Word: hindus
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...Before going to camp, I was scared. I didn't want to associate with Jews and Hindus," recalls Sana. "But we all became good friends." Swimming in the lake and talking around the campfire late at night, they found that the anger they had brought with them from the war zones seemed to melt away. When she returned home, not many of her classmates sympathized with her change of heart. In Pakistan, Jews and Hindus were supposed to be the enemy. On Sept. 12, it was even worse: Sana still believed in peace, but few others in her school...
...some 90 criminal complaints have been filed, though no arrests have yet been made. Headman Anilbhai Manubhai Modi is among the accused, but his uncle initially denies that at least 27 Muslims were killed in their 600-family farming village, then relents, explaining darkly that there were "reasons." Other Hindus, when questioned, merely mutter vaguely about "God's will." The returning Muslims don't know where this leaves them. "We lived together quite happily," recalls farmer Faiz Mohammad Khan. The change precedes the slaughters of February and March: several years back, some prominent Hindus in the village began organizing meetings...
...Ajanwa's Hindus and Muslims had lived in peace for years: only in the past decade, with the rise of the BJP in both New Delhi and Gujarat, has the divide grown. Muslim survivors say BJP members led the attacks in March. Some were arrested, but the main organizers charged with the killings are still free. "If only those four or five people are caught, there would be no trouble in the village and we could go back," says Mushtaq, who chooses to live in the nearby town of Lunawada and commute to his farm 25 kilometers away. Local police...
...Hindus who helped Muslims, like headman Rana, are receiving death threats. The VHP has circulated pamphlets urging Hindus to boycott Muslim businesses, refuse Muslims jobs and not work in their offices. Police reports on the riots adamantly emphasize that Muslims began them: the spark for the violence was a still unexplained firebombing of a train filled with Hindu pilgrims, in which 59 died. According to independent human-rights groups like the People's Union for Democratic Rights, most Hindus arrested for rioting were released on bail within days. In the first hearing in July, a judge in Lunawada dismissed...
...Almost all the Muslim victims from the countryside talk gratefully of the help they received from Hindus?though, most often, in villages other than their own?who hid them and brought them to the refugee camps. Still, anger is rising and retaliation possible. Earlier this month, a crude bomb exploded in a village, killing three Hindus near a school, and locals quickly blamed it on avenging Muslims. In Pandarwada, the Muslims are worried about the state elections. If Modi's side wins, they say, none of their attackers will be punished. Which makes going back to their old lives...