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AHMEDABAD, INDIA, March 2, 2002: Riot-hit Ahmedabad took a relative respite after four days of mindless violence on Saturday but fresh areas, including far-flung villages in the state, were the target of massive reprisal killings arising out of the Sabarmati Express killings on Wednesday. With the police in urban areas now bolstered by the presence of the Army and paramilitary forces, rioters turned their attention to new cities like Surat and Bhavnagar as well as the countryside which are left largely unguarded. The death toll in the last four days of mob frenzy has crossed the 360-mark though a state government spokesman put the toll at 289, including 47 people killed in police firing. The toll excludes the 58 people who died in Godhra in the attack on the train. Curfew was imposed in Bhavnagar and Surat after incidents of stabbings and arson in which at least five persons were killed, but the large number of killings were reported from the North Gujarat districts of Sabarkantha and Mehsana, where mobs were targeting specific villages. Tension gripped Mehsana as the charred bodies of 27 victims of Sardarpura village, burnt alive in their homes by a mob late on Friday night, were brought to the Civil Hospital here on Saturday afternoon. The victims included seven children and 16 women. Police sources said that the attack was not only gruesome but seemed to have been meticulously planned as the mob had blocked the road leading to Sardarpura from Mehsana by placing obstacles to ensure that the police did not reach the spot on time. In adjoining Sabarkantha district, 11 people were killed in massive rioting that ensued in the Chapariya locality of Himmatnagar on Friday evening. Mobs from both communities came face to face and indulged in stabbing and firing. Nine people succumbed to their injuries. Even in the remote areas of Central Gujarat, tension was running very high and villages were being attacked by mobs. Eyewitnesses said that mobs were on a killing spree in villages like Piplod, Dudhia, Sanjeli and Limbdi in Dahod district which adjoins Godhra. Reports of mobs going on rampage around Godhra for the third consecutive day were pouring in but tight-lipped officials were not willing to confirm these incidents. The whole of Machhiwad was engulfed in smoke coming out of a burning wood godown. Mobs came out on the streets at Athwagate, Parle Point, Makaipul, Majura Gate, Mahidharpura, Salabatpura and Udhana and tension was brewing in the city till late evening. Ahmedabad wasn’t entirely peaceful and stray incidents were reported from the fringes of the city even though there was a distinct de-escalation in the scale of violence. Three passengers who alighted from Howrah Express were burnt alive near Ghodasar police chowki by an angry mob in the morning. In the Vatva industrial estate two laborers were found hacked to death on Saturday morning. In Bhavanagar, arsonists caused massive damage to property and three persons were killed, two of them in police firing. According to Bhavnagar SP Rahul Sharma, incidents of rioting and arson had been reported from areas like Limbwadi Sadak, Lokhand Bazaar and Kumharwad. There are more reports of violence coming from the rural areas of the state. In Gandhinagar alone nine deaths have taken place in some of the remote villages where there is hardly any security. With the violence spreading to the countryside and the security forces concentrated in the urban centers, the Gujarat government has asked the Centre for more deployment of the paramilitary forces. Some forces from neighboring Maharashtra are also expected in Surat soon.

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