Will be interesting to watch the outcome of the case. If sucessful it could lead to families of other victims also suing the government.
British widows sue over India riot deaths](Yahoo is part of the Yahoo family of brands.)
AHMEDABAD, India (Reuters) - The widows of two British Muslims burned to death by a Hindu mob in India’s Gujarat riots two years ago are suing the state’s government for 2.8 million pounds, accusing it of genocide and torture.
“It is hoped that by pursuing the culprits and those who organised the genocide, the deaths of our beloved ones will not be in vain,” one of the men’s brothers, Yusuf Dawood, said in a statement.
The lawsuits, filed in a district court in western Gujarat last week, hold state Chief Minister Narendra Modi responsible for “the acts of commission and omission committed by his officers in the command structure”.
The gruesome and targeted violence against Guajarat’s minority Muslims was a clear case of a crime against humanity, the statement said.
Modi’s office refused to comment.
Sakil Dawood and Saeed Dawood, both British, were visiting India when a Hindu mob turned on them and burned them to death in February, 2002, at the height of communal bloodshed triggered by the burning alive of 59 Hindu pilgrims by a suspected Muslim mob.
Rights groups say more than 2,000 people, mostly Muslims, died in the violence, India’s worst religious bloodshed in a decade.
In a scathing judgment, India’s Supreme Court last month said Modi and his Hindu nationalist government had turned a blind eye to the violence.
The court ordered the retrial of several people acquitted of other murders during the riots.
The suits by the two men’s widows, Sherin Dawood and Shamima Dawood, also seek damages for Imran Dawood, a relative who was stabbed and seriously wounded in the attack.
“We hope that the courts in India will allow our action to proceed without placing any unnecessary obstacles in its way,” said Imran Khan, a British civil rights lawyer representing the Dawood family.
The court will begin hearing the lawsuits on Thursday.