The Hindu : ISI behind Godhra carnage: Muslim body

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Monday, Mar 18, 2002

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ISI behind Godhra carnage: Muslim body

KOLKATA MARCH 17 . Jamaat-e-Ulama-e-Hind, an organisation of Muslim clergy and intellectuals, today said the Godhra carnage could have been the handiwork of the ISI to foment trouble.

``We do not believe that the carnage had been carried out by any true Muslim as it is unIslamic to burn living beings. It was, perhaps, the handiwork of insane elements. The ISI could also have done it to create communal riots in the country,'' the all-India president of the Jammat, Syed Assad Madani, said at a press conference here.

Mr. Madani, who toured Gujarat, said that over 1,000 people had been killed and about Rs. 10,000 crore-worth of property destroyed.

Accusing the Narendra Modi Government of aggravating the situation by `tolerating' the riots, he dubbed the Government as `anti-Indian' and demanded its removal. He alleged that police and the para-military forces had played a partisan role in the riots although there had also been instances, mainly in rural areas, of members from both the Hindu and Muslim communities saving each others' lives even by endangering their own.

Mr. Madani said he had met the President, K.R. Narayanan, and the Prime Minister, A.B. Vajpayee, but did not specify the nature of the talks.

- PTI

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