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CNN Live At Daybreak

Fighting Has Intensified Between Hindus and Muslims in City of Ahmedabad

Aired March 01, 2002 - 06:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Fighting has intensified between mobs of Hindus and Muslims in the Indian city of Ahmedabad.

CNN's Satinder Bindra heard horrific tales from those stuck in the middle. Here's what he learned.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SATINDER BINDRA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A social worker tries to calm an unconsolable (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Ali. Ali says he was attacked by a frenzy Hindu mob while he was playing cricket.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): We were just playing when some Hindu nationalists came to our area and hurled firebombs at us.

BINDRA: Ali says he was lucky to escape with his life. But doctors tell me his brother Feros Cahn (ph) is hovering between life and death. Twenty-year old Feros is so badly burned, I can't show you his face. His brother (UNINTELLIGIBLE) says he was attacked only because he's a Muslim.

Elsewhere in the same hospital, I hear more gruesome tales from survivors like Pierre Mohammed (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Many of our people were burned alive. The mobs threw firebombs at us, even at children who had taken shelter inside their huts.

BINDRA: Pierre Mohammed is now recovering from a gunshot wound. On the bed next to Pierre Mohammed, I meet (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Brahim (ph). He's looking after his sister-in-law, the only surviving member of his family.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): They pulled out swords. They burned and killed. I lost my mother, my brother, my sister, my sister-in-law, and my brother-in-law.

BINDRA: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) surviving sister-in-law has stab wounds in her upper body and head. Officials here describe this trouble as Ahmedabad's worst religious rioting in more than a decade. Right now I'm walking in the lobby of a hotel that's owned by a Muslim. A few hours ago, all five floors of this hotel were burned and trashed by a frenzied mob. In one incident in the city alone, police tell me 16 Muslims have been torched alive.

There appears to be no doubt this violence is revenge for a recent attack by Muslims on a train carrying mainly Hindu activists. Fifty-eight people including women and children were killed in that attack.

At one point while driving through Ahmedabad, I noticed a Muslim place of worship that's just been converted into a temple. Noticing our camera, a small mob gathers around it and starts raising Hindu slogans.

To deal with such a frenzied atmosphere, the Indian Army has now been called out in force. That's of little consolation to (UNINTELLIGIBLE) who can only think of his injured brother Feros.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I will not stay here anymore. I will go to Delhi.

BINDRA: Ali says he will recover from his wounds, but he and others here tell me the trauma of knowing that people in their own city wanted to kill them will stay with them forever.

Satinder Bindra, CNN, Ahmedabad, Western India.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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