U.S. COURT ISSUES SUMMONS TO MODI IN LAWSUIT OVER 2002 RIOTS

[The complaint, filed Thursday in the Southern District of New York, names two Indians as plaintiffs, one identified only as Asif and the other as Jane Doe, who, the complaint says, would not give her name out of “well-founded fear of retaliation from the state and nonstate actors.” It says Mr. Modi and the state government were responsible for extrajudicial killings, “organized violence, large-scale displacement of members of the Muslim minority population, and the continuing denial of justice.”]

By Ellen Barry

Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India addressing business leaders in
New Delhi on Thursday.CreditSaurabh Das/Associated Press

NEW DELHI — A day before Prime Minister Narendra Modi was due to arrive for a much-touted five-day visit to the United States, a federal court in New York issued a summons for Mr. Modi to respond to a lawsuit that accuses him of human rights abuses in connection with religious riots in 2002 that tore through Gujarat, the state he then led.

The summons, which requires him to respond within 21 days, is not likely to have any concrete effect on Mr. Modi’s visit, which includes high-profile events with President Obama, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and numerous other political and corporate leaders. An attorney acting on behalf of Mr. Modi and the Indian government could seek to have the case dismissed, leaving a judge to decide the matter in several months.

But it is a reminder that the United States government at the time believed that Mr. Modi had acted too slowly to stop the riots and that in 2005, it took the rare step of putting him under a visa ban, which remains in place. As it became clear that Mr. Modi was likely to become prime minister, the United States has sought to set that history aside, build a relationship with him and use the change of governments to deepen both trade and defense cooperation with India.

Such lawsuits are not unprecedented. Last year the same attorney, representing a group called Sikhs for Justice, filed a lawsuit against Sonia Gandhi, the leader of the Indian National Congress party, alleging human rights abuses said to have taken place during anti-Sikh riots in 1984. Ms. Gandhi made a motion to dismiss the claim, and that motion succeeded this year, The Times of India reported.

The complaint, filed Thursday in the Southern District of New York, names two Indians as plaintiffs, one identified only as Asif and the other as Jane Doe, who, the complaint says, would not give her name out of “well-founded fear of retaliation from the state and nonstate actors.” It says Mr. Modi and the state government were responsible for extrajudicial killings, “organized violence, large-scale displacement of members of the Muslim minority population, and the continuing denial of justice.”

The lawyer who filed the complaint late on Thursday afternoon, Gurpatwant Singh Pannum, said his clients had been “looking for this opportunity for a long time.”

“It will be a big setback to Modi, because he was involved in the genocidal attack on Muslims, and he got away with it,” Mr. Pannum said. “I am sure he thinks he is not going to be held accountable, but he is wrong on this one.”

The Gujarat riots broke out after a train carrying mostly Hindus was set on fire at the station in Godhra, a predominantly Muslim area, killing 59 people. Blaming Muslims, mobs of Hindus rampaged, raping, looting and killing in a spasm of violence that raged for days and persisted for weeks. More than 1,200 people died, most of them Muslims.

Mr. Modi, who has close ties to right-wing Hindu organizations, was accused by many in India of failing to stop the killing. However, no Indian court to date has found him responsible. Late last year, a court rejected a petition seeking his prosecution in the case, a decision that Mr. Modi hailed by writing, over Twitter, “Truth alone triumphs.”

@ The New York Times

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PAKISTANI GUARD SHOOTS PRISONER CONVICTED OF BLASPHEMY

[On Thursday morning, a prison guard believed to be in his 20s walked up to Mr. Asghar’s cell and shot him with a pistol, officials said. It remained unclear what prompted the attack, but officials speculated that the guard was motivated by religion.]

 By Waqar Gillani

LAHORE, Pakistan — A British citizen of Pakistani descent who had been sentenced to death on blasphemy charges was wounded Thursday after a prison guard opened fire on him in Rawalpindi, police officials said.

The prisoner, identified as Muhammad Asghar, 70, was taken to a hospital and his condition was stable, officials said.

Mr. Asghar was arrested in 2010 on blasphemy charges after being accused of distributing letters claiming he was a prophet, and he was sentenced to death in January. His family has said he has a history of mental illness, including schizophrenia.

He appealed the conviction and was meanwhile serving time in the Adiala jail, a high-security prison in the military garrison city of Rawalpindi, in Punjab Province near the capital, Islamabad.

On Thursday morning, a prison guard believed to be in his 20s walked up to Mr. Asghar’s cell and shot him with a pistol, officials said. It remained unclear what prompted the attack, but officials speculated that the guard was motivated by religion.

“The attacker has been arrested,” said Abdul Majeed, a local police official. “It is being investigated how the guard managed to take a pistol inside the prison,” he said.

Mr. Asghar was shot at least once through the back. The prisons’ police chief for Punjab, Farooq Nazir, said that eight police officials had been suspended for negligence and that an inquiry had been ordered.

Under Pakistan’s legal code, blasphemy convictions can lead to the death penalty. Often, however, mere accusations of blasphemy have led to vigilante attacks and killings before cases can reach the court.

In one of the most high-profile cases, Salman Taseer, the governor of Punjab, was shot to death in 2011 by one of his elite police guards. Mr. Taseer was a vocal proponent of reforms to the blasphemy laws, which critics say are commonly misused to settle personal enmities, silence opponents and prosecute religious minorities.

Last week, a Pakistani scholar accused of blasphemy was shot and killed in the southern port city of Karachi. The scholar, Muhammad Shakil Auj, was the dean of Islamic studies at the state-run University of Karachi.

Mr. Asghar, who is from Edinburgh, has a history of mental illness and suffers from schizophrenia, his family told Pakistani news outlets. After coming to Pakistan, he was arrested in 2010 in Sadiqabad, a town in southern Punjab.

After he was sentenced to death this year, Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain told the House of Commons that the British government was closely watching the case.

The attack led to an immediate outcry by rights activists, and renewed calls to repeal the blasphemy laws.

David Griffiths, the Asia-Pacific deputy director at Amnesty International, condemned the shooting.

“This attack shows that even on death row, someone accused of blasphemy is not safe from vigilante violence,” Mr. Griffiths said in a statement.

Muhammad Asghar “has faced multiple threats already — there must be a prompt and thorough investigation into how such an appalling security breach could happen,” Mr. Griffiths said.

“He and others accused of blasphemy urgently need protection.”

Salman Masood contributed reporting from Islamabad, Pakistan.

@ The New York Times