Indian PM pleads for end to clashes

Activists burn an effigy representing Indian Home Minister L.K Advani and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

AHMEDABAD, India -- India's prime minister has appealed for an end to the worst religious bloodletting in a decade as he visited the riot-hit western state of Gujarat.

Atal Behari Vajpayee on Thursday issued his strongest condemnation of the clashes that have killed more than 800 people, most of them Muslims, since late February.

"This insanity cannot be allowed to continue," Vajpayee told an audience of thousands in a Muslim shrine turned into a relief camp in Ahmedabad, the state's main city.

"The poison of religious violence must be stopped."

Vajpayee's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been accused of not doing enough to stem the bloodshed and failing to uphold India's secular character.

CNN NewsPass VIDEO CNN's Satinder Bindra reports 800 people have died as Muslims and Hindus attack one another in Gujarat, India. (April 4) Play video

His visit comes amid a backdrop of heavy criticism from the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) of the Gujarat state government's handling of the communal violence.

The BJP leads the national coalition and also runs the Gujarat state government.

'Brotherhood'

"Brotherhood has to be restored by joining hands and helping each other -- there is no other way," Vajpayee said, adding the violence had badly hurt India's international image. "How can I show my face abroad?"

EXTRA INFORMATION PHOTO GALLERY: Continuing violence in India    FOCUS Rebuilding a temple's future  • Ayodhya: India's religious flashpoint    IN-DEPTH India's religious strife

He said he wanted to take personal stock of events that have left more than 100,000 people in relief camps across the state.

The leader's visit to Gujarat, his first since the violence erupted, was surrounded by heavy security.

As Vajpayee spoke outside the Shah Alam Camp camp, thousands of Muslim protesters roared for the state's chief minister, Narendra Modi, to be dismissed.

The Hindu hardliner has been accused of turning a blind eye to the violence when it was its peak.

Controlled mayhem

Modi has rejected the charges. But the NHRC has faulted him for "a serious failure of intelligence and action."

Vajpayee's trip was marked by continued sporadic violence in cities and rural areas.

Hours before his arrival, two Muslims were killed by Hindu attackers, bringing to 10 the number who died in the 24-hour period before his visit. The victims included a Muslim family of five who were burnt to death.

More than 800 people are believed to have been killed across Gujarat in a wave of revenge killings

Vajpayee's first stop was Godhra town, the epicenter of one of the worst instances of communal violence. He inspected the burnt-out hulk of a train carrying Hindu devotees whose torching by a Muslim mob on February 27 triggered the religious clashes.

Fifty-nine people were killed in the train attack, including one who died late on Wednesday, and around 750 have died in the subsequent violence, burnt or hacked to death or shot by police trying to control Hindu-Muslim clashes.

The Indian leader has been under pressure from opposition parties to fire Modi but he has been under equally strong pressure to back Modi from hardline party members who believe he has restored the BJP's fortunes in the state, known for its religious divisions.