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31 Hindus sentenced to life for killing 33 Muslims in Sardarpura riot in India
31 Hindus sentenced to life for killing 33 Muslims in Sardarpura riot in India - Taiwan News Online
By Cherice Chen
Taiwan News, Staff Writer
2011-11-10 02:31 PM
An Indian court in Gujarat on Wednesday convicted 31 of the 73 accused in the 2002 Sardarpura riot in which 33 Muslims of a minority community were burnt to death.
The special court sentenced 31 people to life imprisonment, the most people to prison for life in a single case in India, while 42 of the 73 accused were acquitted due to lack of evidence.
In some of Indias worst Hindu-Muslim violence, about 2,000 people died in a wave of anti-Muslim unrest triggered by a train fire in which Hindu pilgrims were burnt alive.
The Godhra train burning incident in which 59 people were burnt to death on Feb 27 2002. Muslims were blamed for the train fire, and Hindu mobs hungry for revenge rampaged through Muslim neighborhoods in towns and villages across Gujarat state during three days of bloodshed.
On the night of February 28 2002, people of the Muslim minority community in Sardarpura town took shelter in a house. However, the mob set the house on fire. 33 people, including 22 women, were charred to death.
The Supreme Court-appointed special investigation team (SIT) had said that it was a pre-planned conspiracy where a mob had gathered near a temple in the village before attacking the Muslim victims. The judge, S.C. Srivastava, however, did not accept the argument.
Groups representing riot victims were dissatisfied with the 42 acquittals. So many of them had been identified but still they were not convicted, said activist Sandhya Gokhale, vowing further efforts to pursue the guilty.
Responsibility for the train fire has been the subject of fierce dispute between Hindus and Muslims, but in March this year a court handed 11 death sentences and 20 life terms to Muslims convicted over the blaze.
AFP
31 Hindus sentenced to life for killing 33 Muslims in Sardarpura riot in India - Taiwan News Online
By Cherice Chen
Taiwan News, Staff Writer
2011-11-10 02:31 PM
An Indian court in Gujarat on Wednesday convicted 31 of the 73 accused in the 2002 Sardarpura riot in which 33 Muslims of a minority community were burnt to death.
The special court sentenced 31 people to life imprisonment, the most people to prison for life in a single case in India, while 42 of the 73 accused were acquitted due to lack of evidence.
In some of Indias worst Hindu-Muslim violence, about 2,000 people died in a wave of anti-Muslim unrest triggered by a train fire in which Hindu pilgrims were burnt alive.
The Godhra train burning incident in which 59 people were burnt to death on Feb 27 2002. Muslims were blamed for the train fire, and Hindu mobs hungry for revenge rampaged through Muslim neighborhoods in towns and villages across Gujarat state during three days of bloodshed.
On the night of February 28 2002, people of the Muslim minority community in Sardarpura town took shelter in a house. However, the mob set the house on fire. 33 people, including 22 women, were charred to death.
The Supreme Court-appointed special investigation team (SIT) had said that it was a pre-planned conspiracy where a mob had gathered near a temple in the village before attacking the Muslim victims. The judge, S.C. Srivastava, however, did not accept the argument.
Groups representing riot victims were dissatisfied with the 42 acquittals. So many of them had been identified but still they were not convicted, said activist Sandhya Gokhale, vowing further efforts to pursue the guilty.
Responsibility for the train fire has been the subject of fierce dispute between Hindus and Muslims, but in March this year a court handed 11 death sentences and 20 life terms to Muslims convicted over the blaze.
AFP
