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The death toll from monsoon floods in the western India state of Gujarat has risen to at least 130 people. Hundreds of thousands of people have been left homeless from nearly a week of torrential rain. Weather forecasters predict more heavy rainfall in the region. Indian air force helicopters are reported by DPA to have rescued 400 people trapped on the Shanti Express train when two meters of water covered the tracks and started to fill the coaches. Indian authorities are trying to deliver drinking water and food to the several million hard-hit people in the region.

Gujarat riot Muslims 'eliminated'   The state government of Narendra Modi denies the allegations A police officer in India's Gujarat state says the government there authorised the killing of Muslims three years ago.RB Sreekumar made the allegation in notes he kept at the time while serving as Gujarat's intelligence chief. The Gujarat government says the charges are baseless and untrue, instigated because Mr Sreekumar was not promoted. Officially more than 1,000 people, most of them Muslims, died in religious riots in Gujarat in 2002. Human rights groups say many more were killed. Mr Sreekumar was appointed intelligence chief in...

In order to prove that I'm a true Indian, do I have to stand up for Narendra Modi? The cancellation of the Gujarat CM's US visa has caused an epidemic of patriotism. How dare the neo-imperialists in Washington impugn the sovereignty of the Indian republic by denying entry to an elected representative of the people of an Indian state? Never mind that Modi is accused of mass murder. His Indianness comes before his alleged murderousness, and as such we, as Indians first and moral beings second, must support him. As one commentator put it, he might be a mass murderer....

AHMADABAD, India - Hindu nationalists set fire to a PepsiCo warehouse in western India on Saturday to protest the U.S. denial of a visa for a top state official due to his role in religious riots in 2002. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asked the U.S. government to urgently reconsider its decision. The State Department said Friday it had denied a diplomatic visa to the Hindu nationalist chief minister of Gujarat state, Narendra Modi, and revoked his existing tourist/business visa under the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act that bars people responsible for violations of religious freedom from getting a visa. Nearly...

'Lost river' could rewrite history books February 19 2002 at 08:33AM Madras India, - The discovery of an ancient city on the seabed off India's western coast has scientists salivating at the prospect of a fundamental rewrite in the chronology of ancient human society. Preliminary tests have suggested the site in the Gulf of Cambay off Gujarat state could date as far back as 7 500 BC, several thousand years older than what were previously known to be the first significant urban settlements. The discovery was made purely by chance last year as oceanographers from the National Institute of ...

Hardline Hindus have held prayers in the western Indian state of Gujarat to mark the second anniversary of a train attack which sparked bloody communal riots. A small prayer meeting was held in the town of Godhra, where 58 Hindus were torched, allegedly by a Muslim mob. The retaliatory riots which followed the incident left more than 1,000 people dead, most of them Muslims. More than 80 people have been arrested in connection with the incident so far. The Godhra meeting was organised by the hardline Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP, World Hindu Council). It contrasts with last year when ceremonies...

Kishanganj (Bihar), April 22: Reaching out to the Muslim community, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on Thursday lamented the communal riots in Gujarat that left hundreds of people dead and many more affected and urged the people to take a resolve not to allow repeat of such incidents. “Jo Gujarat mein hua nahin hona chahiye tha. Aiye humfaisla karein ki kabhi doosra Gujarat nahin hoga. Hinduon aur musalmanon ko ek doosre ko shak ki nigah se nahin dekhna chahiye (what happened in Gujarat should not have happened. Let us resolve not to allow another Gujarat to happen anywhere else. The...

Hardline Hindus have held prayers in the western Indian state of Gujarat to mark the second anniversary of a train attack which sparked bloody communal riots. A small prayer meeting was held in the town of Godhra, where 58 Hindus were torched, allegedly by a Muslim mob. The retaliatory riots which followed the incident left more than 1,000 people dead, most of them Muslims. More than 80 people have been arrested in connection with the incident so far. The Godhra meeting was organised by the hardline Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP, World Hindu Council). It contrasts with last year when ceremonies...

Gujarat Christians allege survey of families Rathin Das Ahmedabad, March 8 The Gujarat Police have reportedly started a discreet survey of Christians in some parts of the state, seeking information on family sizes, job profiles and sources of foreign funds. The All-India Christian Council, which submitted a memorandum to the state police chief on Friday, is planning to move the High Court over the issue next week. State Director General of Police K. Chakravarthy told the Hindustan Times that no statewide survey had been ordered. He added, however, that some information might have been sought from some people on the...

Indian authorities have detained two men in connection with this week's attack on a Hindu temple in Gujarat state that killed at least 30 people and wounded more than 70 others. Police say the two suspects are believed to be the driver and the owner of a taxi which was apparently used by the two unidentified gunmen who raided the Akshardham temple in Gujarat's capital, Gandhinagar. Authorities say they are trying to establish if the two suspects had any role in the attack, or had simply rented the taxi to the assailants. The gunmen entered the temple Tuesday evening and...

Unidentified gunmen have entered the Swaminarayan Mandir on Ahmedabad-Gandhinagar highway on Tuesday evening. Police suspect there may be up to four gunmen inside the temple, who were heard firing indiscriminately. An encounter is on to flush them out. State Agriculture Minister Purushotam Rupala said that according to initial reports three persons, probably carrying sten guns, entered the temple premises and fired indiscriminately. He said three to four persons were injured in the attack. Security forces have surrounded the temple, situated about two km from the state secretariat, he said.

The events in Gujarat recently have been extremely deplorable. Nobody covered themselves with glory. The murders in Godhra were an outrage, a crime against humanity. The riots that followed were also a crime against humanity. The perpetrators should be found, tried and punished forthwith. And the State failed miserably in its duty and responsibility of protecting its citizens and of dealing with the criminals. But the self-proclaimed 'intelligentsia' has been equally at fault: it has attempted to mislead the public with its biased and one-sided perorations. The gullible public has been misled: I have seen several people suggest that they...

AYODHYA, India (AP)-- Nearly 10,000 paramilitary troops moved into town Saturday after police said an Islamic separatist group threatened to blow up a Hindu temple at the site of a demolished 16th century mosque. Security was tightened as thousands of Hindus began arriving in Ayodhya to hold a Sunday prayer ceremony close to the ruins of the Babri mosque razed by Hindu nationalists eight years ago. That demolition triggered riots killing 2,000 people. Intelligence reports say a Pakistan-based militant group, Jaish-e-Mohammed, planed to attack the temple, where Hindus keep idols of their gods and goddesses, a police officer said on...

Godhra carnage was an act of Pakistan-sponsored terrorism and was executed in connivance with the "jihadi forces" based in the town, alleged a five-member study team of the Delhi-based Council for International Affairs and Human Rights. "The objective behind the Godhra carnage was to weaken Indian positions on the border and to make the area more porous for jihadi infiltrators and smugglers of drugs and arms by forcing India to divert its Army from border to civil deployment," the team said in its report titled Godhra and After. The study team has specifically indicted two Congress members of Godhra municipality...

ASHINGTON: India’s Army chief Gen. S Padmanabhan began a week-long visit to the United States on Monday amid growing concern here about the consequences of the events in Gujarat despite the all-is-well scenario projected by the BJP government. The US has been very circumspect in public about the turmoil in Gujarat, unlike Britain and other European Union nations. But there is consternation within the administration and South Asian circles about the continuing violence in the face of the government spin that things are easing off. Despite New Delhi’s stand that the developments in Gujarat is India’s internal matter, the Bush...

Ahmedabad, April 21 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In a sharp spurt in violence in Gujarat, at least 12 people, including a woman and a policeman, were on Sunday killed and 96 injured with Ahmedabad bearing the brunt even as Defence Minister George Fernandes claimed improvement in the situation in the riot-torn state. Nine of the 12 perished in police firing in labour-dominated Gomtipur, Bapunagar and Rakkhiyal localities of Ahmedabad and Mehmdabad and Kapadwanj towns of Kheda district, police sources here said. Police sources here said 10 people, including a constable and a woman, were killed, in Gomtipur and adjoining Bapunagar and Rakhiyal localities,...

Gujarat riots kill six The clashes have claimed more than 700 lives Fresh religious violence between Hindus and Muslims has claimed six more lives in the western Indian state of Gujarat. The violence comes just a day before Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee is due to visit the state, which has been hit by religious clashes over the past month. More than 700 people, mostly Muslims, have died in the riots which erupted in late February when a Muslim mob attacked a train carrying Hindu activists, killing 58 people. The Gujarat Government has been heavily criticised by India's national human...