|
|
The Milli Gazette, April 16-30, 2002
If you missed Bosnia, visit
Gujarat
By Syed Ubaidur Rahman
Ahmedabad: Do you have any inkling as to what is really happening
in Gujarat? The state that has been aflame since 27 February
continues to burn. The state of affairs in the state after
touring it for a week has left this writer speechless. Words fail
to describe what has been done to Muslims there.
When this writer started out for the state he was almost sure
that this tragic story of blood, death and fire, that continues
till today and will probably continue for a long time to come,
will be told by someone else, as travel for a lone Muslim, that
too with a beard, could easily be his last journey. And that
seemed to be a good bet, as now to narrate the events there one
needs a lot more than just words.
Thousands of people have been killed during the last one and a
half months. Though the government figures have just crossed 800
casualties, the way things are being covered up, people who are
working for rehabilitation and relief say that at least 2500
people have been either burnt alive or killed. YA Charkha, an
advocate who has been involved in setting up of the relief camp
in Godhra, from where the fire started in the first place, says
that even the figure of ‘2500’ is not final as there
are daily reports of killings coming from various areas,
especially villages. He says that Muslims residing in 400
villages in Panchmahal district under which Godhra falls, have
been totally destroyed. Women, young and old alike, have been
raped and even then not spared by the rapists most of whom are
VHP, Bajrang Dal and RSS activists. Don’t ask about their
men. They were killed before capturing their women. Children as
old as just two days were not spared.
The story of Bilqis Yaqub Patel, 20, from Randhigpur near Godhra
is shattering. When her family started out for safety shortly
after the Godhra incident, there were thirty people with her.
From their village they went to Kudwazal village where they took
shelter in the mosque. Here her sister Shamim delivered a baby
boy. At this place her mother sent the men away. Now there were
only eight women and eight children. Only her maternal uncle was
around. From there they were chased away by a mob. In another
village, tribals sheltered them and gave them their own clothes
to conceal their identities. Tribals sent two people with them to
accompany them to Chaparwad village. Here people recognized them
and killed her uncle. When they were fleeing, a mob in a Tata
Sumo vehicle chased them. These devils, who were 24 in all,
killed all the children including her two-year old son as well as
the boy her sister had just delivered two days back. Every woman,
young and old was raped by three devils each and later everyone
was killed. They thought Bilqis too had died. She was lying there
for two whole days. Now she is in the relief camp at Godhra. She
doesn’t know who brought her there. When I asked her about
her male relatives, she said she has no news about them.
It is not that she does not recognize the perpetrators. She knows
them by name. She told me that all the twenty four people who
killed her relatives and outraged the women were from her own
village and they used to purchase milk from her father’s
dairy.
Hers is not any exceptional story. There are hundreds of similar
incidents. The case of Sharifunnisa or Fatima, who had come to
celebrate Eid with her in-laws, was also no different. When
rumors started spreading, along with her family members she took
shelter in the fields outside the village. The sarpanch (village
headman) assured them that nothing will happen and took them to
his house. Here he brought a mob of 500 people. Eight people were
killed there. She too was injured grievously when she tried to
protect her husband.
People in other camps too recount similar tales. Take the story
of Fatima Bibi Yusuf Patel, now in Shah Alam Camp in Ahmedabad,
or that of Jawed Hasan who is just 12 years old. All his family
members were burnt alive in front of him.
Everything belonging to Muslims has been destroyed with deathly
precision. There are reports as to how a shop among hundreds of
shops in a shopping complex was meticulously identified and
burnt, but not much has been written as to how a shop, belonging
to the majority community still stands while all the shops in the
same complex have been destroyed. The lone shop in the Paldi area
of Ahmedabad is still standing while all others surrounding it
from three sides were razed to the ground. This shop was not a
large departmental store with a large building, but a ramshackle
tailoring shop. And to add to the mystery, this single shop
amidst all the ruin is still functioning as if nothing has
happened there. The destruction around this shop doesn’t
seem to have bothered its owner a bit. It is the story of every
nook and corner of the state.
Whole housing complexes have been demolished. And curiously, not
a single window pane in the adjacent Hindu housing complexes has
been harmed. Gupta Nagar, Al-Ateeq, Dinoori Park, Soni Ki Chal,
Narol Highway and numerous other places tell the same story.
Houses have been totally destroyed with not a single household
item escaping the fury of fire. Thousands of people have fled
their houses and have either moved to safer areas or have been
forced to take shelter in relief camps.
The fire was so intense that it even peeled the roof and wall
plasters. There are several stories about the material being used
to burn shops and houses. Some people told me that the material
was imported from Israel to quickly dispose of dead bodies after
the earth quake last year and the same is now being used to
destroy Muslims. Batuk Vora, a former MLA and social activist in
Ahmadabad, said that the material being used for setting things
afire is called 'Latex' and was being brought from Hyderabad.
I asked a local activist in Vadodra as to how these people are
able to so selectively destroy Muslim shops only without
inflicting any damage to the adjacent Hindu shops? He said that
they first drill that shop and then insert this material. The
fire does not spill over; but destroys everything in that
particular house or shop.
The story of people living in Muslim localities is no less
tragic. With no work for the six weeks, thousands of people are
starving. Farooq Shaikh, who is running Juhapura relief camp,
says that people in relief camps may be a bit better off as they
are at least getting food, but people without work with their
businesses destroyed have nowhere to go. These people are also
regularly tortured by police and paramilitary forces.
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi says the riots have been
controlled and that these were merely a reaction of the Godhra
incident. People laugh at such claims. Reenuka Sharma, a PUCL
activist in Vadodra, told me that everything was very finely
planned. She said that riots against Muslims were planned much in
advance before the Godhra incident. Details from municipality,
telephone and electricity departments were being collected long
before the Godhra incident in order to identify Muslim
businesses.
She says that the whole plan to destroy Muslims was planned much
in advance and was carried out in three phases. She adds that in
the first phase they targeted Muslim shops and houses in areas
where they were not numerically strong. During the second phase
they attacked Muslims in mixed colonies. And now after clearing
Muslims from mixed colonies they are trying to destroy Muslims in
areas where they form a formidable majority. She added that in
areas where there was no violence, the locals received bangles,
metaphor for cowardice, together with provocative pamphlets.
Several Muslim-dominated areas in Ahmadabad and elsewhere in the
state are regularly being attacked by large mobs during night.
The mobs act under full police protection. Muhammad Nayeem of
Juhapura said that when the rioters attacked Al-Ateeq housing
colony in Ahmedabad, they were fully protected by the police.
‘Whenever Muslims tried to defend themselves, the police
fired at them. Even now the residential houses in Hindu colonies
just across these destroyed housing complexes are well secured by
the police who are stationed on roofs and on top floors to keep
vigil. Police that did not take any action while Muslims were
being set afire, now daily comb Muslim areas and torture Muslim
youth. On 5 April, 75 Muslim youth were arrested by police from
Teen Darwaza area in Ahmadabad after a stabbing incident and were
tortured so badly that these people who have been suffering death
and destruction said that they never witnessed such brutality in
their life. It is becoming a normal routine for Muslims in the
state.
Mahadev Vidrohi, who heads an Ahmedabad-based NGO told me that
action reaction theory is being fished out by Modi to protect his
skin. He says everything was planned and was organized by the VHP
with full Modi support.
This was confirmed by Patel Shantilal Purshottamdas, a former
deputy minister of commerce at the central government and four
times Lok Sabha MP. He told me that on 27 February, after the
Godhra incident, when Modi came to Godhra where he met VHP
functionaries at the Circuit House. When they asked him what to
do, he said that you should wear bangles. Patel who was present
at the Circuit House adds that Modi told the VHP people that
nothing would happen if you add one or two zeros in response.
Former Gujarat state chief minister and president of state
Congress Party told me that everything is planned and executed by
the VHP and the RSS with full government support. He said that
nothing will change till Modi government is removed. Asked about
the state government claims that the riots are planned by the ISI
or other foreign powers, he laughed and said that they must
themselves be ISI agents since everything is planned by these
very people and no outside power or agency is involved in it. It
has been learnt from reliable sources that full-time
functionaries of the VHP, Bajrang Dal and the like are on the
payroll of leading business houses.
The Milli Gazette, April 16-30, 2002
Gujarat carnage not
spontaneous outbreak of violence
Gujarat carnage was in no way a spontaneous outbreak of
violence. How did the riots spread so swiftly explains MH
Lakdawala
Mumbai: Tragic events like the ones we are witnessing all over
Gujarat shatter lives, unsettle moral convictions and unmake the
fragile establishment we normally call society. But the discourse
that has slowly arisen over this violence, the terms that have
gained wide currency to describe, explain, justify and excuse
this violence threaten to once again render it invisible.
Just as this violence blurs the line between legality and
illegality, between state and criminality, between truth and
fiction, between faith and power, so it blurs the meaning of
terms till we don't quite know what we are talking about. The
most common description given for the Gujarat carnage is the
"spontaneous" nature of the riots and the outburst of
the Hindu sentiments.
The Sangh parivar wants this nation to believe that what is
happening in Gujarat is nothing but the manifestation of the
sentiments of the Hindus.It cannot be farther from the truth.
According to social scientists, riots need, as a necessary
condition, organisations that plot mass killings with
governmental support. The prerequisite for any riots as social
scientists have proven time and again, is that the rioters know
very well, each and every one of them, that the government of the
day was solidly behind them.
There is then three of this social forensics. The first, and the
most obvious, one is that riots do not just happen, they are
created. There are organisations that have a definite interest in
fomenting riots but they need the active support of the
government. When a riot takes place it is because the killers
know that no harm is going to come to them. If they had the
slightest fear that they might not come home, that they might be
in jail, even killed, they would never have ventured out.
The killings of Sikhs in 1984 and the Bombay carnage of 1993,the
Bhiwandi riots, the Meerut massacres, the killings of Christians,
the Ayodhya bloodlettings all are well documented and proven
beyond any doubts if proof indeed was necessary, that riots take
place because social sentiments overflow normal bounds and move
otherwise reasonable people to indulge in murder and mayhem. It's
a myth and propaganda from the so called Hindutva representatives
like RSS, Bajrang Dal and VHP that Gujarat carnage was the
manifestation of Hindu sentiments.
The past riots analysis and commissions’ findings have
disproved the theory of saffron Brigade that after the Godhra
episode social sentiments overflew normal bounds and led
otherwise reasonable people to indulge in murder and mayhem. Why
should the recent Gujarat carnage be any different from the past
riots? The genesis of the 92-93Mumbai riots was the Radhabai
chawl episode when few Hindus were burnt alive allegedly by the
Muslim mob. Till date it is not proved whether the mob consisted
of Muslims or the agents of vested interest. Even Supreme Court
has acquitted all the Muslims accused in the Radhabai chawl case.
The Radhabai chawl episode was exploited by the Shiv Sena to
unleash the terror against the innocent Muslims of Mumbai as
documented by Shrikrishna Commission.
When Shiv Sainiks went to make the Bhiwandi riots everybody knew
what was going to happen. They boarded trucks in Mumbai, armed
with rods and cycle chains, openly announcing their intentions.
They all looked like a happy bunch out for a Sunday picnic. They
knew very well, each and every one of them that the government of
the day was solidly behind them.
Thus as Sangh parivar want us to believe, Gujarat carnage is in
no way a spontaneous outbreak of violence. The involvement of
political factors in Gujarat carnage has elements of
premeditation and wilful intent to harm, kill or destroy both
life as well as properties belonging to Muslims. The RSS and Jan
Sangh have been censured by commissions of inquiry galore:
Justice Madon on Bhiwandi; Vithavathil on Tellicherry (1971);
Jitendra Narain on Jamshedpur (1979); Venugopal on Kanyakumari
(1982); and Sinha and Shamsul Hasan on Bhagalpur (1989).
How do the riots spread so swiftly as they do? Prof. Paul R.
Brass, a scholar of repute who has done field research in India
for decades, explains in his mini-classic Theft of an Idol
(1997): "Riot specialists are specialists in the conversion
of incidents in the relations between the communities, in this
case between Hindus and Muslims, into occasions for riots. When
the time is right for the fomenting of a large-scale disturbance,
then students, hooligans, low-caste persons from slums and
outlying areas, criminals, and special squads of trained
activists such as the members of the Bajrang Dal, will be brought
in.
The Manual of rioting is back in circulation. Even as the
Narendra Modi government and the Gujarat Police talk about the
"spontaneous" nature of the riots that followed Godhra,
the pattern of violence can be found in guidelines laid down in a
pro-Hindu booklet. The booklet - Hinduno Bachao: Akraman ane
Kayedo (Save Hindus: Attacks and Laws) - first surfaced in
Gujarat two years ago after the withdrawal of an order that
allowed government employees to participate in RSS programmes.
The terror manual stated that an organised attack on minorities
could be made to look like a 'spontaneous' reaction by the
public. The primer illustrated how a crowd had beaten to death a
boy and a girl in Halvad town many years ago in full view of
court officials, but no one was prosecuted as thousands were
involved.
The same pattern was followed in the post-Godhra violence in
which rioters escaped under the cover of anonymity. Apart from
guidelines on how to register complaints against minorities for
their 'Vidharmi' (non-believer) acts, the 12-page booklet advised
the Hindu 'samaj' to implicate senior missionaries in false
cases. "They may not be convicted, but they should be made
to go up and down the courts for months..." The mob's manual
Pro-Hindu booklet says an attack on minorities can be made to
look like a 'spontaneous' reaction Missionaries must be
implicated in cooked up charges. Booklet illustrates how a large
mob can get away with murder even if committed publicly "Now
that we have our own government, we should take proper advantage
of it and get our work done by it," it states.
The Milli Gazette, April 16-30, 2002
Godhra in retrospect
A news item published in the 25 February issue of Hindi daily Jan
Morcha, published from Ayodhya, is as follows:
"Faizabad, 24 Feb: ‘Trishul dharis’ (trishul
holders) of Bajrang Dal travelling by Sabarmati Express to
Ayodhya this morning let loose their terror on dozens of unarmed
Muslim passengers, women in ‘burqa’ and innocent
children in all their fury and compelled them to raise the slogan
of ‘Jai Shri Ram’. Some of them described themselves as
Hindus and thus saved their lives.
According to eye-witnesses, about two thousand Bajrang Dal
activists carrying ‘trishuls’ and travelling by
Sabarmati Express coming from Lucknow had in fact started their
hooliganism from Daryabad railway station itself. Whoever among
the train passengers was identified as Muslim was gored with
‘trishuls’ and seriously injured by hitting with iron
rods. They did not spare even women and innocent children. They
tore the veils of women to shreds, hit them with iron rods and
dragged them. Same rowdyism continued from Daryabad to Rudauli
station. According to an eye-witness, a youngman who tried to
resist was thrown out of the train between Patranga and Rauza
Gaon stations. The train arrived at the Rudauli railway station
around 8 in the morning. As soon as the train came to a halt,
many injured ladies, drenched with blood jumped out of the train
on the platform. Simultaneously, Bajrang Dal activists identified
Muslims and started targetting them on the platform. One
passenger Ata Mohammad, who was waiting on the platform for the
train to Allahabad, was badly beaten. Some others were also
compelled to raise the slogan of ‘Jai Shri Ram’. Some
of them projected themselves as Hindus and saved their
lives."
The Milli Gazette, April 16-30, 2002
It is not communal riots but
ethnic cleansing: SAHMAT
National and international organisations continue to condemn
Gujarat violence and demand that the culprits must be brought to
justice, ANDALIB AKHTER reports
777 Survivors of the attack, who are now spread over many relief
camps in the city, recall how the local police totally sided with
the riotous mobs. The Noorani mosque was first attacked and burnt
with the help of LPG cylinders, tyres, petrol and kerosene. When
some Muslims youths tried to resist the mobs, the police fired
upon them and even killed some of them. Residents in the camps
claimed that the SRP force present refused to provide them
sanctuary and forced them towards the waiting riots. 777
NEW DELHI: In the latest reports relating to Gujarat carnage, the
Amnesty International and the SAHMAT, the well known human rights
organisations have also accused the Modi government in Gujarat of
collaborating with the rioters and asked the Centre for a free
and fair inquiry in the whole incident.
Questioning the legitimacy of the enquiry by a judicial
commission appointed by the state government, the Amnesty said,
”inquiry must be carried out by an agency appointed by the
centre since the Gujarat government and its agency are themselves
suspected of culpability in violence”.
The Amnesty says unless the culprits were brought to justice,
others might feel free to repeat the acts. ” The expectation
of immunity from prosecution may in fact have been a cause for
the open systematic and brutal nature of the violence in
Gujarat” the report observed.
Amnesty also points out that little has been done to ensure the
safety, well being and rehabilitation of the displaced victims.
The absence of the authorities, the inadequacy of food, shelter
and medical help have been detailed, as has the lack of security
to the survivors. The report also documents the systematic and
discriminatory violence targeted against Muslims and
discriminatory approach in providing relief subsequently.
Similarly the SAHMAT, in its report has also emphasised the
immediate importance of bringing the perpetrators to book and
prosecute them under the criminal laws of the country. “The
government of Gujarat and its chief executive are widely believed
to be responsible for this carnage. Therefore, the C G Shah
enquiry instituted by them has little credibility” the
report observes.
It exhorts the central government to constitute a high level and
time bound judicial enquiry by a sitting supreme-court/ high
court judge to look into the entire episode to bring the guilty
to justice.
“The union government must direct the Gujarat government to
set up such an enquiry commission, and to provide it all
necessary assistance expeditiously, so that it can arrive at its
finding at the earliest”, it says. The SAHMAT also
questioned the role of local Gujarati press and asked the press
council to examine their role. “Where the laws of the land
have been transgressed exemplary action must be taken, so that
the communal fires are not fanned again”.
In its report ‘ethnic cleansing in Ahmedabad’ prepared
by the Sahmat team comprising Dr. Kamal Mitra Chenoy, Vishnu
Nagar, Prasenjit Bose and Vijoo Krishnan observed that the
incident in Ahmedabad was not a communal riot but a pogrom.
“All evidence suggests that what happened there was a
completely one sided and targeted carnage of innocent Muslims,
something much closer to a pogrom or ethnic cleansing”, says
the report. The report says, “The selective violence that
was perpetrated was done with remarkable precision, suggesting
meticulous planning and collation of information over a
protracted period. It also clearly indicates collusion and not
merely indulgence of the state machinery and the ruling political
establishment. The ground for this communal genocide was cleared
in Gujarat much before the Godhra massacre”.
The report has contested the official reports of casualties
calling it understatement and said that the number of people
killed in Ahmedabad alone would be nearly 1, 000 as against the
official figure of 700 which includes the Godhra victims.
“An overwhelming majority of those killed are Muslims,
including women are children. While most fell victims to killer
mobs led by VHP Bajrang Dal activists, there were several
instances of deaths due to police firing on helpless Muslims.
Some eyewitness accounts suggest large-scale massacres of Muslims
still continuing in the countryside. In certain cases, entire
families have been exterminated in village with nobody left to
lodge complaints or claim the dead bodies” says the finding.
It says the most prominent forms of violence experienced were
pogroms led by local level VHP and Bajrang Dal leaders in Muslims
dominated areas which were ghettoised by the Muslims. Naroda
Pattiya has been cited as the worst instances of such an attack
where a Muslims settlement of about 25,000 inhabitants was
completely destroyed by rioters. " Survivors of the attack,
who are now spread over several relief camps in the city, recall
how the local police totally sided with the riotous mobs. The
Noorani mosque was first attacked and burnt with the help of LPG
cylinders, tyres, petrol and kerosene. When some Muslim youths
tried to resist the mobs, the police fired upon them and even
killed some of them. Residents in the camps claimed that the SRP
force present refused to provide them sanctuary and forced them
towards the waiting riots. Once the resistance was broken with
the help of the police, the rioters stormed inside the settlement
burning and looting at will”, the report records. “It
will take generation for the victim to recover from such a
pointed and vicious communal onslaught”, observed the SAHMAT
report.
Anti-Muslim Riots Page #: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 - 12 - 13 - 14 - 15 - 16 - 17 - 18