Ahmedabad, Sep 1 (IANS) Nine people were arrested Friday from a north Gujarat village on charges of loot and arson during the communal violence of 2002, police said here.

The nine from Kishangarh village of Bhiloda block in Sabarkantha district, 120 km from here, were arrested following the reopening of the case this year.

The police had closed 2,020 cases related to the sectarian strife including that of Kishangarh after preliminary investigations.

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) challenged the move in the Supreme Court, which in 2004 ordered the state government to set up a cell to review the cases and decide which cases needed to be reopened.

The review committee, headed by then director general of police A.K. Bhargava, reviewed 1,965 cases between Sep 1, 2004 and Jan 1, 2006 and found 1,594 cases needed to be investigated again.

At least 1,000 people died in the communal violence in the state.