A rchive Date
[ 23-02-2005 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ India ]
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[http://www.canoe.ca/CNEWSTopNews/hindus_feb28-ap.html
Hindu mob slays Muslims
Thursday, February 28, 2002
AHMADABAD, India (AP) -- A Hindu mob burned to death 28 Muslims in their homes, including 12 children, a top police official said Thursday, amid riots in retaliation for a Muslim attack on a train. "We have taken out 18 bodies," Joint Commissioner of Police M.K. Tandon told The Associated Press. He said the dead were believed to include 12 children.
He said officers had seen up to 10 more bodies lying inside the smoldering remains of six bungalows in a Muslim pocket of the Hindu-dominated Meghaninagar neighborhood. Police said fire brigade officers were delayed by more than six hours from reaching the burning homes because of road blockades set up by Hindu rioters in Ahmadabad.
"This happened due to mob violence and our men could not reach there on time. This is not an excuse but it is an extremely unfortunate incident," said Ahmadabad Police Commissioner P.C. Pandey.
In other parts of the city, police were seen standing in bunches, while mobs looted and burned Muslim owned stores, hotels and restaurants. Riots broke out across the western state of Gujarat after Muslims set fire to a train carrying Hindu nationalists on Wednesday, killing 58 people.
A mob of some 200 people gathered around the bungalows, and Ehsan Jefri, a former Parliament member who lived there, fired in the air to try to disperse them, police said.
The mob swelled to 2,000 and stoned the houses, then poured kerosene on them and set them on fire, said P.B. Gondya, the deputy commissioner of police. Jefri was among those killed in the blaze, police said.
 World Fact Book (CIA)]]
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