Hindus Get Life For Slaughtering 116 Muslims

14 Hindus Get Life In Killing Of 116 Muslims

By REUTERS
Published: July 8, 2007
NYTimes

PATNA, India, July 7 (Reuters) — An Indian court sentenced 14 Hindus to life on Saturday for killing 116 Muslims and burying their bodies in a cauliflower patch during one of India’s bloodiest religious riots almost 20 years ago.

...The 14 men, including a police officer, were part of a mob that hacked to death 116 Muslim men, women and children with swords and daggers on Oct. 27, 1989.

More than 1,000 people, most of them Muslims, were killed in Bhagalpur during the rioting.

...The Bhagalpur riots were caused in part by a Hindu procession carrying bricks to build a temple at the site of an ancient mosque in the northern town of Ayodhya.

Hindu nationalists, who believe the site to be the birthplace of Rama, an incarnation of Vishnu, the Hindu god, tore down much of the mosque in 1992.

The same controversy sparked deadly riots in western state of Gujarat in 2002.

Hindus make up 80 percent of India’s population, while Muslims make up about 13 percent.