters have shaken the common man’s faith on peaceful co-existence. The fear that may grip you while rushing through the narrow bylanes, leading to this colony, does a disappearing act when you meet the residents who stand guard on their peace. Once you have established your identity, members of both the communities are eager to accord a warm welcome, that is if you deserve it.

Indian Exprerss 4 Mar 2002 Mob forces NID, IIM students to call off dharna against violence ENS & AGENCIES AHMEDABAD, MARCH 3: A 100-strong mob today forced students and faculty from three city-based institutions, sitting on token fast to protest ongoing violence in Gujarat, to call off their stir midway. Students and faculty members from the National Institute of Design (NID), Indian Institute of Management (IIM) and Centre for Environment Planning and Technology had organised a token fast near the IIM, when the group arrived at the venue, police said. It asked those at the venue to go to Godhra, if they were serious about the protest, even as the group threatened of dire consequences if the ‘dharna for peace’ was not stopped at once, police said. The threat forced the organisers to call off the dharna, police said. The IIM has been an island of peace in the state which has been swept by violence. Inside the gates of Louis Kahn’s architectural masterpiece, the institute was working on as usual. The only casualty was annual placements, postponed by a week from the scheduled March 1. More than jobs, the management students are worried about the violence. ‘‘Ahmedabad appeared to be one of the safest cities, especially for me who is from Bihar,’’ said second-year student Himanshu Rai. The faculty share the students’ views. ‘‘After violence of this magnitude, I no longer believe we are a civil society,’’ Prof Jagdeep Chokkar, IIMA Dean, said. ‘‘I have been witness to communal riots earlier. But this is the worst.’’

Daily Telegraph UK 4 March 2002 Soldiers 'held back to allow Hindus revenge' By Rahul Bedi in Ahmedabad (Filed: 04/03/2002) TROOPS and police appeared to have most of Gujarat state under control yesterday after almost 500 people had died in India's worst Hindu-Muslim bloodshed in a decade. Noorjehan, a muslim woman, recovers after beaten by Hindus in Ahmedabad Intelligence officials admitted, however, that there had been a deliberate delay by federal and state governments in deploying the army to give Hindu militants a free hand after a Muslim mob killed 58 Hindus on a train. The air force had 13 transport aircraft fuelled and ready at Jodhpur in neighbouring Rajasthan state to ferry troops to Ahmedabad, early on Thursday evening, when the rioting was at its height. "But for an inexplicable reason, even though it was apparent that the state police were proving incapable, 1,000 troops were flown out only the next morning," said a senior military officer. On arriving in Ahmedabad, scene of the worst violence, the soldiers were not provided with transport, information on communally sensitive areas or guides. "When the army was eventually deployed on Friday evening it was not taken to the trouble spots, but merely asked to display itself in areas from which the Muslims had already fled," a security officer said. "It was a calculated decision by the state's Hindu nationalist government." Intelligence officials admitted that a "systems failure", prompted by politicians, allowed the rioting to continue. They said some police connived and, at times, even helped Hindu mobs. Narinder Modi, Gujarat's chief minister, said yesterday: "Every action has an equal and opposite reaction." His officials conceded that this was a "cynical justification" of four days of rioting. Mr Modi, who belongs to the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party that heads the federal coalition, added that Gujarat's 50 million people had shown "remarkable restraint under grave provocation", implying that the violence could have been worse. A curfew was in place last night in sensitive parts of Ahmedabad, but an air of normality was returning. However, Muslim survivors of grisly massacres and the unchecked 30-hour orgy of violence and arson, were bemused. They said the police simply stood by, or in some cases even encouraged the rioters as they went on the rampage, burning entire families to death in their homes. "The police actively supported the rioters, almost as if they were accompanying them," Sakina Inayat Sajid, who lost six of her family and whose husband is missing, said from her hospital bed. The few policemen she pleaded with for help in Shehajpuri Patia told her to "go and die elsewhere". But there was no escape. All exit points had been surrounded by mobs armed with swords, iron rods, acid and paraffin. "I do not know how I made it out alive," said Mehboob Sheikh, a lorry driver, who lost all nine family members, including his two children. The killings ended when the first troops arrived. "But by then it was too late," said Shabana Abdul Sayeed at the local civil hospital. "There was nothing left to destroy or burn." The roots of the violence lie in the decade-old campaign by Hindus to build a temple to their god Lord Ram on the site of a mosque at Ayodhya. The 16th century mosque was razed by Hindus in 1992, believing the spot to be Ram's exact birth place. This led to countrywide riots in which more than 2,000 died. The Hindus burned in a train last week were returning from Ayodhya. Under instructions from the federal administration, Ayodhya has been sealed off. Atal Behari Vajpayee, the prime minister, who is confronting his worst political crisis since coming to power four years ago, has met World Hindu Council leaders and asked them to drop, or at least postpone their plans in the interests of communal harmony. The Foreign Office said last night that it had no further information on Britons caught up in the rioting other than that Mohammed Aswat Nallabhai, a man from Batley, West Yorks, had been killed. One of Mr Nallabhai's relatives was injured and two others are missing.

AP 5 March 2002 Theories Abound About Indian Riots By BETH DUFF-BROWN, AHMADABAD, India (AP) - The day after the deadly train fire that ignited Hindu-Muslim violence in western India, local authorities blamed the attack on a railroad platform fracas among angry Muslim tea vendors and slogan-chanting Hindus. Photos AP Photo Audio/Video Hindu-Muslim Conflict Appears To Calm (Reuters) Nearly a week later, conspiracy theories abound about who was behind the assault, which claimed 58 Hindu lives and set off riots and attacks that left more than 500 people dead, most of them Muslims. Indian officials, as they often do, hinted at a Pakistan link to the train fire in Godhra on Feb. 27. Other Indians wondered if Islamic militants had a hidden hand in lighting the fire. Islamic Pakistan has denied involvement and called on India to stop the killings of Muslims, who are a minority in India. What appears clear is that Hindus and Muslims in this western desert state don't blame their neighbors, even though they may have turned on them in anger or fled them in fear. They blame religious extremists and outside influences. "All this, blame the Hindu and Muslim fundamentalists," said Satish Aggarwal, a Hindu whose milk shop survived the riots. "We blame the Muslims in Godhra for starting it. But we know the ISI (Pakistan's intelligence service) was behind that." Aggarwal, surveying the damage in his community in Ahmadabad, the commercial capital of Gujarat state, was expressing a common belief held by Indians: Pakistan and its Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency, ISI, is behind many of their woes. "The needle of suspicion" pointed to some "outside terrorist outfit," said India's Home Minister L.K. Advani. Vipul Vijoy Singh, head of Gujarat's anti-terrorism squad, said Indian intelligence officials were investigating whether ISI agents had a hand in provoking the train fire. "Intelligence is working very hard on various reports on anti-national elements operating within the country and those who are funding operations from outside," Singh was quoted as saying in Tuesday's The Asian Age newspaper. Police have arrested 27 people in the train massacre, including Mohammed Hussain Abdul Rahim Kalota, a Muslim who is chairman of the Godhra municipality. Indian government spokeswoman Nirupama Rao said Pakistani involvement could not be ruled out, adding "there is every reason for us to investigate whether there is a larger design to this whole situation." Indian and Pakistani soldiers have been nose-to-nose along their disputed frontier for months, since India blamed the ISI and Pakistan-based Islamic militant groups for the Dec. 13 attack on its Parliament that left 14 people dead. A main point of contention is disputed Kashmir , over which the neighbors have fought two wars. New Delhi accuses Pakistan of supporting Islamic separatists in India-held Kashmir. Islamabad says it gives the militants only moral support. Pakistan scoffed at accusations it was involved in the train attack. "People within and outside India expect an early end to the ongoing genocide rather than indulging in the game of blaming others," said a statement from Pakistan's government. The blame game resumed Tuesday, in ways that Pakistan likely would applaud. Police in Ahmadabad filed several reports accusing local leaders of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's Hindu nationalist party and the fundamentalist World Hindu Council of leading Hindus into Muslim communities and commanding them to burn Muslims alive. Gujarat state secretary for the World Hindu Council, Jaideep Patel, denied that members of his group were involved in the attacks. Pran Chopra, a political scientist with India's Center for Policy Research, said Hindu-Muslim riots have traditionally been orchestrated by those with power. In this case, that would be Muslim political leaders in Godhra and Hindu nationalists in Gujarat. "The conspiracy theories are neither completely true, nor are they entirely baseless," Chopra said. When asked if Pakistan or possibly Osama bin Laden 's al-Qaida terrorism network could have had a role in the train fire, Chopra said he would not rule out indirect involvement. "The parentage of the al-Qaida and the parentage of those who might have planned this might be the same," he said. "The very people who produced the al-Qaida are the people who have their own sympathizers and supporters in Gujarat." Kanti Bajpai, a professor of international affairs at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, said the train attack appeared to be a well-planned assault and may have been Muslim extremists trying to polarize the communities. "It was tailor-made to make riots in a very calculated way," Bajpai said. Still, he believes the root of the riots lie in the north Indian town of Ayodhya, which Hindus believe is the birthplace of their most revered god, Rama. Most of the Hindus killed on the train were activists returning from a pilgrimage to Ayodhya. The World Hindu Council insists it will begin prayer ceremonies in Ayodhya next week in preparation for building a Rama temple, defying court orders to wait. Muslims deeply resent the temple project as the site is where a 16th-century mosque was torn down by Hindus in 1992, provoking riots that killed 2,000 people. "We know historically that when the temple issue is roiled up, there's going to be communal violence," Bajpai said. Relations between Hindus and Muslims have been rocky since the end of British colonial rule in 1947. An estimated 1 million Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs were killed in rioting that accompanied the partition of Pakistan from the Indian subcontinent. Still, they have lived in relative harmony in India and clashes are rare.

News 24 ZA (South Africa) 5 March 2002 -- Hindus, Muslims march for peace Ahmedabad, India - Hindu and Muslim leaders marched side by side for peace on Tuesday in India's Gujarat state, as the grisly task continued of uncovering fresh bodies from the worst sectarian violence in nearly a decade. As many as 800 people took part in the march, which was given a heavy police escort and wound through Gujarat's commercial capital Ahmedabad to finish at the ashram of India's independence hero and apostle of peace, Mahatma Gandhi. Ahmedabad bore the brunt of five day's of statewide communal clashes that claimed more than 580 lives. "This is our city and we want it back," said one of the marchers, K Stalin, who runs an NGO promoting literacy. "This city does not belong to Muslim fundamentalists or Hindu extremists. It belongs to us citizens," he said. Daytime curfew restrictions were lifted in Ahmedabad on Tuesday, although they remained in force in 20 other sensitive areas. "We are still getting reports of the odd incident of violence here and there," deputy inspector general of police K Chakravarty said. Death toll sure to rise Police officials said the death toll was sure to rise as bodies were still being recovered from remote Muslim villages that had been attacked and burned by Hindu mobs. Some officials said the final figure could cross the 1 000 mark. The violence was triggered by a Muslim massacre on February 27 of 58 Hindu train passengers, many of them women and children. Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi described the massacre as a "planned, composite terrorist attempt" and said a full judicial inquiry had been ordered into the subsequent riots. The train had been returning from the northern town of Ayodhya, where Hindu activists have been pushing a campaign to build a temple from March 15 on the ruins of a 16th-century mosque razed in December 1992 by Hindu zealots. Fears that the campaign would trigger further sectarian clashes eased on Tuesday when a radical Hindu group agreed to wait for the courts to rule on ownership of the disputed religious site. In return, however, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP - World Hindu Council) demanded the government hand over an adjacent plot where the VHP could go ahead with its temple construction from June 2. The compromise was announced by the chief mediator in the dispute, the Shankaracharya of Kanchi, Jayendra Saraswati - one of India's four Hindu pontiffs. Apprehension about handover Saraswati, who had also held talks with Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and various ministers, said the government seemed "inclined" to accept the VHP compromise offer, but would first have to discuss the issue with opposition parties. While Muslim leaders had voiced "apprehensions" about the handover of an adjacent plot, they also seemed agreeable to the proposal in principle, he said. The army was still out in force in Ahmedabad and other cities, after being deployed on Friday when it became clear that the state police were unable, or in some cases unwilling, to curb the Hindu backlash that followed the train massacre. Since the riots began, thousands of terrified and homeless Muslims in Ahmedabad have been sheltering in seven "safe homes", which in most cases means the local mosque. In the Shah Alam Aalam mosque, in the heart of the city, around 5 000 Muslims have been living in hopelessly overcrowded conditions for four days. Even with troops on the streets, most are too scared to return to the collection of charred houses and shops which used to be the bustling Muslim commercial and residential hub of the city. Ayub Kureshi, a butcher who lost two of his children in the riots, came to Ahmedabad 15 years ago from the southern state of Karnataka with dreams of building a new life. "I built a home here and things were going well," Kureshi said. "Now I don't know how I will rebuild my home or where I will go." - Sapa-AFP

PTI 7 March 2002 Opposition dharna to protest Gujarat killings NILANJANA BHADURI JHA TIMES NEWS NETWORK NEW DELHI: Expressing outrage at the complete breakdown of law and order in Gujarat, Opposition parties, led by Sonia Gandhi, agitated outside Parliament to demand the dismissal of Home Minister L K Advani and Chief Minister Narendra Modi. About one hundred and fifty Opposition MPs, led by Congress President Mrs Sonia Gandhi, sat in a silent dharna in front of Gate 1 of Parliament to protest against the complete break down of law and order in Gujarat. The MPS sat below Mahatma Gandhi's statue, and there was no slogan-shouting. Some of them held placards which read: "Remove Modi", "give relief to all genocide victims", "maintain peace and harmony", "killer Sangh Parivar down down". Some Opposition leaders also said that there demand includes the resignation of Home Minister L K Advani for the "complete bnreakdown of law and order and administration in Gujarat". Sonia Gandhi is also likely to lead a delegation of Opposition parties that will visit Gujarat tomorrow. The decision to hold the dharna was taken in a meeting held at the residence of senior CPM leader Somnath Chatterjee on Wednesday night. Talking to the Times News Network, Chatterjee said the Opposition demands immediate restoration of normalcy in the state, protection of people and property, relief for the victims and deployment of Army in the state to prevent any further incidents of violence. The parties also lashed out at the state administration and accused the Modi government of conniving with the perpetrators of the dastardly acts of arson and riots that followed the attack on Sabarmati Express on February 27. Present at the meeting were former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda, Shivraj Patil (Congress), Ramji Lal Suman (Samajwadi Party), Raghuvansh Prasad Singh (RJD), P A Sangma (NCP), Ajoy Chakraborty (CPI), Amar Roy Pradhan (RSP), Joyanta Rongpi (CPI-ML) and Simranjit Singh Mann (Akali Dal-Mann). Earlier on Wednesday, the Congress bitterly criticised the Gujarat government for discriminating against victims of the post-Godhra incident. The state administration has announced a package of Rs 2 lakh for victims of the attack on Sabarmati Express and Rs 1 lakh for those who died in the subsequent incidents of violence in the state. Party spokesperson Jaipal Reddy said, "The Modi administration's stand on compensation is nothing less than institutionalising sectarian discrimination."

Reuters 10 March 2002 Indian Muslims Reject Proposals on Disputed Site March 10, 2002 NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Indian Muslim leaders on Sunday rejected a proposal by a top Hindu cleric meant to ease a religious land dispute in the northern town of Ayodhya and end communal violence in which more than 700 people have died. Their decision came after a week of negotiations to head off a possible new upsurge of violence before a March 15 deadline set by hard-line Hindus for starting work on a temple at a site in Ayodhya where a mosque was razed in 1992. The All India Muslim Personal Law Board said in a statement it rejected the proposals as incomplete. The Shankaracharya of Kanchi, one of Hinduism's top religious leaders, had suggested hard-line Hindus be given land adjacent to the site where the Babri mosque was demolished in 1992, triggering nationwide riots in which 3,000 died. He had also proposed building a wall to protect the former site of the mosque until a court ruled on whether the land should be given to Muslims or Hindus. Hard-line Hindus believe the 16th-century Babri mosque was built by Muslim Moghul invaders on the birthplace of the Hindu god-king Ram, and see the temple as a means of setting right the insult they believe their religion suffered at the time. The Muslim board said it wanted written guarantees the site of the razed mosque would be protected until the court verdict. More than 700 people have died since February 27 when a Muslim mob attacked a train carrying Hindu devotees back from Ayodhya, burning to death 58 men, women and children. The attack in the town of Godhra triggered reprisals against minority Muslims in the western state of Gujarat and authorities finally had to deploy the army to quell the violence. The Muslim board condemned the Godhra attack but said it had been used as an excuse for "systematic pogroms or ethnic cleansing of the Muslims amounting to genocide in Gujarat." HARD-LINE HINDUS READY TO MOBILISE Thousands of devotees led by the hard-line Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) have already gathered at Ayodhya ahead of the March 15 deadline and one of its senior members said Sunday thousands more could be sent there if necessary. "Five hundred people from every district of Gujarat will go to Ayodhya on March 12," said Jaideep Patel, joint general secretary of the VHP in Gujarat's main city, Ahmedabad. "At any time we can send between 5,000 and 50,000 people to Ayodhya whenever required," he told Reuters. "It will all depend on instructions from Ayodhya." So far the violence has been limited to Gujarat, with a massive police presence preventing it spreading to other states. But Sunday, one Hindu activist was killed and four wounded in the village of Taldi in eastern India when police opened fire after a group planning to hold an unauthorized prayer meeting started pelting them with stones. "Given the current situation in the country this unscheduled prayer meeting would have generated unnecessary tension," a district official said. The communal tension has plunged Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee into his worst crisis since he took office in 1999. He was already juggling a military stand-off with Pakistan to force it to crack down on Islamic militants and had just seen his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) defeated in four state elections. The Hindu nationalist BJP heads the national coalition government and also runs the state government in Gujarat. Now Vajpayee faces the choice of turning against Hindu hard-liners who come from the same ideological family as the BJP or appeasing them and alienating his secular coalition partners.

AP 11 March 2002 . Hindu Groups Clash With Police By Chandra Banerjee CALCUTTA, India -- One person was killed and more than 30 injured Sunday after police clashed with Hindu activists trying to stage a religious ceremony in eastern India in defiance of a ban on large gatherings imposed after recent sectarian violence, officials said. One member of the fundamentalist World Hindu Council, which organized the ceremony, was killed in the shooting and some 32 people including 25 police officers were injured, said local administrator Alapan Bandopadhyay. The incident took place at a train station south of Calcutta after dozens of Hindu hard-liners defied a government ban on congregations of more than four people meant to prevent riots, said Chayan Mukherjee, the state's inspector-general for law and order. The ban was imposed after more than 700 people were killed in Hindu-Muslim clashes earlier this month that erupted when Muslims attacked a train carrying Hindu nationalists. The Hindu-Muslim violence was the worst in a decade. The clash at the train station, about 20 kilometers south of Calcutta, came as members of the Hindu group were preparing to hold a religious ceremony in a show of support for a disputed plan to build a temple at the site of a razed 16th-century mosque in western India. The mosque was destroyed by thousands of Hindu fundamentalists in 1992 and both sides consider the land holy. Most of the injured activists had bullet wounds in their legs. The policemen were injured by rocks and other objects hurled by the mob, Bandopadhyay said. Police and paramilitary forces were attacked and police vans damaged when they tried to prevent members of the group from assembling. They tried to beat the crowd back with wooden truncheons, lobbed tear gas shells and finally opened fire, the administrator said. The ceremony planned by the Hindu hard-liners involved throwing offerings of flowers, wheat, butter and twigs into a fire while chanting Hindu hymns. Separately, Muslim leaders who met Sunday in New Delhi rejected a compromise proposal made by a Hindu cleric to defuse tensions over the disputed holy site in the western town of Ayodhya. The Shankaracharya of Kanchi Jayendra Saraswathi -- one of Hinduism's four most revered pontiffs -- proposed that Hindus be allowed to hold symbolic prayers at an adjacent piece of land on March 15 while awaiting a final verdict by India's Supreme Court. "The proposal is incomplete and inchoate. It has offered nothing to the Muslims except to wait for the Supreme Court's verdict," said Yusuf Muchala, spokesman of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, briefing journalists after the daylong meeting. Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee urged Hindu and Muslim leaders to purse dialogue until the dispute is settled amicably. Hindu hard-liners had initially threatened to begin construction of the temple on March 15 but agreed to accept the court's verdict following mediation efforts by the Hindu cleric. Thousands of police and paramilitary troops, guarding Ayodhya, 550 kilometers east of New Delhi, held a flag march through the main streets of the town Sunday to instill confidence among the residents. 12/03/2002 08:38 - (SA) --Tight security at Hindu festivalMissile muscle for World CupSkulls removed from displayEffects of Agent Orange probed Tight security at Hindu festival Related Articles Hindus, Muslims march for peace Ahmedabad, India - Security was beefed up in the western state of Gujarat on Tuesday for a major Hindu festival falling soon after an eruption of sectarian violence claimed 700 lives. Tuesday's holiday was dedicated to Shiva, the Hindu god of destruction. "We have intensified patrolling in several rural areas where we are expecting a large congregation of Hindu worshipers to gather," said Deputy Police Superintendent KLN Rao. "Our forces are on high alert," he said. In Gujarat's commercial capital, Ahmedabad, which bore the brunt of the recent Hindu-Muslim clashes, police said extra security had been deployed around the city's Shiva temples. "But no additional force has been called in from outside. We have an adequate security force in the city," said Joint Police Commissioner MK Tandon. A fearsome wave of communal violence swept over Gujarat following a Muslim attack on a passenger train carrying Hindu activists on February 27. The attack triggered a violent Hindu backlash across the state, with many Muslim families being burned alive in their houses. Police officials said on Tuesday that both Hindu and Muslim "miscreants" were distributing communally inflammatory pamphlets in several cities and villages, exhorting the members of each community to boycott goods produced by the other. - Sapa-AFP

Hindustan Times 11 March 2002 Lawyers want temple, mosque in Ayodhya HT Correspondent (New Delhi, March 11) -- A lawyers' organisation on Monday moved the Supreme Court, seeking judicial intervention in constructing a Ram temple at the disputed site and a mosque elsewhere in Ayodhya to resolve the ongoing controversy. An intervention application filed by the United Lawyers' Front through its president Anis Suhrawardy said the court should constitute a committee comprising former chief justices, eminent jurists, journalists and people from the field of arts and culture to undertake the construction of the temple and the mosque in Ayodhya to uphold the country's secular fabric. It urged the court to hear its plea on March 13 along with another petition which sought army deployment in Ayodhya to foil any attempt of movement of temple construction material to the disputed site. The application said the apex court should restrain the government from succumbing to any pressure of either the VHP or the Babri Masjid Action Committee (BMAC). After filing the petition, Suhrawardy said the application has been listed for hearing on March 13, when the apex court hears the other petition filed by Mohd Aslam. On March 15, the Supreme Court will hear the third petition seeking contempt proceedings against VHP leaders and former UP CM Rajnath Singh for violating the status quo orders. Voicing concern over the prevailing situation in the country, the lawyers' body said Hindu and Muslim fundamentalists have played havoc that has led to the killing of innocents and destruction of property. "It appears that these fundamentalist groups belonging to both the communities have taken the centrestage in national politics and have also succeeded in influencing and pressuring the state machinery as per their dictates, deeds and desires," it said.

Hindustan Times 11 March 2002 HC dismisses plea The Allahabad High Court on Monday dismissed a writ petition seeking a direction from the court for removing curbs on the movement of kar sewaks in Ayodhya on the ground that it lacked merit. A division bench comprising Justice Jagdish Bhalla and Justice U.S. Tripathi also imposed a symbolic cost of rupee one on the petition to be deposited within three days. PTI, Lucknow

PTI 12 March 2002 Misuse of voters list in Gujarat riots alleged AHMEDABAD: Allegations are being levelled in the minority circles here that there was a distinct pattern of "communal cleansing" in the recent riots in Gujarat.Read this story in... Hindi The manner in which the people of minority community, irrespective of their economic status, were attacked first raised suspicion about systematic misuse of voters list to identify and target them. Similarly, according to the victims, the licence and other relavant papers from the civic bodies were used to target the hotels and other business establishments owned by them. "All my five hotels including Renbasera meant for poor people were attacked, while three other hotels still stood," said a hotelier, who claims to have known Chief Minister Narendra Modi since his school days. There have been other such instances. According to some minority community people, during break-out of commual violence in the past also majority community hardliners had tried to get the minority community people ousted from colonies like Meghaninagar. "They succeeded to a large extent in 1985 violence, yet the posh Gulmohor Society was ours. Now, that's also gone," says one of them. Many minority community people alleged that the voters' list was virtually used as a killing tool as the mob, apparently angered over the Godhra massacre, went around different localities including in Ahmedabad, as part of "cleansing operation". "They hardly failed in laying their hands on their target, thanks to the documents like voters' list," said a police official adding "the mission was accomplished with clinical precision." This is for the "first time in the country" violence was carried out using documents like this, said the senior cop on condition of anonymity. "We saw ethnic problems in Assam or in Bhagalpur, but this kind of precision was not known elsewhere," he said. However, others say, "this game of using documents" was "not a Gujarati invention." "In Jammu and Kashmir, it was tried and tested in a more refined manner. Poor pandits just had to quit the state," said a local resident in one of the sensitive colonies apparently showing his approval for the violence. "The voters' list has certainly made their task easier and the motivated mob knew exactly who stayed where," said a woman inmate at Sanklitpur relief camp in Johopura.

India Express 13 Mar 2002 It wasn’t a conventional riot in Gujarat Eye of the media IF the Gujarat riots were the first televised riots, they were also the first when newspapers flouted with impunity the Press Council guideline that communities should not be named while reporting communal incidents. When the television camera focuses on a riotous mob or its victims, it leaves little to the imagination of the viewers. If, under such circumstances, newspapers have disregarded the old guideline, they can hardly be blamed. Now the question is, whether the freedom the Press has exercised in this regard has set a healthy precedent or not. What motivated the Council to impose such restrictions on the Press was the imperative to ensure that newspaper reports did not incite the people. Reasonable restrictions on the coverage of any sensitive issue are welcome but if they serve the purpose of the guilty, rather than the greater common good, they need to be reassessed. The ban on naming the communities was a fit case for review, although with the advent of television it has become redundant. Questions also remain whether the guidelines are applicable to the electronic media. Nonetheless, a debate on the role of the Press in communal riots is in the fitness of things, particularly when even responsible leaders like Law Minister Arun Jaitley have criticised the media for the kind of reporting it did on Gujarat. Of course, the argument that the violence in Gujarat would have been worse if the media, particularly electronic, had not aroused public opinion against the killing spree through focused and sustained reporting cannot be dismissed out of hand. There are, indeed, many people who blame the media for its coverage of the assassination of Indira Gandhi that ‘resulted’ in the killing of Sikhs in the Capital. The government-controlled electronic media with its mass reach not only identified the killers as Sikhs but even telecast scenes outside the prime minister’s residence of crowds shouting slogans like ‘khoon ka badla khoon’. Similarly, the alacrity with which Doordarshan brought visuals of the ‘first-ever’ puja in the disputed structure at Ayodhya into millions of homes was not within the bounds of responsible journalism. In sharp contrast, while reporting the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, the second sentence in All India Radio’s news bulletin was that the killer was not a Muslim. Obviously, the editor wanted to nip all chances of rumour in the bud. It’s a different matter that, as per a study, within seven minutes of the gunning down of the Mahatma and even before Akashvani had confirmed the news, the report had by word of mouth reached almost every nook and cranny in the country. It’s said, until then, no news had spread faster than Gandhiji’s assassination in this manner. The ban on naming of communities never worked and, if at all it worked, it worked negatively. This can be illustrated by a report a national daily (not ours) carried a few years ago. That was the time when rumours were spread that Hindu patients in the Aligarh medical college were administered poison. The report said there was violence at a wayside station in Aligarh and a passenger was dragged out of the train and lynched to death. It did not name any of the communities involved. I heard two senior journalists discussing the report and coming to the conclusion that since it occurred at Aligarh, which is Muslim-dominated, it must have been the handiwork of Muslims. We had to wait for the next day’s report to know what had actually happened. The hapless passenger was one Shrivastava and he lost his life because he sported a beard. This is a specific example of strict adherence to the Press Council norm causing confusion and facilitating rumours. Truth becomes a casualty of such restrictions as I learnt when I went to cover the riots in Hazaribagh in April 1989. When asked which community suffered the most, a local reporter who took me round the riot-hit areas instantly said, ‘fifty-fifty’. He meant both the communities suffered in equal measure. The reports from the area had also given such an impression but when I visited the riot-hit areas, the relief camps and the police station where many of the ‘rioters’ were detained, I realised that an overwhelming majority of the victims belonged to a ‘particular community’. What’s worse, a majority of the people arrested by the police also belonged to the same community. The question was, how could someone be both the tormentor and the victim at the same time? Small wonder then that the common refrain among the victims was the highhandedness of the police. It was obvious the Press Council guideline did not serve any purpose. It only helped the police to cover up its nefarious role. I sent a memorandum to the Council suggesting that it review its guidelines. After a few weeks, I got a reply saying the matter was discussed at the Council’s meeting and it was decided that a review was not warranted. But as the Council rulings themselves show, some newspapers have in the past played a sinister role in communal incidents by passing off rumours as genuine news, publishing tendentious reports and exaggerated one-sided versions of incidents. Selectively identifying communities in incidents of violence, which has become routine even in the mainstream media, is equally dangerous. While the inquiry into Godhra will reveal whether it was a premeditated attack at the instance of Pakistan’s ISI or a spontaneous reaction, however heinous it may be, to extreme provocations, the reason why some people have blamed the media, particularly the electronic, is not far to seek. Journalists cannot easily forget the treatment kar sevaks meted out to them when they trained their cameras on the actual demolition of the Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992. The purpose in Ayodhya then and Gujarat now was to destroy evidence. With the media documenting evidence, nobody in his senses can say that it was a ‘fifty-fifty’ affair in Gujarat. Even Newton’s third law that Chief Minister Narendra Modi quoted has been proved inappropriate. While Newton spoke only of ‘equal and opposite reaction’ what Gujarat witnessed was an unequal and grossly disproportionate reaction. It was not even an eye for an eye; it was ten eyes for one eye. That it was not a riot in the conventional sense but a pogrom against Muslims cannot be denied. However, it is not my contention that inverting the matrix of victims and perpetrators will serve the purpose. While the innocent Muslims suffered because they were Muslims, it will be highly improper to call the rioters Hindus. They are killers who deserve deterrent punishment. They may have done it in the name of religion but how does that explain the attack on General Motors? There were several instances when the ‘Hindu’ rioters looted ‘Hindu’ shops and establishments. They do not deserve any mercy and anybody speaking on their behalf is doing a great disservice to the country and the religion they claim to profess. .

The Hindu 25 March 2002 Opinion - News Analysis The need for a law against genocide By K.G. Kannabiran We have never given up our adherence to colonial administrative practices and the vocabulary used by them in the administration of the country. A Hindu-Muslim problem is communal and not a problem of religions. It has always been communal violence and not religious violence. Communal violence has always been a law and order problem and not something affecting public order or security of state. After Partition, Muslims were accorded minority status. Every communal riot was a political statement that the majority community is not willing to accede to the minority more than formal equality. The conflict may be triggered on grounds of lack of equal opportunities for livelihood and may also be on account of claiming equal status. At the bottom of all the violence is the claim and denial of equality by the contending groups in our society. Formally, there is no mention of the majority community religion in the Constitution though the name given to the country, i.e., Bharat is decidedly Hindu. We have not elected to name the Hindu religion as the state religion. We have constitutional oath for both believers and non-believers. We have given to ourselves the freedom of conscience and not provided, advisedly, security to religious institutions. We have, along with the freedom of conscience, given to ourselves freedom of speech, assembly and association so that these may be exercised to evolve, in the course of time, a culture of tolerance essential for a pluralistic society as ours. We had a reasonably well-written Constitution having a written agenda for social change but all the political and the constitutional institutions failed and a handful of men of superannuated eminence are now appointed for reviewing the Constitution to find out why it failed us. Over the years we have destroyed the moral and normative contents of the Constitution by interpretation given to it by judges and administrators. We were given the freedom of conscience but a change in religion entails civil consequence. This limitation was not provided for in the Constitution. Personal laws, declared the judges, were not subject to the Constitution. Our courts said we should have a common civil code to prevent Hindu husbands, inclined towards bigamy or polygamy, from opting for Islam! Hitherto, the inarticulate major premise has always been to maintain a low-profile Hindu state and that they managed to maintain despite repeated exposure by Dalits. As politics abandoned the philosophy of social transformation and became a gamble for power, people were categorised into vote-banks and capture of these vote-banks had to be on caste and communal lines. Secularism and democracy became the immediate casualties. With the disappearance of politics of social transformation, religion stepped into the slot. When V.P. Singh's Government was formed, the BJP unleashed its political agenda. The Ayodhya rath yatra and the anti-Mandal stir were the twin unconstitutional issues which brought down attempted democratic forms of Government in the country. The 1990 rath yatra was a galloping incitement to violence, which the Congress Government failed to control. It is ironical that mass support for the rath yatra came from the very classes against whom the anti-reservation stir was carried on. Narasimha Rao said he could fight the BJP but asked how he could fight Ram. This visual confusion denied him the strength to stem the onslaught of the Hindutva forces. They brought down the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya. Until then, Ayodhya was linked to the Ramayana. It is now known and will always be remembered for the Babri Masjid that stood there. The violence unleashed after the protest and violence by a few Muslims in Mumbai and other places is not rioting but unilateral killing of a few thousand Muslims. Every `maha arthi' held by Shiv Sainiks was a signal for a genocide in the area. It is no longer a communal riot. To call it so is an understatement. It is targeting a religious group. There are no provisions in the old penal code to cope with this kind of largescale violence and killings. Terrorists would not have killed as many people in 10 years as these religious brigands have in a week. Yet, we do not think of a special law to prevent targeting minorities. This has been happening to Muslims. Sikhs were slaughtered in 1984 and Christians are being targeted. The laws are such that they do not instil fear. It is time we stopped the massacres in the name of religion. There has to be a re-definition of religion and, meanwhile, we have to include genocide as an offence in a separate chapter in the POTO. Even if it is not passed, a law on genocide has to be tabled in Parliament. The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide came into being on December 9,1948. Genocide is defined as killing members of a targeted group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; forcibly transferring children from one group to another. The offences indicated are genocide, the conspiracy to commit genocide, direct and public incitement to commit genocide; attempt to commit genocide and complicity to genocide. This is the international criminal law on genocide and it has, unfortunately, become necessary to translate this covenant into national law. When religious violence was unleashed in Gujarat, it was not spontaneous. It was not a backlash. The majority community was being prepared for such carnages. There was direct and public incitement to genocide. Shilanyas and the fixation of the date set the stage for this colossal genocide. There is complicity both at the Centre and the State. If we are not to end up in fascism what happened in Gujarat has to be identified as genocide. (The writer is the National President of the People's Union of Civil Liberties.) http://www.pucl.org/

Outlook India 27 Mar 2002 The Survivors Speak SEXUAL VIOLENCE AND THE MEDIA In many ways women have been the central characters in the Gujarat carnage, and their bodies the battleground. The Gujarati vernacular press has been the agent provocateur. The story starts with Godhra, where out of the 58 Hin