The 32-page report provides detailed eyewitness accounts of how soldiers and police killed people in cold blood between November 21 and 23, during an operation intended to restore law and order. Fighting between Muslims and Christians broke out in the northern city of Kaduna in November 2002 following controversy around the Miss World beauty contest. Some Muslims considered an article in the newspaper ThisDay to be blasphemous. Muslim youths started attacking Christians, Christians retaliated, and within three days, around 250 people were killed. Not only did the security forces fail to intervene at the first signs of violence, but once they were deployed, they contributed significantly to the violence by killing and injuring people who were not posing any threat to security. The Human Rights Watch report also describes well-organized attacks by Muslim and Christian youths during the three days of violence. Youths of both faiths singled out their victims and attacked them purely on the basis of their religion. In addition to killing scores of people, they destroyed many buildings, including churches, mosques, schools and homes. The Human Rights Watch report concludes that the conflict in Kaduna was more political than religious and stemmed from unresolved disputes between different ethnic and political groups. It links the 2002 riots to clashes between Muslims and Christians in Kaduna in 2000, in which more than 2,000 people were killed following disagreements over the introduction of Sharia (Islamic law).