NEW DELHI — A court in India found 31 people guilty Wednesday of killing 33 Muslims during riots in Gujarat state in 2002. They were convicted of murder, arson, rioting and criminal conspiracy, and were sentenced to life in prison, along with fines.
Forty-two other defendants were acquitted.
The mass trial followed an investigation ordered by the country’s Supreme Court after the police failed to take effective action in response to the riots, which broke out March 1, 2002. That evening, a mob of Hindu rioters surrounded houses belonging to Muslims in a village and set them on fire, burning dozens of people alive, including men, women and children.
The riots occurred two days after attacks on a train carrying Hindu pilgrims killed 59 passengers. Rioting broke out across Gujarat for weeks afterward, resulting in the deaths of more than 1,000 people, most of them Muslims.
