NEW DELHI, March 25: India’s Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered a special team to start fresh investigations into some of the worst incidents during sectarian rioting in the western state of Gujarat in 2002, a report said.

The court asked a five-member team, which will include senior police officials from Gujarat and a former head of India’s federal Central Bureau of Investigation, to report back in three months, the Press Trust of India agency said.

Indian media described the move as a “setback” for the state government and its recently re-elected leader, hawkish Hindu nationalist Narendra Modi, who was also chief minister when the riots broke out.

Mainly Hindu mobs rampaged through Muslim neighbourhoods for three days, hacking, burning, shooting and beating at least 2,000 Muslims to death.

The team will examine some of the most serious attacks, including the Gulbarg Society killings that saw at least 39 people burned to death, including a former MP, after a mob set fire to a Muslim-dominated housing complex.

It will also investigate the fire in a train carriage that killed 59 Hindu pilgrims and sparked the violence. An earlier inquiry concluded the blaze was accidental.

The court issued the order in response to a petition filed by the National Human Rights Commission, asking for investigators from outside the state to look at the incidents.—AFP