In what could be called as the worst bloodbath in the history of independent India, Gujarat witnessed intense communal riots, which began on February 28, 2002, leaving over a thousand dead, 2,500 injured, and roughly 1,50,000 people displaced in the ensuing weeks. The three-day rioting was triggered by the burning of a train in Godhra, on February 27, which caused the deaths of 58 Hindu pilgrims returning from Ayodhya. Following the initial riots, there were further outbreaks of violence in the state for three months. . In the massacre of Naroda Patiya, over 90 people were killed followed by the Gulbarg Society massacre, where a mob of 400 people killed the residents. As the nation remembers the tragedy 20 years later, here's the story of the Gujarat riots in pictures. All pics/ AFP
Updated On: 2022-02-28 06:07 PM IST
Police fire teargas at rioters in the Shahpur area of Ahmedabad on 22 April 2002.
Women protesters (L) push a police barricade during a march organised by several women organisations to express solidarity with those who were allegedly raped during Gujarat's sectarian riots, in New Delhi on March 13, 2002
Residents walk past a car burnt by rioters in the Khanpur area of Ahmedabad on April 23, 2002
An insurance company surveyor takes photographs of burned shops to evaluate shopowners' claims at Delhi Darwaza in Ahmedabad March 5, 2002
A policeman aims at an angry mob at Millat Nagar in Ahmedabad on March 1, 2002
Ahmed (L) and his brother Amin (R) salvage goods from their burned shop in Ahmedabad on March 5, 2002
Smoke billows from a building set alight by rioters in Ahmedabad on February 28, 2002
Indian police clash with rioters in Ahmedabad on April 5, 2002
A shop owner tries to douse the flames as the entire wood market was set ablaze at Lathi Bazar, in Ahmedabad on February 28, 2002
A mob armed with swords at Bapunagar on March 1, 2002 in Ahmedabad
This picture, taken on March 1, 2002, shows a mob waving swords at an opposing mob during communal riots in Ahmedabad
Homeless people whose houses were burnt during riots, sit at a camp in Bapu Nagar in Ahmedabad
A policeman looks at burning shops at the entrance of a mosque in Ahmedabad on February 28, 2002
A woman works through the wreckage of a burnt house in Ahmedabad, March 7, 2002. Residents of the city started to rebuild damaged properties and shops following the worst clashes in nearly a decade
