Gujarat riot witnesses to be recalled

AFP, Ahmedabad
Seven witnesses in a 2002 Gujarat riot case, including a police officer, were Tuesday ordered by India's High Court to be recalled and re-examined.

The order came in response to a petition filed by Medina Bibi, whose daughter Shabana, 16 and niece Suhana, 17, were gang-raped and burnt to death along with five other family members in Panchmahals district during the March 2002 riots.

Bibi's lawyer, Shiraj Mallik, told AFP that the police department should take disciplinary action against the officer who had "turned hostile".

Witnesses in other Gujarat riot cases have also become hostile but the cases are now being reopened after Supreme Court intervention.