Some Hindus Rescue Muslims While Others Express Shame, Regret

March 4, AHMADABAD, India (AP) - Horrified by the screams of his Muslim neighbors being beaten and burned alive, Virsing Rathod put aside fear and did what many other Hindus could not get up the courage to do.

The burly Hindu and his two sons jumped in a truck, rammed their way through a frenzied Hindu mob and began pulling Muslims from the flames just before midnight last Thursday.

He saved 25 Muslims that night and has since sheltered dozens in safe houses across this city engulfed by a statewide orgy of mass murder that had claimed 544 lives by Monday.

The heroism showed by Rathod and a few other Hindus stood out as a rare display of humanity during a week of savagery when Hindus and Muslims killed one another with fire, daggers and bombs.

Ten of his Muslim neighbors were still hiding in Rathod's home Monday, being comforted by his family and other Hindu neighbors.

He shrugged when asked if he's a hero.

"I did it out of humanity, because in my heart I knew it was the right thing to do," he said Monday, sitting in his tiny notary public office just behind a gutted mosque and across the street from where 66 Muslims were burned alive in a south Ahmadabad neighborhood.

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