*** "Mass Grave Unearthed In Gujarat, India" ***
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Tuesday 27 December 2005
Courtesy of: http://news.bbc.co.uk

Villagers have found remains of a number of bodies in a grave in the Indian State of Gujarat, officials say.

Human rights activists say they are the remains of Muslims killed in the 2002 Gujarat riots.

More than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims were killed in the 2002 riots, although many believe the figure to be higher.

Residents of the Pandarwada village in the State's Panchmahal district uncovered the remains near a river bank. Twenty-six people are said to have died in an attack on the village in 2002.

A human rights activist, Teesta Setalvad, says all those accused of carrying out the killings were acquitted in 2002 for lack of evidence. She says human rights organisations will now approach the Gujarat high court on Wednesday to press for the remains of the bodies to be sent for a forensic test.

The Gujarat riots broke out after 58 Hindus were killed when a train was set on fire in the town of Godhra, allegedly by a Muslim mob.

The Sabamatti express was carrying Hindu pilgrims returning from the destroyed site of the Babri Mosque at Ayodhya, when it was attacked. How the blaze started is not clear.

(Lal Krishna Advani, leader of the Hindu Nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, made several provocative speeches that incited a Hindu mob to demolish the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya in 1992, and then built a Hindu temple on top of it).