India TV channels pulled after massacre expose: Reports

NEW DELHI, Saturday (AFP) - Officials in India have blocked television channels which aired secretly recorded footage allegedly exposing government involvement in the 2002 mass killings of Muslims, reports said Saturday.The riots in Gujarat state left at least 2,000 Muslims dead and many victims and rights groups at the time accused the Hindu nationalist-ruled local government of backing the violence.

The Headlines Today private television network began Thursday broadcasting footage of men accused of taking part in the deadly riots apparently admitting that they were spurred on by Hindu groups allied with the government. On Friday cable operators in the state's commercial capital Ahmedabad received written orders to block the Aaj Tak (Until Today) and Headlines Today channels, the Indian Express newspaper reported Saturday.

Channels that covered the expose, which comes as the state readies for assembly elections in December, were also ordered to be pulled, it said. State elections officer Ashok Manek confirmed the order had been issued by top Ahmedabad district official, or collector, Dhananjay Dwivedi, the report said.

Dwivedi cited concerns about sparking “communal feeling,” said the report, referring to a term commonly used to describe tension between religious groups in India. Police verbally told cable operators in other parts of the state to stop carrying the channels, a Hindustan Times report said.

But Gujarat government spokesman Bhagyesh Jha denied that the state had issued any orders against television channels.“I have not passed the order,” Jha told AFP. “You ask the collector (Dwivedi) about it.” Dwivedi could not be reached for comment today.

The channels showed interviews secretly recorded by a reporter of the investigative news magazine Tehelka (Sensation) with several men allegedly involved in the anti-Muslim attacks. The 2002 rioting broke out after a Muslim mob was accused of torching a train, burning 59 Hindus alive. An inquiry by the state-run railways later ruled that the fire on the train which sparked the riots was an accident.

The magazine's investigation also pointed to alleged support for the carnage from police and state politicians. Some men reportedly said that Gujarat's hawkish Chief Minister Narendra Modi, a member of India's main opposition Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), gave Hindu mob leaders three days to do “whatever” they wanted.