69 Hindus and BJP minister acquitted in deadly 2002 Gujarat riots case.
An Indian court has acquitted 69 Hindus, including a former minister from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), of the murder of 11 Muslims during communal riots in the western state of Gujarat in 2002. The killings occurred in Ahmedabad on February 28, 2002, a day after a suspected Muslim mob set fire to a train carrying Hindu pilgrims, setting off one of independent India’s worst outbreaks of religious bloodshed. At least 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed across Gujarat in the 2002 riots.