An Indian court jailed 11 Hindu attackers for life on Friday for murdering dozens of Muslims in one of the most notorious massacres of the 2002 Gujarat riots that shook India at a time Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the state's chief minister.
The court sentenced 12 others to seven years in jail over the killing of 69 Muslims, while another was handed a 10-year sentence, prosecutors told local television channels after the sentencing.
A Hindu mob scaled the boundary wall of the Gulbarg housing society in Ahmedabad, Gujarat's largest city, in February 2002 before torching the homes in which Muslim families were trapped. Several victims were children and women who were burned to death.
The massacre was one of a series of riots that flared for two months in western Gujarat, killing more than 1,000 people, most of them Muslims.
The riots dogged Mr Modi's political career for years after he was accused of not doing enough to stop the violence. Mr Modi, a Hindu, denies any wrongdoing and in 2013 a panel appointed by the Supreme Court said there was insufficient evidence to prosecute him.
An Indian court this month convicted 24 Hindus for their role in the massacre at the Gulbarg housing society while acquitting 36. The trial began in 2009.
Zakia Jafri, whose husband and former Congress party legislator, Ehsan, died in the blaze, said Friday's sentences were insufficient.
"I am not satisfied with this verdict. I have to start all over again. This is wrong," she told media.
Jafri, who is fighting what may be the last legal battle to pin blame on Mr Modi, says that she saw her husband making repeated desperate calls to police for help.
He was dragged out of his ancestral home by sword-wielding men and within minutes was stripped and killed, according to Jafri.
For more than a decade the riots tainted Mr Modi's international reputation even as he rose in power at home, culminating in his 2014 general election victory.
Modi has denied any wrongdoing and a panel at India’s Supreme Court refused to prosecute him in 2013 due to insufficient evidence.
India, which has a population of 1.2 billion, is a country of diversity, where Hindus form the majority. India is also home to a large Muslim population, and sizable Christian and Buddhist minorities.
/257
source : Reuters
Saturday
18 June 2016
11:56:34 AM
760924
An Indian court jailed 11 Hindu attackers for life on Friday for murdering dozens of Muslims in one of the most notorious massacres of the 2002 Gujarat riots that shook India at a time Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the state's chief minister.