11 jailed for life over hacking and burning of 69 Muslims

11 people have been handed life sentences by an Indian court over the massacre of dozens of Muslims in the western Gujarat state in the year 2012.

The conviction according to reports is coming 14 years after bloody religious violence which the presiding judge, P B Desai, described as “one of the darkest days of civil society”.

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Another 12 suspects were sentenced by the court to seven years in jail, over the murder of 69 Muslims, who were hacked and burnt to death in a residential complex in the city of Ahmedabad in Gujarat, among them women and children.

The court also handed a 10-year sentence to another person for rioting and arson in the bloody violence which occurred when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the state’s chief minister.

The prosecutors had sought the death penalty, arguing that those targeted were all “innocent people”.

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