Tehelka, 20 October 2008
The Fire Spreads
Andhra Pradesh becomes yet another flashpoint as six Muslims are burnt to death, reports SANJANA
IT IS 48 hours since the violence, and the stench of burnt flesh, plastic, wood, and cotton is still overpowering. Add to that the smell of the mangled remains of a bed burnt out of shape and food grains strewn on the floor, soot-covered walls and a roof that no longer exists. Add to that the memory of the photograph which shows six charred bodies lined up on the floor of a room less than three strides across. This witch’s brew of sight, smell and memory permits a visitor only 30 seconds inside before the need to run out overwhelms. Yet, this house in Vatoli, a village 12km from mandal headquarters Bhainsa in Andhra Pradesh’s Adilabad district, has had a stream of visitors since October 12, the date of the brutal murders. The killings were preceded by violence in Bhainsa on October 10, which claimed three lives.
The villagers are tired of being asked the same question repeatedly: How could a house in the middle of a village with 200 homes burn down without anyone noticing till it was too late? Their responses are curt and evasive, and the woman whose house was next to the one burnt slips away when identified.
It is this silence that stokes the rage of the relatives of the murdered family. Tanveer Ahmed, whose wife and twoyear- old child were among those dead, squarely blames the villagers for shielding the murderers. “It takes a while for bodies to be charred, for the entire house to burn down,” he says. “Even if we accept the police report that the house burnt for 40 minutes from 2am, how can there be no eyewitnesses? Don’t people try to rescue those inside a burning house?”
Equally furious is Ahmed’s nephew, Imran Khan, whose parents, Mahboob Khan and Safia Begum, were among those dead in the fire. “I was spending a week in Bhainsa and our neighbours knew that They had my phone number. Yet, they didn’t call me or the police.”
Their rage is understandable. Khan’s parents were one of the only two Muslim families in Vatoli. Doubling as the village tailor and grocer, both considered themselves to be secure, believing their security was guaranteed by all villagers. When communal clashes broke out in Bhainsa on October 10 and tension gripped the area, Mahboob and Safia refused to flee, despite repeated appeals from relatives. These relatives reject the claims that all the six who perished were burnt alive.
“The bodies were piled on top of each other and covered with mattresses, gunny sacks and things from the storeroom. Besides, there were several injuries to the bodies. Even limbs were missing,” says Mujahid Khan, a relative. The police found one of the missing limbs a day later outside the house.
Fairoz Khan is the father of six-year-old Arsalan and three-year-old Numan, both of whom were burnt alive. “We found the bodies only after we dug the rubble. Until then, we were told our family had run away,” he says, shaken. Not even the police who arrived hours before he did offered help. He says he got no cooperation from the villagers; not even the offer of a glass of water. “Humanity died in Vatoli,” he says. “Is this the age for me to see the charred bodies of my children?”
Distrust runs deeper in Bhainsa, where a curfew was put in place after the October 10 communal clashes. Forty per cent of the town’s 41,000 people are Muslims. It has a strong presence of Sangh Parivar affiliates such as the Hindu Vahini and the Bajrang Dal. In addition, the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM), a state-wide political organisation, too, is strong there. The administration has classified Bhainsa as a ‘communally sensitive town’ due to its history of sectarian violence.
The October 10 trouble erupted in Bhainsa when a Durga idol procession passed through a sensitive area. According to Bhainsa police Sub-Inspector A Uday Kiran, the people leading the procession changed the music to a tape that blared Banayange Ram mandir (We will make a Ram temple) just as it was passing the mosque. This provoked some Muslims to pelt stones. “This minor altercation suddenly grew dangerous. Within 10 minutes, there were 200 people on both sides throwing stones, while the police was stuck in between,” says Uday Kiran. Unable to control the situation, the police resorted to firing in the air to pacify the mob. Reinforcements took two hours to arrive. In the interim, Bhainsa burnt. About 30 shops from both communities were looted and set on fire. Ten vehicles were burnt. Police say the mobs attacked them, too.
THIS VIOLENCE in turn triggered attacks on Muslims in villages nearby. While the October 12 Vatoli murders are the worst of the attacks, mosques in the village of Mudhol were stoned and shops looted and burnt in at least 15 separate attacks. While both Muslims and Hindus rioted in Bhainsa, SI Uday Kiran states that subsequent violence was primarily orchestrated by the local units of the Hindu Vahini.
Certain local trends are important when trying to understand why communal violence is growing in the area. Most locals clearly state that in the last 10 years, increasing importance has been attached to Durga and Ganesha processions and immersions, which, Muslims say, did not occur until two decades ago.
Explains K Balagopal, a human rights activist from Hyderabad: “This is a recent phenomenon that has been cultivated by Hindutva forces across Andhra Pradesh. In Telangana, women celebrating Durga Puja would carry kalashas in a procession and immerse them in tanks. However, the concept of men marching with an idol is new.” Bhainsa police have in the past banned processions during Holi, Dussehra and Muharram.
Balagopal lays equal blame at the door of the MIM, saying that organisation would serve the Muslims better by finding ways for their economic growth rather than using them for political and cultural goals alone. “The RSS and the MIM reinforce each other in a dangerous way,” says Balagopal.
This grisly dance of provocation and counter-provocation has already claimed nine lives. •
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