11 jailed for life for murder during deadly anti-Muslim riots in India

Eleven Hindus have been sentenced to life in prison for murder during one of a string of anti-Muslim riots that left more than 1,000 people dead in India. They were jailed for climbing a wall to a housing complex and setting fire to the homes of Muslim families in the city of Ahmadabad. Another 12 defendants were sentenced to seven years and another was given ten years in connection with the same deadly riot which left 69 people, including women and children, dead. However, families of some of the victims have complained that the punishments were not severe enough.

I am not satisfied with this verdict. I have to start all over again. This is wrong

Zakia Jafri, wife of Muslim politician Ehsan Jafri, who died in the riots

The riots, which spread across the western state of Gujarat for two months in 2002, blighted the rise of India’s now prime minister Narendra Modi, who was the state’s chief minister at the time. He has been cleared of personal blame although the U.S. temporarily revoked his visa in 2005. The latest trial has been going on since 2009 and last month the 24 Hindus were convicted for their role in the massacre at the Gulbarg housing society while another 36 were acquitted. On Friday, Judge P. B. Desai rejected the demand for the death penalty as the prosecution failed to prove the charge of a criminal conspiracy against the defendants.

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