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March 14, 2002
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Thursday
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Zilhaj 29, 1422
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HR body calls for investigation : Gujarat killings
By Our Correspondent
NEW YORK, March 13: The New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Wednesday called on the government of India to take all necessary and appropriate measures to prevent communal violence that might arise from a proposed March 15 ceremony at a contested religious site in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh.
It also called for a criminal investigation into the possible complicity of officials in the Gujarat killings and for the delay in taking action to prevent Hindu retaliation against the Muslims.
The human rights group also urged India to bring to justice those responsible for the recent communal violence in Gujarat, including police officers who failed to uphold the law.
It noted that since Feb 27, more than 600 people have been killed in Gujarat, most of them Muslims.
“Those responsible for torching the train as well as those responsible for revenge attacks on Muslims must be brought to justice,” said Smita Narula, senior researcher for the Asia division of Human Rights Watch.
“The atrocities in Gujarat are a replay of events in Mumbai in 1992 and 1993,” Narula said. “Had the recommendations of the Srikrishna Commission been implemented, we might have been able to avoid the carnage of the last two weeks.”
The Srikrishna Commission, under the direction of former Supreme Court Justice B.N. Srikrishna, issued a report in 1998 on the Mumbai riots, much of it aimed at improving the behaviour of police in handling communal riots.
The Human Rights Watch also expressed serious concern over the condition of makeshift camps in Ahmedabad, the state capital of Gujarat, where an estimated 35,000 people remain stay put.
According to the findings of the Citizens’ Initiative for Justice and Peace, a human rights coalition, local authorities are
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