NEW YORK, NEW YORK, April 30, 2002: A New York-based human rights group has launched a strong attack on the government of India’s western state of Gujarat, alleging that state officials were directly involved in the killings of hundreds of Muslims, according to this report on the BBC. What happened in Gujarat was not a spontaneous uprising, but was a carefully orchestrated attack against Muslims, they state. Human Rights Watch, which carried out its own investigations, says the violence was pre-planned and the state government was now involved in a massive cover-up of its role in the rioting. The Gujarat Government has been under attack by the opposition as well as several welfare groups for failing to prevent the spread of violence in the state. But the Human Rights Watch report is the most damning so far. It says at the height of the riots between February 28 and March 2, thousands of attackers descended on Muslim neighborhoods, clad in saffron scarves and khaki shorts — the uniform of Hindu right-wing groups. The report said they were guided by voter lists and print-outs giving addresses of Muslim-owned properties, information they obtained from the local municipality. HPI adds: The chilling report can be read in full at http://www.hrw.org/. Its most provocative and questionable claim, that the riots were somehow planned in advance of the Godhra train attack, is based upon “rumors” the presence of various activists in the area before the riots. Some recent BBC and NY times reports have picked up on this pre-planned angle so strongly that they did not even mention the Godhra train attack as the starting point for the riots.
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