AHMADABAD, India (AP) - Angry Hindus set fire to homes in a Muslim neighborhood Thursday and then kept firefighters away for hours, dragging out one former lawmaker and burning him alive. At least 58 people died in revenge attacks triggered by a Muslim assault on a train.
Police appeared outnumbered or unwilling to stop the violence in western Gujarat state. They stood in bunches, watching as groups of Hindus, wielding iron rods and cans of gasoline or kerosene, roamed Ahmadabad, attacking Muslims in their homes, shops and vehicles.
The government promised to send the army to Ahmadabad, the region’s main city, to quell the rampage. But there were fears violence would spread Friday, when Hindu nationalists called for a nationwide strike.
In Thursday’s worst attack, 38 people — including 12 children — died when some 2,000 Hindus set fire to six homes in an affluent Muslim neighborhood.
Some trapped residents made frantic telephone calls to police and firefighters. But police said they arrived two hours later and firefighters were delayed by more than six hours because of blockades by rioters.
A former lawmaker, Ehsan Jefri, fired at the rioters when they tried to enter his house, but he was dragged out and burned alive.
Elsewhere in Ahmadabad, rioters pulled a Muslim truck driver out of his vehicle and killed him at a roadblock, police said. Other Hindus made bonfires with goods looted from shops, and 20 men tore down a small mosque.
J.S. Bandukwala, a Muslim and human rights activist, said his house was attacked by Hindus who “lobbed burning rags and pelted stones,” before his Hindu neighbors took him to safety. (mAd-wALa adds: At least some sanity still exists)
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