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Violence intensifies in Gujarat, migrants flee for lives
TNN | Oct 6, 2018, 05.24 AM IST
The toddler was raped, allegedly by a 20-year-old youth from Bihar at the ceramic factory he worked at Dhundhar village near Himmatnagar, which caused widespread anger among locals after the accused was arrested.
In the 24 hours ending Friday evening, at least 19 incidents of attacks on migrants were reported in Sabarkantha, Mehsana, Gandhinagar, Ahmedabad rural and Ahmedabad city. Offences were registered in all these cases. Nine offences were registered in Mehsana, six in Sabarkantha, three in Gandhinagar and one in Viramgam.
Shriram Rawat, who was engaged in gardening work in Dediyasan village near Mehsana, fled with 20 other people from his native village in Uttar Pradesh. Rawat and others, including a pregnant woman and toddler, stuffed themselves into two cars and reached Abu Road on Friday evening. “Trains are jam-packed and there is no place to even stand. We will board buses going towards our native places,” Rawat told TOI.
“We are very scared. Being outsiders, we don’t even know whom to approach and how for protection. It’s best we leave at present and return only when normalcy is restored,” he said.
Some 17 families living in Gopal Das Chawl and JP Chawl near Sabarmati railway bridge in Ahmedabad have fled after their houses were ransacked and looted by a mob of Thakor community members late on Thursday night. Dramatic scenes were witnessed at JP Chawl on Friday when a mob of women threatened to kill two women, “to avenge the rape of the toddler”. Surprisingly, they issued the threats in the presence of a few policemen who had rescued the two women.
On Thursday evening, a mob of nearly 400 gathered near Indrad village and targeted around 100 non-Gujaratis living in 20 rented rooms near an industrial area, said police sub-inspector Nandasan, M G Rathod.
In Vadnagar town, police had to rescue around 10 migrants who were attacked by a group of motorcycle-borne people, said Manjita Vanzara, deputy superintendent of police, Mehsana.
Director general of police Shivanand Jha said a total of 170 people have been arrested so far in the FIRs lodged for attacks on migrant workers. “Violence has been reported in Sabarkantha, Mehsana, Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad. We have deployed about 16 companies of SRP in the violence-hit areas in addition to the existing deployment. We have even called for additional forces from other districts.”
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ndtv.com
Workers From UP, Bihar Leave North Gujarat After Protests Over Rape
Over 150 people have also been arrested for allegedly targeting people, mostly migrant workers, from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar
All India | Reported by Saurabh Gupta, Edited by Debanish Achom (with inputs from ANI) | Updated: October 07, 2018 13:13 IST
The police said they have arrested over 150 people for targeting migrant workers
Ahmedabad:
Hundreds of migrant workers from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar have left north Gujarat after protests broke out over the rape of a 14-month-old baby girl allegedly by a man from Bihar last week, the police said. The accused has been arrested.
Over 150 people have also been arrested for allegedly targeting people, mostly migrant workers, from UP and Bihar, and the police are patrolling the streets of Sabarkantha, 116 km from Ahmedabad, a senior police officer said. The situation is under control, he added.
Protests broke out in Gandhinagar, Ahmedabad, Patan, Sabarkantha and Mehsana a day after the accused was arrested.
"In reaction to the Himmatnagar's Gambhoi rape incident, some people are targeting those who have come to Gujarat from other states. This is totally unacceptable. We have arrested more than 150 such people and are patrolling areas that have more non-Gujarati people," Gujarat Director General of Police Shivanand Jha told news agency ANI.
Gujarat Congress legislator Alpesh Thakor, who also heads the Thakor Sena group in the state, has appealed for calm. Mr Thakor's group has been accused of leading the attacks on the migrant workers from the two states.
He has denied the allegations. "This is unfortunate. We have never advocated violence and only talked peace. All Indians are safe in Gujarat," Mr Thakor said.
With inputs from ANI
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The Indian Express
Rape backlash: Fearing for lives after mob attacks, UP, MP and Bihar migrants flee Gujarat
Squeeze into buses with children and basic possessions to make long journeys home; say ‘never encountered something like this in our many years in state’
Written by RITU SHARMA | Ahmedabad | Updated: October 7, 2018 7:33:51 pm
Migrants from Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar leaving Ahmedabad on Saturday afternoon. Javed Raja
HUDDLED UNDER Ahmedabad’s Chanakyapuri flyover with their bags and small children, they waited for a bus that would take them on a backbreaking 24-30-hour journey home to Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar.
From Ahmedabad and its neighbouring districts, Hindi-speaking migrants who have lived in Gujarat for years, are fleeing — driven by fear after mobs, seemingly angry over the alleged rape of a 14-month-old girl, started to attack “non-Gujaratis” earlier this week.
In some cases, landlords had asked them to leave, said some of the migrants waiting for a bus in the afternoon sun Saturday. At least 180 people had been arrested in the districts of Gandhinagar, Ahmedabad, Sabarkantha, Patan, and Mehsana for targeting migrants, especially those from UP and Bihar, police had said Friday.
“My children were playing in the lane outside our house when the mob attacked on Thursday night. They are still in shock. I took my four-year-old son to the doctor to calm him down that night,” said Rajkumari Jatav, 30, waiting for a bus to return to her village in Bhind district of Madhya Pradesh.
Rajkumari’s three children and her husband, who does paint jobs to sustain the family, live in Mahadev Nagar, a colony of migrants in Ahmedabad’s Chandlodiya area. Several other migrant families who are their neighbours, are fleeing too — in their seven years in Gujarat, none of them has ever felt a fear like this, Rajkumari said.
Some 20 buses, each packed with more than 80 passengers, left for UP, MP and Bihar Saturday. (Source: Javed Raja)
Dharmendra Kushwaha, who too is from Bhind and lives in Mahadev Nagar, said some 1,500 UP, Bihar, and MP migrants may have fled from their homes in the colony over the last few days. “Two hundred people left today,” said Kushwaha, 20, a labourer who works with painters, and arrived in Ahmedabad two years ago after spending seven years in Surat. He said masked men had told him to “leave Gujarat before 9 am” Saturday, or he would be dead.
Some 20 buses, each packed with more than 80 passengers, left for UP, MP and Bihar Saturday. Normally, no more than a handful of buses leave on these long-distance routes every week.
“A bus would leave for UP, Bihar, or MP once in two days, with perhaps 25 passengers. But now, I am having to accommodate 80 or 90 people in each bus. And 20 such buses are leaving every day,” said Pintoo Singh of Satyam Tomar Travels, an agency that has been operating private buses on these routes for several years.
Krishnachandra Sharma, a 42-year-old building construction contractor who says he has lived in Ahmedabad for the last 22 years, cannot recall having witnessed seen a situation earlier. “There have been Hindu-Muslim riots, but never something like this. The news spread like wildfire on Facebook and WhatsApp, which everyone has on their phones,” he said.
Manju Singh (27), who does paint jobs in Gandhinagar, said his bike was stopped by a group of seven men on Thursday evening. “They asked me where I was from. Sixth sense told me to lie, and I said I was from Rajasthan. When they probed further, I mumbled the name of a district. They let me go only after they had satisfied themselves I was not from UP, MP or Bihar. Immediately after I left, they burnt a vehicle at that very spot,” Manju Singh said.
Manju Singh and several others left for their homes in Madhya Pradesh Saturday. All of them are painters, and this is peak business season for them, with Gujaratis painting and decorating their homes ahead of Diwali.
Waiting for a bus to Jalaun district in UP, Urmila Devi, who has been living in Kalol in Gandhinagar district for the last two years, said she did not know why people from her state were being attacked, or who was targeting them.
“Some 50-60 people stormed our settlement, shouting, ‘Sab bhaiyya log nikal jao nahin toh mar-peet karenge’,” she said. “They set all the pani puri stalls in the lane outside our homes on fire. My son-in-law now has a fractured arm. Our landlords asked us to leave as soon as possible,” Urmila said.
Mannbhai Prajapati (26), who has been selling pani puri in Visnagar in Mehsana district for the last 11 years, fled home with his family and reached Ahmedabad Friday morning. On Saturday, he said he was boarding the first bus he could get for his village in UP, along with his wife and three children, ages eight, two, and one.
“We do not know why they are doing this to us. We have locked our rented rooms and left with only our clothes. What else could we do? We do not know when we will be able to return. We never thought we would have to run away like this,” he said.
Meanwhile, the child whose alleged rape by a man from Bihar on September 28 in Sabarkantha district triggered the violence against Hindi-speaking migrants, was discharged from hospital in Ahmedabad Saturday. Her condition was stable and she was out of danger, a senior official of the hospital said. The alleged rapist had been arrested on the same day.
Both the BJP and Congress have appealed for peace and harmony in the wake of the violence and exodus of North Indian migrants from Gujarat. State BJP spokesperson Bharat Pandya said Saturday that “what happened is a black spot on our society”, and asked people “not to give political or caste colour” to the incident. “I condemn both the rape of the minor as well as the subsequent attacks on migrants,” Pandya said.
State Congress president Amit Chavda said “anger was building among youths owing to rising unemployment” and “the rape of the minor girl provided the trigger for the attacks on migrant workers”. However, Chavda said, an entire community could not be held responsible for the actions of one individual. “What has happened, cannot be justified. But it is the responsibility of the state government to protect the life and property of citizens,” he said.
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The Indian Express
Rape backlash: At one factory, few migrants on rolls, sacked staff in mob
Officials said that soon after the news of the rape, messages circulated on social media appealing to members of a particular community to “unite and chase non-Gujaratis away”.
Written by Satish Jha | Ahmedabad | Updated: October 7, 2018 5:41:44 am
One of the first to be run over by mobs was the ceramic factory where the accused, who belongs to Chhapra in Bihar, worked. (Express photo by Javed Raja)
SINCE the September 28 arrest of a 19-year-old for allegedly raping an infant, at least half-a-dozen factories hiring migrant workers have been attacked across northern Gujarat. One of the first to be run over by mobs was the ceramic factory where the accused, who belongs to Chhapra in Bihar, worked.
While Alpesh Thakor, the Congress MLA and president of the Gujarat Kshatriya-Thakor Sena, said their anger was directed at the government and industry for “not complying with the rule to employ 80 per cent locals in factories”, police officials who refused to be named said that in at least one of the attacked factories, Himalaya International Pvt Ltd in Vadodara, of the over 500 workers, “not more than 100 were from outside the state, mostly UP and Bihar”.
Inspector General of Police, Gandhinagar range, Mahendrasinh Chavda said the rape had brought to the fore “long-suppressed sentiments”. “The locals had been dissatisfied with the factory owners and were looking for an opportunity.”
Officials said that soon after the news of the rape, messages circulated on social media appealing to members of a particular community to “unite and chase non-Gujaratis away”. Officials believe this provoked the more than two dozen incidents of violence in north Gujarat, in which 180 people have so far been arrested.
A day after the 19-year-old was arrested for allegedly raping the 14-month-old, two factories located in Himmatnagar and Prantij of Sabarkantha district were targeted. On October 2, another two were attacked, in Vadnagar and Vijapur towns in Mehsana district, including Himalaya International, a food processing plant inaugurated in 2012.
According to Vadnagar town police, a mob of over 200 people gathered outside the factory and demanded that “till the 14-month-old rape victim gets justice, migrants from UP/Bihar be removed from job, else they would be killed….”
The police report states the mob threw stones at the company’s building and tried to force their way in. Manager Shyamlal was badly beaten up, hit on the head with a stone, and had his shirt torn off. Twenty people were arrested, all belonging to nearby villages and to Thakor community.
Apart from rioting, the accused were booked for allgedly promoting enmity between groups and for acts prejudicial to harmony.
A police officer said, “Our investigation has found that at least five of them used to work in the factory and were sacked for different reasons. The rape incident gave a chance to them to mobilise and attack the company.” Police and locals also say that migrants comprised no more than one-fifth of the work force at Himalayan International.
The attack on Jay Prabhu Cotton Mill, in Kotadi village, happened the same day. A police report, in Gujarati, says 150-200 people from “Thakor members of the Kshatriya-Thakor Sena” got together “with a common intention… to create unlawful assembly and create ruckus”.
The report says the mob forced its way into the mill, pelting stones and beating up workers. All the 23 arrested for being part of the mob are Thakors.
In another incident, at Unjha town, an FIR has been lodged against 100 people for “promoting enmity between different groups and committing act prejudicial to maintenance of harmony between different groups”.
The Mehsana district has been the worst affected in the violence. DSP Nilesh Jajadia said, “Till today, 15 FIRs have been lodged, out of which two are related to spreading rumours on social media. The rest 13 are related to law and order issues. We have arrested 100 people so far.”
Ahmedabad too has seen attacks on migrants, with an incident of a mob threatening them to leave Gujarat reported from Changodar in Ahmedabad rural early last week. On Friday, a group of people hit a worker, Dashrath Sodha, on the head in Odhav industrial area of Ahmedabad. Police said Sodha was attacked when he questioned the group for forcing people to shut shops, while threatening non-Gujaratis to leave the state. Twenty people were arrested in the case.
IGP Chavda said they were trying to bring peace by talking to village heads, factory owners, community leaders.
