No action has been taken against the indicted officials, including nine senior IAS and IPS officers, till date. A number of gazetted and non-gazetted state government officials, most of them policemen, were also indicted for the riots.

Over 1,000 Muslims were killed in the month-long riots in Bhagalpur in 1989.

According to sources, these officials, mostly policemen, were indicted by the probe panel that submitted its report in 1995. But no action was taken against the indicted officials during the tenure of the Rashtriya Janata Dal government led by Lalu Prasad Yadav.

"All the cases against the indicted officials will be reopened for fresh investigation," a senior official in the state Home Department told rediff.com.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumr had told reporters on Monday that the government will initiate action against the indicted officials on the basis of the report prepared by the last probe panel.

The state government's decision will be welcomed by the victims of the riot, who have waited 18 long years for justice.

Soon after coming to power, Nitish Kumar constituted a commission headed by Justice (retired) N N Singh to reinvestigate riot cases that were closed by the police for lack of evidence.

The N N Singh Commission submitted its first interim report to the state government a few months ago. On the basis of the report, the government re-opened 29 cases for investigation.  

Last week, a Bhagalpur court convicted the lone accused in the killing of a shop owner in the first of the 29 riot cases.