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Politics : America Under Siege: The End of Innocence -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Captain Jack who wrote (13739)	3/3/2002 10:23:10 AM
From: Captain Jack	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 27724

AHMADABAD, India, Mar 03, 2002 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX) -- "Need milk and vegetables. Have nothing for children to eat." This text message appeared Sunday on the cellular phone of Ghulam Mohammad, hiding in a riot-hit Muslim neighborhood. Muslims besieged in their homes - too afraid to venture out and face killer Hindu mobs on the streets of Ahmadabad - have sent thousands of frantic text message pleas on their cellphones to friends and relatives during the last four days. Mohammad received the plea for milk and vegetables from his friend Kamaluddin Lakhani. But there was little Mohammad could do. Holed up in his shattered residential block, he had just sent similar messages to his friends, but drawn a blank. "There is nothing in the house to eat," said Mohammad, 42, a photographer, when contacted by The Associated Press by cellphone in his house in Shah Alam area. "I don't even have any money on me, and people have looted petrol (gasoline) from my scooter, so even if I tried, I could not go anywhere to buy food," he said. After a Muslim mob burned to death 58 Hindus in an attack on a train on Wednesday, retaliatory killings by Hindus erupted across western Gujarat state, adding 427 to the death toll by Sunday. At least 195 have died in Ahmadabad, Gujarat's largest city and home to a large Muslim minority. In many places in Ahmadabad, Muslims live in apartment blocks surrounded by Hindu neighborhoods. "Whenever we call the police they say they are sending troops, but nothing happens. There are two cardiac patients in the colony who have run out of medication," said Lakhani, who lives in Juhapura, 8 kilometers (5 miles) from Mohammad's house. Even though police are enforcing a loose curfew, allowing women and children to go out to buy provisions during the day, Muslims say they are too afraid to step out. In Juhapura, where about 10,000 Muslims live, only 200 policemen were on guard Sunday. Across the road from Juhapura in downtown Ahmadabad are Hindu apartment blocks. Shards of glass, broken bricks and bottles and twisted shells of cars litter the street. "We cannot go out to buy anything. Our first priority is to get milk and vegetables," said Lakhani, 54, father of three children, who sent the short text message to several Muslim friends. He said all of them replied they were facing a similar crisis. He said the family buys its provisions in bulk and their rations of rice and lentils had run out. He said his 18-year-old son was supposed to leave on Saturday for Australia to study management. But with the violence going on "there was no question of even going to the airport," he said. He and other residents resorted to text messages because they were the only reliable way of communicating. Land phone lines were disrupted and damaged by the violence and arson, and cellular phone connections were jammed because of overuse. Some residents also sent the messages to their friends in the police. But the police are reluctant to go deep into the narrow lanes because both Hindus and Muslims are armed with handmade bottle bombs and sharp weapons, said a senior police officer, speaking on condition of anonymity. He said many Muslims had illegal firearms. In Juhapura, one Hindu was killed when police opened fired at a mob early Saturday. A policeman was shot dead by an armed Muslim on the same day. In retaliation, two Muslims, attempting to leave Juhapura, were burned to death by a Hindu mob. By RUPAK SANYAL Associated Press Writer