SCARRED FOR LIFE: A riot victim at Ahmedabad's Shah Alam refugee camp

She didn't want to die. The child growing within her didn't even want to be born yet. But that last day of February, in the obscure Naroda Patia locality of Gujarat, death—at its ghoulish best—lay in wait for them both. In a siege of untempered hatred, 5,000 mindless marauders bore down on 200 families, undeserving victims of their faith. Heavy with pregnancy but spurred by fear, she ran too. Only till the dead-end of the alley. They cornered her, forced out her unborn child and torched it in a gloating frenzy. Then they killed her too. That evening, the police in Naroda Patia counted 27 charred bodies, among the 73 trapped to their deaths in a 60 sq ft alley.

FACE OF DESPAIR: A grieving member of the Bohra community at Dahod

About 200 km away at Kedia village near Lunawada, another nameless man died an easier death. The mob just sliced his head off before splitting it into two. Khan was among the 50 people in a truck trying to dodge a chasing mob. But when the vehicle broke down a short distance away, nearly 100 men torched it. Within 30 minutes, 30 aboard the truck were dead.

In a week of a vengeful spree following the February 27 Godhra carnage, more than 600 people have died across the state and 20,000 rendered homeless in Ahmedabad alone. Mosques and dargahs have been burnt or damaged, and several have been converted into Hulladiya Hanuman temples or Godhadiya temples in honour of the Godhra victims. Fluttering saffron flags signal a perverse victory. Despite a past pockmarked by communal riots, Gujarat has all but lost its moorings as a tolerant society.

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"I never saw such a huge mob—they burnt alive my husband" Zakia Nasin, wife of a former MP, Ahmedabad Ehsaan Jafri, a former MP living in Ahmedabad's Gulmarg Society,began calling the police at 8.30 a.m. His wife Zakia Nasin was worried—they lived in a Hindu area—but Jafri had faith in his neighbours who had called to warn him of mobs. By noon, a hostile crowd was pelting stones and Jafri's pleas went unheeded. The ex-MP began calling politician friends, but it was of no use. The mob swelled to about 5,000 and began throwing burning tyres. Jafri sent his family upstairs while he stood at the gate. "That was the last time we saw Jafrisaab," says Zakia, who denies he used his gun. The police arrived at 5 p.m. after the mob had razed the complex. His neighbours showed that they deserved his faith—the mob was not local—and dozens of residents lost their lives with him. FACE OF DESPAIR: A grieving member of the Bohra community at Dahod The riots reveal the extent of hatred in the society.

The immediate provocation for the riots may have been the Godhra inferno, but the savagery of retaliation belies a resentment spanning years. The Hindu-Muslim gulf has been widening since the 1969 Ahmedabad riots, the 1989 rath yatra on the Ayodhya Ram mandir issue and has been fuelled by the Kashmir conflict. The heightening Indo-Pakistan tension and Islamic terrorism in the past two years—from cross-border terrorist attacks in Kashmir to the December 13 Parliament attack—have given Hindu militancy both momentum and respectability. In fact, Gujarat is perhaps the only state where the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) resembles a mass movement.

The past few months have seen mounting public opinion on the lack of action against Pakistan—over Kargil and more recently the Parliament attack. In fact, during his attempts last week to pacify Gujarat, Union Defence Minister George Fernandes was not only pummelled by stones, but also queries like, "Why isn't India attacking Pakistan?"

Indifference to or perhaps ignorance of global compulsions has fuelled hostility and the state's Muslim population is being held responsible for Pakistan's jehadi policies.

Another aggravation has been the mushrooming of Deobandi madarsas in the border state over the past two years. The lackadaisical attitude of the Keshubhai Patel and Narendra Modi governments in curbing their growth has widened the gulf between the communities. In fact, police officials attribute the ferocity of attack at the Gulmarg Society and former MP Ehsaan Jafri's house to the presence of one such madarsa in the complex.

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"I am no stranger to communal hostility but this dance of death was unbelievable" Ayub Qureshi, labourer, Ahmedabad The scars on their bodies tell their tale better than Ayub Qureshi and his family can-they are still in shock. Qureshi, a labourer, was attacked by a frenzied mob on the fateful day of the bandh in the hut where he lived with wife Najma and his four little children. The hapless family managed to run to the State Reserve Police camp nearby, but were refused entry by the guards who said they didn't "have orders". They were soon seized and kerosene was poured on them. His son Sohel, 5, and daughter Faranaz, 7, were torched to death before their eyes. He says, "Being from Ahmedabad I am no stranger to riots, but this was unthinkable. It was a dance of death. It will haunt us forever." Qureshi with his surviving daughters

Public ire has also been building against the BJP-led coalition Government at the Centre. The predominantly pro-BJP population in the state that has sent over 20 saffron MPs to the Lok Sabha since 1991 has been frustrated by the party's failure to deliver on core issues, particularly the building of the Ram temple in Ayodhya. If the mandir issue is back on centrestage, they believe it is a reaction to the recent violence. The VHP, meanwhile, is still sore over its failure to score on the issue of cow slaughter last year. Despite the clout of Pravin Togadia, VHP international general secretary, no action was taken to effectively implement the law banning cow slaughter.

Last week, what marked the slaughter of people was the unprecedented intensity as well as societal sanction. The underclass was supported in the looting by the middle and upper middle classes, including women. They not only indulged in pillaging but openly celebrated the destruction and mounting death toll. Residents from posh localities in Ahmedabad didn't balk at taking to the streets at the slightest hint of an approaching mob. By the chief minister's own admission, the pattern of rioting didn't correspond at all to Gujarat's 100 most sensitive localities. New areas joined the sectarian frenzy. Implicit in this participation was an expectation of tacit, if not overt support, from the state Government. As Maheshbhai, an entrepreneur, says, "For the first time we have had a chief minister who has stood up. The Muslims have been the aggressors for the past 50 years. This time it was different."

The blame for the initial explosion on February 28 is being pinned on the Modi Government for its failure to arrest those responsible for the Godhra massacre. The slum from where the train attack was launched was illegally constructed on Railways land and each of the 10 main suspects involved in the attack has a criminal background. Some even enjoyed political patronage. Haji Billal, one of the main accused, was known for his links with smugglers and traffickers. Such was his notoriety, claims a BJP MLA, that "a few months ago the authorities had difficulty pasting a notice on his door". On February 27, the VHP asked the state Government to act against them and when it failed, the public anger was directed against all Muslims.