(The Times of India)
Gujarat riot victims in Delhi for 'public hearing'
[ 21 Dec, 2006 0304hrs ISTTIMES NEWS NETWORK ]
NEW DELHI: Rupa Dara Modi's eyes are bloodshot. "For seven hours, they stoned our housing society in downtown Ahmedabad... set our house afire... we ran helter skelter, suffocating... I clutched my daughter's hand even as I lost consciousness, she let go of my 13-year-old son's hand... he is missing... I am still carrying his poster in my bag," she says through her tears.
Rupa is one of the survivors of the genocide in Gujarat that followed the February 28, 2002, carnage. Almost five years on, organisations like Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) and Sahmat brought together victims for a public hearing in the national Capital on Wednesday.
They will also participate in a two-day discussion at the Indian Social Institute starting Thursday on "Human Rights and the rule of law: mob terror, state terror and bomb terror", organised by CJP and Communalism Combat.
Speaker after speaker broke down as they recounted the days of horror. Ghulam Ali, from Sardarpur village, saw 33 members of his family burnt alive by rioters. "We had informed the police... when we saw the van coming, we thought we were saved, but the vehicle did not even stop. The scenes keep coming back to me, I can't sleep," says Ali.
Tales of police apathy, and at times, connivance in the riots are abound. Rupa says her head was cracked by a brick a cop threw at her during the riots. Calls to the commissioner yielded no results, she alleges.
Shabana Bismillah of Pandharwada was left a helpless spectator as her husband, father-in-law and grandmother were beaten to death. "They were hitting us with rods and chains, saying 'if you have not seen Gadar, watch it now'," says Shabana.
"They even hit my nine-month-old son, but I somehow saved him. When I finally reached the relief camp, nobody was even willing to listen to what had happened. We never got their bodies." Bodies of 11 of the 22 people killed in Pandharawada were found dumped in Lunawada town in 2005. Villagers who had dug them out are now facing FIRs for having exhumed them.
Teesta Setalvad, secretary of CJP, said,"After the initial attention, the national concern over the Gujarat genocide has faded. Next year is election year in Gujarat and attempts are on by the state government to announce pre-election sops for riot victims. But unless the low-intensity state-run warfare that is still on is exposed, memories of Gujarat will vanish."
She alleged that continuing harassment of riot victims also had a land-grabbing angle to it. "The idea is to force these people to sell their property and agricultural land at throwaway prices," she said.
|
