Muslims fear Hindu procession will spark violent attacks

TERRIFIED Muslims streamed into relief camps in the western Indian state of Gujarat yesterday on the eve of a Hindu procession some fear could trigger new religious bloodshed.

“People told me there would be rivers of blood, it would be worse than before,” said Shah Jahan Bano, 18, her face a swollen mass of burn scars from being attacked by a Hindu mob in a wave of religious carnage that swept the state in February and March.

Bano was one of thousands of Muslims who took refuge yesterday in Shah Alam, the largest of nine camps set up after India’s deadliest Hindu-Muslim violence in a decade.

Officials say 1,000 people died, most of them Muslims. Human rights groups put the toll at 2,500.

Ahmedabad, Gujarat’s main commercial city, teemed with 30,000 security personnel ahead of today’s procession or “yatra” and analysts said the state government's ability to maintain peace would be a key test of its assurance normalcy had returned.

The beleaguered Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which heads the federal ruling coalition as well as the state government can also ill-afford more violence after facing a barrage of opposition charges it failed to end the bloodshed.

The annual procession led by a flower-festooned chariot carrying Hindu deities will start at dawn and wind its way on an eight-mile journey through mainly Muslim areas, ending late in the evening. The yatras have in the past sparked clashes in Ahmedabad as Hindu devotees - armed with swords, tridents and spears - hurled anti-Muslim insults from atop chariots and trucks.

An official at Shah Alam in the congested old quarter of Ahmedabad said the number of residents at the camp had doubled to 8,000 from 4,000 in the past 24 hours and he expected that figure to climb ahead of the yatra.

“People are just petrified the riots might start again during this procession and they are all arriving - it’s like this at all the camps,” camp co-ordinator Shafi Memom.

The procession has suddenly put Gujarat back on the front pages of Indian newspapers after a military standoff between India and Pakistan that brought the nuclear rivals close to war last month grabbed the public spotlight.