The massacre that scarred Marad
Shaju Philip (The Indian Express, Jan 16, 2009)
Kozhikode: The Marad violence of 2003 had seared a deep wound on the secular psyche of Kerala. The coastal village, inhabited by Hindus and Muslims, had a history of stray incidents of minor communal clashes, beginning in the 1950s. Such aberrations had never gone out of control and had been amicably settled.
However, communalism raised its ugly head on the New Year eve of 2002 when an eve-teasing incident assumed communal colour, leading to the murder of five Muslims. Scores of huts along the beach and country boats were torched.
After a couple of months, on May 2, 2003, a group of armed assailants hacked eight Hindu fishermen to death. Apart from them, a Muslim youth also fell to the swords of his own men. That the attack was a well orchestrated one was manifested from the stiff resistance the police faced while trying to contain the bloodbath. The killer gang even attempted to attack the police.
On the night of May 2, soon after the attack, Muslim families fled the coast, fearing retaliation. Their rehabilitation in their own houses was delayed by six months after Hindu organisations put up stiff resistance.
The Sangh Parivar demanded a CBI probe into the carnage and adequate compensation for the families of the deceased.
The ruling Congress-led United Democratic Front faced an embarrassing situation, as its ally, the Indian Union Muslim League, was under suspicion over its leader’s alleged involvement in the conspiracy behind the crime. The League vehemently opposed the move to hand over the case to the CBI.
A few days after the massacre, the Government entrusted the probe to a special crime branch team. The probe faced the allegation that the arrests of 149 men were made on directions from a ruling party in the state. The court recently acquitted 76 of the accused on the ground that the prosecution could not prove their involvement in the case.
After several rounds of conciliatory talks, political parties agreed to a judicial probe. The Muslim families were taken back to their homes, ransacked by rival groups, in batches and under police protection. Hindu organisations also climbed down after Rs 10 lakh as compensation were granted to each of the families of the dead.
The Judicial Commission, with Thomas P Joseph as the inquiry officer, submitted the report in 2006. The commission had found “there had been a larger conspiracy involving Muslim fundamentalists or terrorists and other forces in the planning and execution of the massacre. There was no sufficient evidence before the commission to show the direct involvement of any international agency in the massacre. The commission had said the activists of the CPI(M), RSS and Muslim League were involved in the incident. The commission had also observed that the crime branch had not looked into the larger conspiracy involving other forces, sources of explosives, larger quantity of weapons, source of funding.
Meanwhile, the present Left Government had asked the Centre to order a CBI probe into the massacre. However, the Centre had turned down the plea on the ground that a partial probe was impractical. However, with an eye on the next election, the state has again sought a CBI probe two months ago.
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