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An Indian court on Thursday convicted 24 Hindu men for their role in one of the many deadly religious riots that swept across the western state of Gujarat for three months in 2002, leaving more than 1,000 dead.  The Gujarat riots, which erupted after a train car full of Hindu nationalists was engulfed in a fire that killed 60 people inside, pitted mobs of Hindus against Muslims, who were widely blamed for setting the fire, though arson was never confirmed.  The riots have long hounded Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was Gujarat's chief minister then, amid allegations that authorities allowed and even encouraged the bloodshed. Modi has repeatedly denied having any role, and India's Supreme Court has said it found no evidence to prosecute him.

In the verdict, 11 of the defendants were found guilty of murder, while another 36 were acquitted of all charges in connection with the riot in a Muslim neighborhood called the Gulbarg Society in the city of Ahmadabad. Among those acquitted for lack of evidence was a leader of Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, Bipin Patel.  In the attack, some 35 homes were set on fire and 69 people were killed, most of them burned to death, including a former lawmaker from the opposition Congress party, Ehsan Jafri.   Jafri's widow said she was disappointed so many were acquitted. ``This verdict is half justice to me,'' Zakia Jafri said. The sentences are scheduled to be announced on June 6. Those convicted of murder could be sentenced to death. 

According to Indian Jesuit human rights and peace activist, Fr. Cedric Prakash, "The verdict needs to be respected: at least 24 people have been convicted. There is some justice which has been done, but the fact is that is not enough!"  The priest from Gujarat Jesuit province, who founded Prashant, the Ahmedabad-based Jesuit Centre for Human Rights, Justice, and Peace, has been one of the voices championing the cause of the Muslims and other minorities following the Gujarat carnage.  Fr. Prakash noted that Jafri and her family and many other victim-survivors, who have lost a loved one, their kith and kin, there is naturally a feeling of dissatisfaction. He commended them saying, "These heroic persons, have demonstrated sheer grit and determination – for more than fourteen years now, in their struggle for truth and justice."  "They have had to brave all hostilities, attempts at co-option and even betrayals- but they have stood resolute in their stand- as witnesses of what actually happened"   While sharing Zakia's disillusionment over only 11 persons responsible for the murder of 69, while the big ones have be allowed to scot-free, Fr. Prakash said that victim-survivors, human rights defenders and many others would "continue their relentless pursuit of truth and justice, till the biggest perpetrators of the Gujarat Genocide are brought to book. Still a long way to go!"

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