Gujarat govt gave free hand to VHP: Policeman testifies on massacre
AHMEDABAD, Aug 18: A top police official has testified that anti-Muslim riots that raged in Gujarat two years ago were backed by the state's government, it was revealed on Wednesday.
The man's 172-page testimony was unveiled a day after India's Supreme Court reopened 2,000 cases from the massacre. In his testimony Gujarat police official R. B. Sreekumar said Hindu militant groups such as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the Bajrang Dal were given a free hand to stir up violence.
The state is still ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which then governed India. "The VHP, Dal and fraternal bodies had given a call on Feb 27, 2002, for observing a state-wide strike on February 28 and this was supported by the BJP.
"This created an atmosphere conducive for mobilisation of Hindu mobs, particularly in communally-sensitive areas of the state," Sreekumar said in his testimony to a two-judge panel probing the killings that raged for months in Gujarat.
"The Hindu communal organizations, particularly the VHP and Dal, had left no stones unturned to whip up the sentiments of the Hindu community by projecting Muslims as a community responsible for the (train) carnage," the testimony said. He was referring to an incident on Feb 27 in which 59 people, mostly Hindus, were killed in a train carrying pilgrims returning from Ayodhya.
The document also accused a section of state police of colluding with Hindu mobs that targeted Muslims and their property during the bloodbath. "Such officers have become quite adept in doing the art of deceptive law enforcement for the benefit of their political friends, who ensure their placements, and continuance in their choicest executive posts, at the cost and spirit of the laws of the land," it said.
On Tuesday, India's apex court told the Gujarat government to set up a high-level police committee to reassess cases which were closed when investigators said they could not trace the culprits.
The judgement will affect nearly half of the estimated 4,200 cases recorded during the killings. In April, it ordered a retrial of 21 Hindus acquitted of torching to death 12 Muslims at a bakery and this month it shifted to adjoining Maharashtra state the trial of 20 men accused of butchering 14 Muslims, including two women. - AFP
