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days. Corpses were thrown into canals and rivers and the police force
took no action whatsoever to end the violence, nor did the local admin-
istration or government. To the contrary, many cases of rape and arson
took place with police assistance, or under police protection.
One of the worst massacres took place in Ahmedabad, a city in
western India. Again, the police and military forces failed to take action
to prevent or end the violence. Journalists reported that gangs wreaked
havoc across the city, torching cars and looting shops and setting fire to
them with the police simply standing by and watching. Then the radical
Hindu mob turned their attentions to the Narora shantytown where
they burned 27 Muslims alive, mostly children. Hindu gangs patrolled
the streets, stopping cars at random asking the occupants “whether or
not they were Muslims”. Hindus were allowed to drive on, whilst
Muslims were taken out of their cars and martyred. 99 A storeroom in
which eleven Muslims were hiding was set ablaze, martyring seven of
them. A family of eight were burned to death in their car. In an attack in
which knives, metal bars, swords, and baseball bats were used resulted
in the deaths of forty eight people. Hospitals were overflowing with ca-
sualties, most of whom bore knife wounds. In many towns, slogans like
“learn from us how to burn Muslims” were painted on walls and Hindu
militants, when being interviewed by foreign journalists, said things
like: “whatever is happening here it is good because the only way of
solving this problem is by exterminating the Muslims”.
The events of Gujarat made news across the world and human rights
organization filed many reports, but neither the news nor these reports
could persuade the Indian government or, for that matter, the global com-
munity, to take any action. A report entitled, “The Gujarat Massacre
Affected Minority Women, The Survivors Speak” based on first-hand ac-
counts of women who survived these attacks revealed the following:
Islam And Far Eastern Religions