AN INDIAN politician who has been blamed for religious riots in which thousands died has called off a trip to Britain, due to begin today, claiming that intelligence agents had uncovered a plot to kill him.

Narendra Modi, the chief minister of Gujarat, was scheduled to lead a rally of thousands of Hindu supporters at the Albert Hall, which Muslim protesters planned to disrupt, but the Indian Home Office told him that his life may be in danger unless he cancelled the three-day trip, he said. Sanjaya Baru, a spokesman for the Indian Prime Minister, said: “There could be a threat to his life.”

Human rights campaigners claimed last night that Mr Modi cancelled his flight after learning that demonstrators intended to make a citizen’s arrest over allegations that he orchestrated sectarian riots in Gujarat in which an estimated 2,500 Muslims died in March 2002.

The rioting was provoked by a fire on a passenger train at Godra, a Muslim-dominated town in Gujarat, a province in western India. Fifty-eight people, mainly Hindus returning from a pilgrimage, were killed and an investi- gation produced evidence of arson.

Mr Modi, a far-right poli- tician, was quoted in the Gujarati media making pro- vocative statements on the subject.

Although the British Government refused to prevent him from travelling to Britain, the US State Department banned him from entering America this week, accusing him of violating religious freedom.

Several British human rights groups had been trying to get an arrest warrant for him.

Muslim leaders failed in recent attempts to get the Government to revoke his visa.

Activists claim that Mr Modi’s involvement stoked up one of India’s worst episodes of sectarian violence since independence from Britain in 1947.

Many British families lost relatives in the riots in March 2002 and two Britons died.

In addition to the 2,500 people, mainly Muslims, who were hacked, burnt or beaten to death, it is estimated that a further 200,000 were made homeless through fire.

The Muslim Council of Britain, Suresh Grover, who heads the UK National Civil Rights Movement, and Imran Khan, a human rights lawyer, believe that they had amassed enough evidence — as required by the 1998 British Criminal Justice Act — to persuade Bow Street magistrates to issue an arrest warrant.

Some protest groups were also planning to follow the example of Peter Tatchell, the gay rights campaigner, who attempted a citizen’s arrest of Robert Mugabe, the President of Zimbabwe, during a shopping trip to London in October 1999, for torture.

Mr Tatchell was beaten up by Mr Mugabe’s bodyguards when he made a second attempt at an arrest in the foyer of a Brussels hotel in March 2001.

British supporters of Mr Modi have hinted that he may fly to Antwerp next month on the inaugural flight of a new Indian airline, but that trip is now also in jeopardy because of fears that protesters may try to seize him there, too.

Last night Suresh Grover said that the cancellation of the London visit was “a victory for human rights activists — in the UK and India — because the victims of the Gujarat massacres have not been able to express themselves”.

He personally lobbied Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, this week to ban the trip.

Two of the Muslims killed during the riots were British citizens and their widows have sued the Gujarati Government for $4.9 million (£2.6 million), alleging a conspiracy resulting in their husbands’ deaths.

Explore UK News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Science News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• Donor organ allowed child’s own heart to heal
• Michael Jackson: Not the final chapter
• Sacha Baron Cohen forced to tone down Brüno