In The Name Of Allah, The Most Beneficent And Merciful
May 31st,
2002
Headlines:
· Two
die in fresh violence
(Times Of India)
· Uneasy
calm in Vadodara (Times Of India)
· Jana hints at early Assembly poll (Times Of India)
· Rs 50,000 reward for blast
informers (Times Of India)
· No remand for arms buyers, dealers (Times Of India)
· 1 more held in Naroda Patia case (Times Of India)
· Two dead as Gujarat violence
erupts again (CNN)
· Two Dead in Fresh Religious
Clashes in India (New York Times)
· NHRC charges Modi with
‘Comprehensive Failure’ (www.rediff.com)
NEWS HEADLINES
Two
die in fresh violence
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
[FRIDAY,
MAY 31, 2002 12:33:54 AM ]
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_id=11502487
AHMEDABAD: Two
persons were killed and one was injured as fresh
violence erupted in
Kadi town of Mehsana district late on Wednesday
night, the day the
two-week lull in violence was broken by a series
of bomb blasts in
Ahmedabad.
Clashes were also
reported from sensitive areas in Vadodara which
left at least 10
persons injured.
One person was also
stabbed near a bank during the curfew relaxation
period in Godhra
town. A person having food at a kiosk on the
outskirts of Kadi
town was killed and the owner of the kiosk injured
in a bomb
explosion, while a bus conductor was burnt alive.
Two unidentified
persons, who had their faces covered with turbans,
came to the kiosk
to purchase food and hurled the bomb before
escaping with the
food. The customer died on the spot.
As tension mounted
in the town, a mob gathered at Kundal village and
intercepted a state
transport bus. The irate mob then pulled out the
conductor from the
bus and burned him alive, the police said.
Indefinite curfew
was immediately imposed in the town.
Meanwhile, in
Ahmedabad city, where a dozen person were injured in a
series of bomb
blasts on Wednesday, remained peaceful. Trouble was,
however, reported in
Vadodara with a violent clash in the Panigate
area late on
Wednesday night, which left at least 10 persons injured.
The streets wore a
deserted look and tension continued to prevail. As
many as 53 persons
have been arrested and massive combing operations
are on in the area.
The six injured, of which three got hit in police
firing, have been
admitted to hospital.
``A bomb was hurled
on a house in the Kumbharwada area around 9 p.m.
on Wednesday,
causing panic and soon mobs gathered on the streets and
began pelting
stones. Four policemen got injured in the melee,'' said
Vadodara city
police commissioner D.D. Tuteja.
Copyright © 2002
Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved.
Uneasy
calm in Vadodara
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
[FRIDAY,
MAY 31, 2002 2:47:30 AM ]
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_id=11511749
VADODARA: An uneasy
calm prevailed in large parts of the Old City
area here on
Thursday morning after a violent clash in Panigate area
on Wednesday night
left injured a number of people, including four
policemen.
Though night curfew
was lifted at 8.30 pm on Thursday, the streets
wore a deserted
look and tension continued to prevail till around
noon. People
preferred to remain inside their houses.
As many as 53
persons have been arrested and massive combing
operations are on
in the area. Eight of the injured have been
hospitalised. Three
of them were injured in police firing. Four
policemen,
including an assistant commissioner of police (ACP), were
injured in
stone-throwing.
Sources in the SSG
Hospital said a woman was injured on her arm by a
sharp-edged weapon.
The sources said
two women were travelling by an auto-rickshaw when
the driver ran away
fearing stone-pelting.
One of the women
was surrounded by the mob, while another managed to
raise an alarm.
Joint commissioner of police P C Thakur rushed to the
spot and rescued
the women.
The rioters gutted
four two-wheelers and a laundry shop. Some
rickshaws were also
reportedly damaged. The police fired five rounds
to control the
mobs.
Commissioner of
police D D Tuteja said, "A bomb was hurled on a house
in the Kumbharwada
area around 9 pm on Wednesday. This created panic
and soon mobs
gathered on the streets and began pelting stones. The
police reached
immediately."
For the first time,
the city police used a snorkel of the fire
brigade for combing
operations.
Officials said the
equipment came handy to identify miscreants and
mobs hiding in
narrow lanes or on roofs. They said the snorkel could
be used for firing
tear gas shells more effectively.
Copyright © 2002
Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved
Jana
hints at early Assembly poll
TIMES NEWS
NETWORK
[FRIDAY,
MAY 31, 2002 12:33:01 AM]
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_id=11502425
AHMEDABAD: BJP
president Jana Krishnamurthy on Thursday categorically
stated that the BJP
would contest the next assembly election in
Gujarat under the
leadership of chief minister Narendra Modi.
He also hinted that
the elections, which are due in February 2003,
might be held ahead
of schedule.
Speaking to
reporters here, on the sidelines of the party's state
executive meeting
and at the end of his three-day tour of Gujarat,
Krishnamurthy said
that no BJP leader from the state had made any
complaint about
Modi's style of functioning or expressed dissension
in the
organisation.
He also ruled out
any change in the party organisation which, he
said, had now been
geared up for the assembly election.
Though the assembly
election was due in February next year, the party
might go for a poll
in the next few months. He said even the
opposition Congress
party had expressed the desire for early
eletions.
``In fact, when
Modi had expressed his desire to step down at the
party`s national
conclave at Goa, the central leadership had asked
him to seek a fresh
mandate and prove the majority. Now, the
Congress, which had
originally opposed the move for early elections,
has been openly
demanding an early election,'' he said.
He, however, said
the final decision on holding the poll would be
taken by the CM in
consultation with the party.
Asked about the
possibility of the re-entry of some of the supporters
of Shankersinh
Vaghela into the party, the BJP chief said the state
unit was competent
enough to decide on the issue.
Referring to the
continued border tension with Pakistan, he
observed: ``Time is
now ripe for action against the enemy."
Copyright © 2002
Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved
Rs
50,000 reward for blast informers
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
[FRIDAY,
MAY 31, 2002 2:43:10 AM]
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_id=11511448
AHMEDABAD: Police
commissioner KR Kaushik has announced a reward of
upto Rs 50,000 for
anybody supplying information on Wednesday's bomb
explosions on city
buses.
Useful tip-offs
would be used by the police to track down the
culprits
responsible for Wednesday's blasts. Identity of
the 'informers'
would not be disclosed, Kaushik said.
Those wishing to
help in the blast investigations can call any of
these officials:
deputy police commissioner (zone 3) Vikash Sahay at
2114426 or
9824049196, assistant police commissioner NP Raijada at
2140793 or
9825021221, police inspector of Dariapur Raju Rathod
2160906 or 2135701.
Copyright © 2002
Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved.
No
remand for arms buyers, dealers
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
[FRIDAY,
MAY 31, 2002 2:38:27 AM]
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_id=11511121
AHMEDABAD: In a development that took the
Mehsana district police by
surprise, the court
of the chief judicial magistrate in Mehsana on
Thursday, rejected
the remand application for the five accused
brought from
Jaisalmer in Rajasthan on Wednesday on charges of
purchasing weapons
acquired from across the Indo-Pak border.
One of the accused
Ali alias 'Pankhida' is the suspected arms dealer
who allegedly
procured illegal arms from Pakistan and sold them on
this side of the
border. Sources from the court of the CJM said that
the hearing was
held in the judge's chamber where the public
prosecutor was
Mehsana-based lawyer Mahesh Brahmbhatt.
The cases for three
of the accused, 'Pankhida', Sattarkhan Bhurekhan
Baloch and Mohammad
Faroukh Gulamnabi Bohra was argued by Radhanpur-
based lawyer KM
Qazi and appearing for Rafiq Abdurehman Bohra and
Nyazmohammad
Usmanbhai Nagori was Mehsana-based lawyer MK Pathan.
Of the accused,
Pankhida and Sattar are historysheeters and have been
involved in fake
currency cases.
The plea was for a
remand of 10 days which was rejected.
Copyright © 2002
Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved
1 more held in Naroda Patia case
PTI [THURSDAY, MAY
30, 2002 10:19:28 PM]
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_id=11493279
AHMEDABAD: One more
accused was arrested for his alleged involvement
in the Naroda Patia
massacre, where at least 86 people belonging to
the minority
community were killed on February 28 in the reprisal
attacks carried out
to avenge Godhra train carnage of the previous
day.
Suresh alias Langdo
was one of the accused named in the case being
investigated by the
city crime branch.
Earlier, on
Tuesday, the crime branch under its 'Operation Crackdown'
achieved a major
breakthrough when it arrested three main accused in
the same case
having alleged allegiance with VHP, Bajrang Dal and BJP.
The trio were were
remanded to 10 days in police custody by a
metropolitan court.
Copyright © 2002
Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved
Two
dead as Gujarat violence erupts again
May 30, 2002
Posted: 3:47 PM HKT (0747 GMT)
http://asia.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiapcf/south/05/30/gujarat.deaths/inde
x.html
Gujarat has been
rocked by months of Hindu-Muslim clashes
NEW DELHI, India --
At least two people have been killed in a
resurgence of
religious violence in the strife-torn Indian state of
Gujarat, police
said Thursday.
The two dead, both
Muslims, were killed in separate incidents
Wednesday night in
the town of Kadi, about 48 kilometers (30 miles)
south of Ahmadabad,
the commercial capital of the western Indian
state.
One man, a bus
driver, was dragged from his cab by a Hindu mob and
burned alive.
Another man was killed in a bomb blast at a restaurant
which also injured
several others.
Arun Kumar Sharma,
the superintendent of police told the Associated
Press that four
people had been detained in connection with the
incidents.
An indefinite
curfew was imposed in Kadi to prevent further clashes,
police said.
The deaths followed
bomb attacks earlier Wednesday on three buses in
Ahmedabad that left
at least 10 people injured.
The explosive
devices -- described as crude bombs -- all detonated
midmorning within a
half an hour of each other in different parts of
the city.
Gujarat has been
rocked by months of Hindu-Muslim violence that
officials say has
left close to a thousand dead.
The violence began
in February when a Muslim mob torched a train
carrying Hindu
pilgrims, killing 58.
In the weeks that
followed gangs of Hindus have torn through Muslim
areas of Ahmedabad
and other parts of Gujarat in revenge for the
train attack.
The official death
toll from the violence is close to a thousand, but
human rights groups
say their own investigations put the number well
above 2,000.
They say most of
the dead are Muslims, including a large number of
women and children.
Soldiers who had
been deployed to the state to keep a lid on tensions
were last week
redeployed to the border with Pakistan amid rising
tensions between
South Asia's two nuclear rivals.
© 2002 Cable News
Network LP, LLLP.
An AOL Time Warner
Company. All Rights Reserved.
Two
Dead in Fresh Religious Clashes in India
By REUTERS
May 30, 2002
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-india-violence.html
Filed at 2:33 a.m.
ET
AHMEDABAD, India
(Reuters) - Two people were killed and 12 wounded in overnight
Hindu-Muslim
clashes in India's riot-racked western state of Gujarat, police
said on Thursday.
The violence
followed three bomb explosions on buses earlier in the day in
Ahmedabad,
Gujarat's largest city, in which 11 people were injured.
Police said a
Muslim bus conductor was burned alive by a Hindu mob of about
1,500 in Kadi, southwest
of Ahmedabad, after a Hindu man was killed in a bomb
blast there.
They said 12
people, including four policemen, were injured in the industrial
city of Baroda,
south of Ahmedabad, on Wednesday night.
Almost a thousand
people, mostly Muslims, have died in Gujarat in some of
India's worst
religious violence since independence in 1947.
It erupted in late
February after a Muslim mob torched a train, burning alive
59 Hindus, over a
long-running dispute on ownership of a holy site.
Non-government
groups and opposition parties, however, say more than 2,500
people have been
killed.
A senior state
police official said an indefinite curfew was imposed in Kadi to
prevent further
clashes.
A Baroda police
official said the city was peaceful on Thursday morning.
The latest violence
in Gujarat, which plunged India's Hindu nationalist-led
federal coalition
into political crisis, comes at a time when India is on edge
because of tension
with Pakistan over what New Delhi says is Islamabad's
support to Muslim
militants in the disputed Kashmir region.
No responsibility
was claimed for the crude bomb explosions on the buses in
Hindu areas of
Ahmedabad on Wednesday, but authorities have previously
expressed fear some
Muslims -- enraged by the Hindu reprisals against Muslims
-- could be
enlisted by Islamic extremists to trigger a backlash.
Critics allege the
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which heads the federal
coalition and rules
Gujarat, failed to prevent the Hindu reprisals and turned a
blind eye to the
killing of Muslims.
BJP leaders, who
are accused of a bias against India's minority Muslims, have
denied the charges
and say they stopped widespread rioting within the first
three days.
Copyright 2002
Reuters Ltd.
rediff.com,
May 31,
2002.
http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/may/31train1.htm
In a scathing
indictment of the Narendra Modi government on Gujarat violence,
the National Human
Rights Commission on Friday charged it with 'comprehensive
failure' to control
persistent violation of the rights of life, liberty,
equality and
dignity of the people of the state, and demanded that the
violators be
brought to book.
In its final report
on the communal violence in the state, the Commission also
expressed its
displeasure over the Gujarat government's lack of response to the
confidential report
of the NHRC team's visit to the state despite reminders and
extension of time
for a detailed reply.
Stressing that it
was essential to heal the wounds and to look to a future of
peace and harmony,
the NHRC said, "But the pursuit of these high objectives
must be based on
justice and the upholding of the values of the Constitution of
the Republic and
the laws of the land."
"That is why
it remains of fundamental importance that the measures that
require to be taken
to bring the violators of human rights to book are indeed
taken," the
NHRC said in its proceedings presided by its Chairman Justice J S
Verma on Friday.
The Commission also
noted the decline in incidents of violence in the past
three weeks and
certain positive developments since the beginning of May.
"However, much
remains to be done, and the integrity of the administration must
be restored and
sustained if those who have suffered are to be fully restored
in their rights and
dignity," it said.
"Critical and
cruel as the communal dimension was to the tragedy of Gujarat,
what was at stake,
additionally, was respect for the rights of all Indians --
irrespective of
community -- that are guaranteed by the Constitution... it was
this guarantee that
was challenged by the events in Gujarat," the NHRC said.
Stating that it
will continue to monitor the situation with care, the
Commission asked
the state government to report to it again by June 30 on all
matters covered in
its comments and recommendations.
Friday's
proceedings also expressed dissatisfaction over the state government's
response to the
panel's proceedings of April one on several counts.
It said the appointment
of K P S Gill as security adviser to the chief minister
'implicitly
confirms that a failure had occurred earlier to bring under control
the persisting
violation of the rights to life, liberty, dignity, equality and
dignity of the
people of the state'.
The Commission also
concluded there was a major failure of intelligence
accompanied by a
'failure to take appropriate anticipatory and subsequent
action to prevent
the spread and continuation of violence'.
The NHRC termed as
'evasive and lacking in transparency' the state government's
response on the
panel's request for specific information on 'local factors and
players' that 'they
were matters covered by the terms of reference of the
commission of
inquiry appointed by the state government'.
© 2001 rediff.com
India Limited. All Rights Reserved.