Govt urged to protect Gujarat riots intimidated witnesses

By: Nizam Hussain

NEW DELHI, India: An international human rights group has asked the Indian government to set up a national protection program to protect witnesses who are willing to testify against Hindu hard-liners facing trial for killing Muslims in Gujarat anti-Muslims riots two years ago.

In a 30-page report, the New York-based rights Human Rights Watch group said on Friday witnesses to anti-Muslim riots that ravaged India's Gujarat state in 2002 remain too intimidated to testify, urging the government to take action against Hindu hardliners allegedly threatening riot victims to keep them silent.

HRW detailed threats received by 20 activists and lawyers who say they were warned to withdraw from court proceedings or withdraw charges.

In an echo of the government's attitude during the riots, police have been refusing to record witnesses' complaints of threats, the group said.

The report alleged that the Gujarat state government had launched selective tax probes against some Islamic organizations to pressure Muslim witnesses to withdraw murder and arson charges against some Hindu nationalists.

Brad Adams, the executive director of Human Right Watch's Asia division, said the Gujarat government was “obstructing justice by its failure to protect witnesses.”

The Gujarat government denied the charge.

Thousands of Muslim homes and shops were destroyed and more than 2,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed in Hindu-Muslim violence that lasted for three months in 2002 after 60 Hindus were killed when a train car was set on fire. Hindu nationalist groups blamed the fire on a Muslim mob.

Human rights groups say Gujarat's Hindu nationalist government turned a blind eye and at times encouraged the bloodshed. Police later closed thousands of cases registered against Hindu hard-liners, citing lack of evidence and witnesses.

The Supreme Court, however, has ordered retrials in some cases after human rights groups claimed many witnesses retracted their testimony because of threats from Hindu nationalists.

On Wednesday, a court in Bombay charged 16 Hindus with burning to death 14 Muslims in the first retrial the Supreme Court ordered be held outside Gujarat. The accused were among 21 suspects acquitted last year by a court in Gujarat of charges of killing the Muslim family hiding in a bakery during the 2002 rioting.

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