Peace returns to troubled Gujarat
Peace returns to troubled Gujarat
Agencies, Ahmedabad, India
Government workers dug graves on Tuesday for 120 unclaimed bodies
of Muslims, as peace returned to the western state of Gujarat
after weeklong Hindu-Muslim violence that claimed 570 lives.
The graves were being dug along a highway, 15 kilometers (10
miles) northwest of Ahmedabad, so that unclaimed bodies in the
city morgues could be given a quick burial, said a municipal
official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
He said Ahmedabad municipal authorities have set a Tuesday
deadline for family members to claim the bodies.
The ones that still haven't been claimed will be buried
Wednesday. Municipal authorities have asked Muslim leaders for
assistance in carrying out the religious rites, he said.
In Ahmedabad, the state's principal city and the worst hit in
the riots, "the situation appears to be normal," police spokesman
Inspector Pradeep Bhatt said. "Ahmedabad has been peaceful." he
said.
Hindu and Muslim community leaders held a peace march on
Tuesday in Gujarat.
As many as 800 people took part in the march, which was given
a heavy police escort and wound through Gujarat's commercial
capital Ahmedabad to finish at the ashram of India's independence
hero and apostle of peace, Mahatma Gandhi.
"This is our city and we want it back," said one of the
marchers, K. Stalin, who runs an NGO promoting literacy.
"This city does not belong to Muslim fundamentalists or Hindu
extremists. It belongs to us citizens," he said.
Daytime curfew restrictions were lifted in Ahmedabad on
Tuesday, although they remained in force in 20 other sensitive
areas.
"We are still getting reports of the odd incident of violence
here and there," deputy inspector general of police K.
Chakravarty said.
Police officials said the death toll was sure to rise as
bodies were still being recovered from remote Muslim villages
that had been attacked and burned by Hindu mobs.
Some officials said the final figure could cross the 1,000
mark.
The rioting was India's worst religious violence in a decade.
It started after a Muslim mob set fire to a train carrying Hindu
nationalists on Wednesday. The 58 deaths provoked a retaliatory
rampage by Hindus. Most of those killed since then have been
Muslims.
On Monday, two people were killed when police fired guns at a
crowd of looters in Santarampur town and one person was stabbed
to death in Surat town, police said.
Curfew has been relaxed in most places in the state and
streets were once again jammed with unruly traffic typical of
Indian cities.
However, schools and colleges closed during the violence will
reopen March 8, Bhatt said.