MUMBAI, Dec 21: The key witness who earlier implicated 17 Hindus in the massacre of Muslims in Gujarat almost three years ago retracted her statement during court testimony on Tuesday.

Zaheera Sheikh, 20, was making her first appearance at the Mumbai retrial of 17 men whom she earlier implicated in the deaths of the 12 Muslims at a bakery in Gujarat state.

There have been no major convictions over the massacre in which, according to Human Rights Watch, Hindu mobs killed as many as 2,000 people. Asked by prosecutors about a police complaint she had signed, Zaheera Sheikh replied: "It's my signature but I do not know the contents of it."

Zaheera Sheikh, clad in a black burqa, said she had taken refuge on a roof terrace and had not seen anything when the Best Bakery in Baroda city was set ablaze. "Stones and glass bottles were being thrown at us but because it was dark and foggy and also there was smoke.

I couldn't see who was throwing it," she told the courtroom, appearing confident and smiling frequently. The case has seen a series of spectacular flip-flops by the young woman.

She told the Supreme Court earlier this year she was frightened into changing her testimony which implicated the accused at the original trial held in Baroda. Her backtracking at that time led to the men's acquittal. The Supreme Court then ordered the retrial in Mumbai. -AFP