GUJARAT 2002

The 2002 Gujarat violence describes a series of communal riots between the communities of Hindus and Muslims that took place in the Indian State of Gujarat between February and May 2002.

The riots occurred after the Godhra train burning. In September 2008 the Godhra Commission confirmed that there was an attack on the train, by a Muslim mob.^[1] Going further, the report claims that one Hassan Lalu had thrown burning objects into the train and 140 litres of petrol had been used to put the train on fire, adding stones were thrown on passengers to stop them from fleeing. ^{[2] [3]} According to official figures more than a thousand people were killed in the violence after the train incident. Independent estimates by rights groups and NGOs place the figure higher, nearer to 2000. More than one hundred and fifty thousand people were displaced.

Organisations such as Human Rights Watch criticised the Indian government for failure to address the resulting humanitarian condition of people, "overwhelming majority of them Muslim," who fled their homes for relief camps in the aftermath of the events. ^[4] Many of the investigations and prosecution of those accused of violence during the riots have been opened for reinvestigation and prosecution.^[5][6] According to an official estimate, 1044 people were killed in the violence - 790 Muslims and 254 Hindus including those killed in the Godhra train fire. Another 223 people were reported missing, 2,548 injured, 919 women widowed and 606 children orphaned.^[7]

The large-scale, collective violence has been generally been described as riots or inter-communal clashes.^[8] The perpetrators of the violence as well as Sangh parivar leaders^[9] and the Gujarat government^[10][11][12] maintain that the violence was a spontaneous, uncontrollable reaction to the Godhra train burning. Others have termed it a massacre^[13] and an attempted pogrom or genocide^[14] of the Muslim population, emphasizing that the violence was largely directed against defenceless people, indiscriminate with regard to age or sex and alleging that it was pre-planned, organised and aided by the local authorities and political leaders.^[15]