Torched India Shop Shows Riot Risk as Muslims Wary of Modi
This article is for subscribers only.
When he first spotted the mob, Riyazuddin hid behind the piles of shoe boxes at the back of his shop. As the group of Hindu men rampaging through the Muslim market with knives, iron rods and burning splints drew nearer, smashing the windows of his store, he fled for his life, bolting out a back door and down a warren of narrow alleys.
Having checked his family was unharmed, Riyazuddin, who goes by one name, watched as the shop his family ran for 104 years was looted and burned in the walled north Indian city of Faizabad. His shop was one of about 100 torched that October night in 2012, after a rumor spread that a Hindu girl had been molested by Muslims.