Former British secretary Straw spills beans over Gujarat's inquiry.

ISLAMABAD -- Former British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has testified to the fact that the British government had conducted an investigation on its own into 2002 Gujarat riots in India after the large-scale violence created ripples in the UK.

He said the investigation was carried out after citizens of Gujarati Muslim origin in the UK were worried about their loved ones in India and were making representations to that effect to the then Tony Blair's government.

During an interview with 'The Wire' an Indian media outlet, regarding BBC's documentary about the 2002 Gujarat riots, the former British diplomat said that the simple fact was that in Britain, including in his constituency, there were hundreds of thousands of people from the Indian State of Gujarat, mainly Muslims.

There was a lot of concern and there were also people that he knew whose families were affected by these inter-communal riots directly and they were making representations to them, he added.

Jack Straw further elaborated that the ripples of the Gujarat riots were felt in the UK and that as a result, the then British High Commissioner (Sir Rob Young) ordered an investigation.

The 29-minute interview with Straw was conducted days after BBC aired a documentary 'India: The Modi Question', which revealed that the British authorities had ordered an inquiry into the riots as they had found the extent of the violence alarming.

According to BBC documentary, a report given to the UK government by the inquiry team mentioned that the 'extent of the violence was much greater than reported' and there was a 'widespread and systematic rape of Muslim women' as the violence was 'politically motivated.'

It further said that the riots aimed to 'purge Muslims from Hindu areas.' 'That undoubtedly came from Modi,' the documentary maintained.

In the documentary, a former British diplomat, who remains anonymous said, 'At least 2000 people were murdered during the violence where the vast majority were Muslims. We described it as a pogrom - a deliberate, and politically driven effort targeted at the Muslim community.'

The former UK foreign secretary said that he had conversations with Indian officials, including the then external affairs minister Jaswant Singh and the then prime minister regarding the riots.

He further defended that there was nothing about post-colonial. It was everything to do with the constituents, justifying the investigation.

'What we did was establish an inquiry and have a team...

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