In The Heart Of Hate

A TIME reporter visits a town at the center of India's killing frenzy between Muslims and Hindus

When Afsana, 18, a Muslim living just outside the Indian city of Ahmadabad, heard that a Muslim mob had torched a train carrying Hindus in the nearby town of Godhra, she knew what would come next: furious Hindus seeking revenge. And sure enough, her family soon spotted a mob nearing their home. The girl fled with her 5-year-old brother and hid in the home of Hindu neighbors. From the neighbors' roof, she saw her parents and her two elder brothers beaten, doused with gasoline and burned alive. Her four sisters, she says, were stripped, raped and killed.

Later the neighbors told...

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