India: Victims’ fears as massacre perpetrators, including a politician, are jailed
Maya Kodnani, a sitting lawmaker for Gujarat state’s ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and 30 others were jailed for their role in the so-called Naroda Patiya massacre, the single bloodiest episode of the three-day riots.
Her conviction is an embarrassment for both the BJP – the country’s main opposition party – and Gujarat’s chief minister, Narendra Modi.
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Hide AdWhen the sentences were announced, a wail erupted from a crowd of women relatives of the convicted gathered outside the courthouse in Ahmedabad, the western state’s main city.
Most relatives of the victims stayed away, a sign that 10 years on, memories of the bloodletting by Hindu mobs still cast a pall of fear.
“We’re not risking our lives by going there. It’ll be like walking into a lion’s mouth,” Nazir Khan, a school teacher in Naroda Patiya, a suburb of Ahmedabad, said.