Death-threat claim in riot trial

The Muslims were burned alive in Baroda's Best Bakery

The mother of a key witness in a controversial Indian riot trial told a court that a human rights activist had threatened to kill her and her family.

Sehrunnisa Sheikh said she was being pressured to give evidence against the defendants in the Best Bakery case.

The case centres on claims a Hindu mob killed 12 Muslims and two others when burning a bakery in Gujarat in 2002.

Ms Sheikh was backtracking on earlier statements to Gujarat police, as had her daughter, Zahira, and two sons.

All have been declared hostile witnesses by the prosecution.

This hearing is a retrial - the first collapsed when witnesses retracted evidence and 21 defendants were freed.

Now 17 men are in court facing charges in the retrial. The other four from the first trial have absconded.

Chastising

Sehrunnisa Sheikh made the claims against the rights group Citizens for Justice and Peace, headed by the activist Teesta Setalvad.

More than 1,000 people, mainly Muslims, were killed during the Gujarat riots.

Zahira Sheikh is a key witness to the Best Bakery attack

In the first trial, Zahira Sheikh was one of several Muslim witnesses who were expected to testify against the 21 Hindus accused of attacking the bakery in the town of Baroda.

But in court the witnesses all retracted earlier statements to the police, saying they did not recognise the accused.

Zahira Sheikh later said she had lied in court because she had been threatened with her life by leading members of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party in Gujarat if she testified against the Hindus.

India's Supreme Court ordered a retrial in Mumbai (Bombay) after heavily chastising the judicial authorities in Gujarat for their handling of cases arising out of the riots.

Zahira Sheikh has again changed her story, saying Citizens for Justice and Peace threatened her into making false statements to the Supreme Court.

However, her sister-in-law, Yasmin Sheikh, has testified that Zahira took money to change her statement again.

A court is looking into Zahira's funding amid claims she and her sister, Saira, were using a luxury car far beyond their meagre incomes.

Citizens for Justice and Peace has angrily rejected claims by the Sheikhs and has petitioned the Supreme Court.

It has ordered Zahira Sheikh to explain her change of statements.

The Best Bakery case has often been cited by human rights groups as evidence that victims of the Gujarat riots gained little justice.

Some of Zahira Sheikh's family owned and ran the bakery, and were among those killed.

The 2002 riots deeply divided Hindus and Muslims living in Gujarat and left a deep scar on the Muslim minority, many of whom still say they live in fear.