Indian Muslim riot victims preserve houses as relic

AHMEDABAD,India-Muslim survivors of one of India's worst religious riots are planning to convert the burnt buildings where their relatives were killed into a museum. More than 2,500 people, most of them Muslims,were burned and hacked to death in a month of violence in Gujarat in western India six years ago, according to human rights groups.Officials put the death toll at about 1,000.Twenty-six deserted and charred houses standing in the Gulbarg Society,a Muslim-dominated housing project in Ahmedabad, Gujarat's main city,are a reminder of one of the riot's more infamous episodes.On February 28, 2002, a mob of Hindu men killed at least 39 residents, according to official numbers.Another 20 residents have been missing ever since, including five children.Some were locked inside their homes which were then set on fire.Others were stabbed with swords or pelted with stones,according to survivors' accounts of the day. Blood-stained clothes, swords and victims' belongings will now be displayed in the buildings as a reminder of the day."Pain, tears and wounds cannot be exhibited but burnt homes, blood spots, swords, stones will narrate the story," said Javed Muhammed Sheikh, who lost his wife and two children in riots.Javed says he watched as his wife was dragged out of the house and stabbed repeatedly. His sons, then aged seven and 10, were set on fire and left to die.

To read more go to:

http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSB16540020080228

PS:There were also christian families slaughtered there...but of course...its never mentioned.....

As in the days of Noah....