Lashkar planned to kill Narendra Modi

According to one of the American diplomatic cables made public by whistleblower website WikiLeaks, Pakistan-based terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) had made elaborate plans in June last year to assassinate Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi

The timing of the plot is significant, reports The Times of India. It was hatched seven months after Lashkar's attack on Mumbai in November 2008. The cable underlines that the pressure on Pakistan post-26/11 did not deter Lashkar from planning fresh terror attacks, the newspaper adds.

Modi has been on the hit list of terror groups who have cited the Gujarat riots during his tenure to find recruits and to radicalise sections of Indian Muslims.

Gujarat inquiry: Narendra Modi 'partisan' over riots

Mr Modi has denied any wrongdoing

A panel investigating the 2002 riots in the Indian state of Gujarat has criticised the "partisan" stance of Chief Minister Narendra Modi in handling the violence, reports say.

But it also said the probe had not uncovered any evidence against Mr Modi to "justify further action under the law".

Mr Modi rejects criticism that he did not do enough to prevent the violence.

More than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, died in the riots.

The violence erupted after 60 Hindus died in a train fire. The cause of the blaze was never clearly established.

Hindu groups allege the fire was started by Muslim protesters, but an earlier inquiry said the blaze was an accident.

The Supreme Court set up a panel to investigate the riots in 2008, after allegations that the Gujarat government was doing little to bring those responsible to justice.

Godhra riots: Special Investigation Team report slams Narendra Modi

Godhra riots: Special Investigation Team report slams Narendra मोदी

New Delhi, Feb 4 : Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's role during the 2002 Godhra riots has come under scathing attack in a report by the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT).

Though the SIT report does not directly indict Modi for the riots due to lack of evidence, his role has been severely criticized for trying to downplay the seriousness of the incidents, reports said on Friday.

Modi's comment that 'every action has an equal and opposition reaction' on the Godhra riots has been particularly criticized in the report.

The report criticizes Modi's stance on various events and issues during the riots, including his reaction to killing of a large number of Muslims in Gulburg Society and Naroda Patiya, his comments post Godhra and his passive stand on the investigations and inciting the emotions of VHP workers.

"In spite of the fact that ghastly and violent attacks had taken place on Muslims... the reaction of the government was not the type that would have been expected by anyone," reports, quoting the SIT report, said.

Besides slamming him for appointing right wing supporters are public prosecutors in the riots cases, the chief minister is also blamed for destroying evidence that could have helped substantially in investigations.

Besides Modi, his ministerial colleagues Ashok Bhatt and IK Jadeja have also been named in the SIT report for being in touch with BJP and VHP leaders from police control rooms during the riots.

Fifty-eight people, mostly 'kar-sevaks', were burnt to death in the Sabarmati Express train near the Godhra railway station on February 27, 2002.

The incident sparked communal riots across the state, killing about 1000 people.

BJP accuses govt of leaking SIT report on Gujarat riots

Bharatiya Janata Party [ Images ] has demanded a probe into the selective leaks of SIT report on post-Godhra riots to the media.

"The Supreme Court maintains integrity of keeping the information submitted in a sealed cover as a closely guarded secret. The SIT was directed by the apex court to file its report in a sealed cover. No matter how hard someone tries to get the information nobody can get it from the court. Then who leaked out the information that has found its way to the media," BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad quipped.

The party said it 'apprehended and suspected' that the government 'engineered' selective leaks of the Special Investigation Team's report on post-Godhra riots to the media to divert attention from issues like price rise and corruption.

He mentioned the recent case where a list of India [ Images ]ns holding bank accounts in tax havens abroad was given to the Supreme Court but the names were not leaked or revealed to the media. "We apprehend and suspect that elements in the government of India may also have a role to play in it (leaks)," Prasad said.

He added that the government was facing opposition onslaught on issues like price rise and corruption and may have 'engineered' the leaks to divert attention from them. "The SIT report was filed in the Supreme Court. Only the SIT and the two amicus curiae saw it. The Supreme Court is yet to consider the report and form an opinion on it. How was it leaked to the media," Prasad sought to know.

He said the BJP trusts the "impeccable integrity of the Supreme Court in maintaining secrecy". The principal opposition also insisted that while the Gujarat government had the best record in convictions in a riot, the Congress has the worst record as shown in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

"Riots are unfortunate but the record of Gujarat in the conviction of those involved in riots is the highest in India. 700 people were convicted, 70 of whom were given sentences from 10 years to life imprisonment," Prasad said.

Pointing a finger at the Congress, he asked with 'what face' the Congress could comment on Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's [ Images ] record.

"(Congress is) A party having the worst record in 1984 riots in which it saved people like Sajjan Kumar and Jagdish Tytler. Rajiv Gandhi [ Images ] himself said that when a big tree falls, the earth shakes," Prasad said.

Panel slams Narendra Modi over Gujarat riots

NEW DELHI: A panel probing anti-Muslim riots in India’s Gujarat state in 2002 has criticised the partisan handling of the unrest by the state’s Hindu nationalist chief minister, Narendra Modi. The panel, set up by Supreme Court, concluded that Modi - a senior Hindu nationalist leader touted as a future prime minister - had sought to play down the seriousness of the violence that claimed 2,000 lives.

However, according to its report, the panel felt it had not uncovered enough material to justify criminal prosecution. The Gujarat riots were one of the bloodiest incidents of sectarian violence in India since independence in 1949. Mainly Hindu mobs rampaged through Muslim neighbourhoods for three days, hacking, burning, shooting and beating at least 2,000 Muslims to death.

The unrest was triggered by the death of 59 Hindu pilgrims in a train fire. The cause of the blaze was never clearly established. Modi, who has been the state’s chief minister since 2001, has long been accused by human rights groups of turning a blind eye to the violence, with some suggesting he actively encouraged it.

The findings of the panel only appear to substantiate some of the lesser allegations made against Modi and his government, and stop well short of confirming any criminal negligence. “In spite of the fact that ghastly and violent attacks had taken place on Muslims... the reaction of the government was not the type that would have been expected by anyone,” it said. “The chief minister had tried to water down the seriousness of the situation,” it said, while describing as “sweeping and offensive” Modi’s identification of a criminal tendency within Gujarat’s Muslim community.

“His implied justification of the killings of innocent members of the minority community, read together with an absence of a strong condemnation of the violence... suggest a partisan stance at a critical juncture,” the panel said. It also noted Modi’s “discriminatory attitude” in visiting the scene of the train fire, but not the riot-affected areas in Gujarat’s largest city, Ahmedabad.

Modi was personally summoned and quizzed in March last year by the panel which had been ordered to investigate more than 30 allegations made against members of the state government, including the chief minister.

“A few of these alone were in fact substantiated,” panel chairman R K Raghavan wrote in his concluding statement. Previous investigations into the riots commissioned by the Gujarat government have absolved the state police and government of any collusion in the violence. AFP