July 3, 2002	Wednesday	Rabi-us-Sani 21,1423

NEW DELHI, July 2: Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on Tuesday urged the swift dispersal of monetary compensation for the thousands of victims of communal riots in Gujarat, officials said.

The Gujarat government has also been accused of providing unequal compensation to Hindu and Muslim victims. Officials said Vajpayee had urged the Gujarat administration not to discriminate along religious lines while distributing relief.

Vajpayee made the call for quick aid in a meeting with officials from Gujarat who came to New Delhi to brief him, they said.

On May 1, Vajpayee had announced a 32 million-dollar assistance package for the victims.

Vajpayee’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rules Gujarat and has been accused of turning a blind or even sympathetic eye to attacks on Muslims.

Indian and international human rights groups said 2,000 to 3,000 people — most of them Muslims — were killed in the riots, although the official death toll stands at 1,000.

Nearly 27,000 people, most of them Muslims, still stay in makeshift relief camps in Ahmedabad, Gujarat’s commercial capital.—AFP