AHMEDABAD, 5 June — Police in the western state of Gujarat yesterday charged 25 people for leading a mob into a Muslim shantytown and killing 83 residents in February, at the start of the country’s bloodiest Hindu-Muslim riots in a decade.
Officials in Ahmedabad, which bore the brunt of the sectarian clashes, said the police filed the charge sheet in a court here, beginning a process of prosecution of hundreds who went on a spree of killing and raping during the riots that started Feb. 28.
The 23 suspects have been charged with leading a 17,000-strong mob which hacked to death and burned alive 83 residents and raped Muslim women in a nine-hour orgy of violence in the city’s Naroda Patiya settlement, they said.
"The Naroda Patiya massacre was sparked by the death of a Hindu boy who was stabbed to death," the police said in its formal case to the city court.
More than 350 witnesses have given statements about the murderous attacks, which also claimed the life of an influential state legislator.
The suspects are also accused of torching vehicles and homes, looting and causing widespread damage in the Muslim-majority settlement.
"The rioters had weapons like swords, tridents, sticks and were carrying kerosene and petrol to burn shops, houses, vehicles and people and they were shouting slogans such as kill the Muslims," said the police charge sheet, which runs into more than 1,000 pages.
Gujarat state’s Hindu extremist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government is under intense pressure to act against those who spearheaded the riots, which left more than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, dead. The riots were sparked off by the burning to death of 58 Hindus in a train on Feb. 27 while they were returning from Ayodhya.
