INDIA: India braced itself for another round of sectarian clashes after revenge killings erupted in western Gujarat state when communal tensions swelled following the massacre of 57 Hindu activists, including 15 children, aboard a train in a Muslim-majority area yesterday.
Another 50 Hindus were injured, many of them seriously, when a mob attacked the Sabarmati Express at Godhra station, 90 miles east of Gujarat's capital Gandhinagar and set four compartments alight after attacking those inside with sticks and knives. Eyewitnesses and Hindu leaders said the attackers were Muslims but fearing trouble, officials declined to confirm their identity.
The victims were returning from Ayodhya, in northern Uttar Pradesh state, where over 50,000 Hindus have gathered to build a temple to their mythical god Lord Rama on the ruins of a 16th century mosque whose destruction in December 1992 led to nationwide riots. Over 2,000 people were killed in several weeks of rioting.
Security officials said a bus was burned in Gujarat's largest town, Ahmedabad, to which many of the dead belonged, and two persons were stabbed. "These incidents are possibly in retaliation for the train incident. We have beefed up security across the city," Ahemdabad's police commissioner, Mr P.C. Pande, said. Communal clashes were also reported in nearby Baroda and Anand districts in which one person died and two others were injured.
"The situation is tense all over Gujarat," the state Home Minister, Mr Gordhanbhai Zadafia, said. Over 70,000 security personnel have been deployed across the state, shoot-at-sight orders issued in Godhra and a curfew imposed in several Gujarat towns to prevent the outbreak of clashes between Hindus and Muslims as news of the train attack spread. Officials said police shot dead a 17-year-old boy in Godhara who was part of a mob that was looting and burning shops.
Security officials fear a nationwide retaliation against Muslims by the hardline World Hindu Council that has called for a strike today to protest the attack. The council belongs to the same elaborate Hindu "family" as the ruling nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that heads the federal coalition and its leaders have blamed Muslims for the train attack. Gujarat is one of four of 29 Indian states ruled by the BJP. It has sent the largest number of Hindu activists to Ayodhya to participate in the potentially volatile movement to build the Ram temple.