SAN FRANCISCO (Diya TV) — An Indian court has handed down life sentences to 11 people over the massacre of dozens of Muslims in Gujarat in 2002, the same year Narendra Modi, who is now India’s Prime Minister, was the state’s chief minister.
Additionally, the court also sentenced another 12 suspects to seven years in jail Friday, over the murders of 69 Muslims who were hacked and burnt to death in the same state. The murders took place in a residential complex in the city of Ahmedabad, victims included women and children.
Another was sentenced to 10 years for rioting and arson.
Prosecutors sought the death penalty, arguing that the deceased were targeted and were all “innocent people.”
Judge P B Desai described the religious violence as “one of the darkest days of civil society in Gujarat.” He urged the Indian government to not commute, shorten or amend the sentences in any way.
Earlier, Desai ruled that the massacre at the residential complex was a spontaneous attack, rejecting the claims that it was a pre-planned conspiracy against Muslims — the massacre was one of the single worst losses of life in the violence that stretched over the span of a week, which left more than 1,000 people dead.
Several Muslim families had taken shelter in the Gulbarg Society housing complex, when it was suddenly stormed by a a mob of people angered by the deaths of 59 Hindus who had been killed in a train fire.
Zakia Jafri, whose husband was killed in the massacre, said “the sentences were too lenient.”
“After all the horrible things they did to so many people, they still gave such flimsy sentences,” Jaffri told reporters.
More than 100 people have already been convicted over the riots, including one of Prime Minister Modi’s former state ministers, who was thrown in jail for instigating some of the murders. Modi has long been haunted by the event, he was once denied entrance to the U.S. after being accused of turning a blind eye to the killings.
Modi was cleared of any wrongdoing during an investigation by India’s Supreme Court in 2012.