A top police official has testified that anti-Muslim riots that raged in India's Gujarat state two years ago were backed by its ruling Hindu nationalist government, it was revealed Wednesday.
The man's 172-page testimony was unveiled a day after India's Supreme Court reopened 2,000 cases from the riots which claimed the lives of more than 2,000 people, mostly Muslims, in the western Indian state.
In his testimony Gujarat police official R. B. Sreekumar said Hindu militant groups such as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the Bajrang Dal were given a free hand to stir up violence after 59 Hindus were burned alive in a train allegedly torched by a Muslim mob in February 2002.
The state is still ruled by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP, Indian People's Party), which then governed India.
"The VHP, Dal and fraternal bodies had given a call on February 27, 2002 for observing a state-wide strike on February 28 and this was supported by the BJP.
"This created an atmosphere conducive for mobilisation of Hindu mobs, particularly in communally-sensitive areas of the state," Sreekumar said in his testimony to a two-judge panel probing the sectarian violence that raged for months in Gujarat.
"The Hindu communal organisations, particularly the VHP and Dal had left no stones unturned to whip up the sentiments of the Hindu community by projecting Muslims as a community responsible for the (train) carnage," the testimony said.
The document also accused a section of state police of colluding with Hindu mobs that targeted Muslims and their property in Gujarat during the bloodbath.
"Such officers have become quite adept in doing the art of deceptive law enforcement for the benefit of their political friends, who ensure their placements, and continuance in their choicest executive posts, at the cost and spirit of the laws of the land," it said.
On Tuesday, India's apex court told Gujarat to set up a high-level police committee to re-assess cases, which were closed when investigators said they could not trace the culprits.
The judgement will affect nearly half of the estimated 4,200 riot cases recorded during the violence.
In April, it ordered a re-trial of 21 Hindus acquitted of torching to death 12 Muslims at a Gujarat bakery and this month it shifted to adjoining Maharashtra state the trial of 20 men accused of butchering 14 Muslims, including two women who were gang-raped.