Teesta Setalvad Fr Cedric Prakash Sushobha Barve

“We have paid the price for living decently,” a Muslim resident told me (Teesta) today. He is a resident of Paldi, an area dominated by Jains. Paldi is a locality in Ahmedabad inhabited by the upper middle class. Of the 5-6,000 population, there are about 1,000 Muslims. From 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on March 1, 02 the residents experienced utter terror and helplessness as a mob of 3-5,000 surrounded the apartment blocks dominated by Muslims and gutted them completely. Kazmi Apartments, Elite Apartments, Delite Apartments, Corner 2 and Tarana Apartments were gutted completely. Abdullah Motimahal, Nizamuddin Momeen and Iqbal Hasmani, above 60 were attacked by men wielding swords. Despite the fact that the violence raged for seven hours, and not less than 100 calls went to the Commissioner, no help was forthcoming from the police or the fire brigade. This area has been the target of Hindu fanatics since February 2000 when a crude bomb was placed in a flat in a building owned by one Naved Siddique ro send a clear message—no Muslims moving into Paldi please. It has also been the scene of communal polarisation in 1990, the year ofLK Advani’s infamous rath yatra.

At the Naroda fruit mandi where we visited next, all seventeen wholesale fruit godowns owned by members of the Memon community were gutted with military precision. Apart from the wares (fruit), offices, computers and trucks carrying fruits were destroyed. The total loss from this is an estimated Rs 2.5-3 crores. Though distraught businessmen, hearing news of the steady destruction meted out selectively to their businesses, made no less than 50 calls to the Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) they received no help or protection. The police are reported to have aided the mob, of 5,000 and there are also unconfirmed reports of daily wage earners of Hindu businessmen being engaged to carry out the job. The Beben Shah Masjid on the Swami Narayan Chawl road, just behind the fruit market was turned to rubble; when we reached we found torn and burned pages of the Koran strewn all over and the photograph of the idol of Hanuman, some diyas and ‘Jai Sri Ram’ painted in red on the wall ruins.

This is the fate of 26-30 Masjids/ Mazhars all over the city and unconfirmed reports say, 250 for all over the State.

Thereafter we visited Naroda pattiya, the scene of the worst violence where nothing but burns and ruins greeted us. All the survivors of the most brutal round of violence are in relief camps. Burned remains, a gas cylinder inside the Mosque, used to blast it effectively were all that we could see.

As we recorded yesterday, a primary assessment by the Muslim community of total loss is Rs 3,000 crores. Seventeen-18 factories in interior Gujarat, 1100 hotels belonging to chiliyas and at least 1,000 trucks owned by Muslims were targeted. All over Ahmedabad a visual tour is enough to show that the violence was both targeted and selective.

We had an intensive meeting to discuss legal strategies on the Gujarat situation today. The good thing was that this was a collective meeting and the strong mood was for concerted, not dispersed action. By the weekend, initial drafts of different legal interventions will be made ready.

“The voice of sane civil society needs to be asserted in a concerted manner through mobilisation and legal action” said Girishbhai Patel, senior jurist adding that we need to do whatever we can to build up a stiff and concerted resistance. It was unanimously decided to make a universal and public demands on the official Commission that has been announced by the State Government. These are:

• To reject the appointment of a local Judge and demand that due to the extent of breakdown of the constitutional machinery of the State a diverse and representative team of Supreme Court Judges be appointed to conduct the inquiry;
• That the terms of the Commission be made powerful;
• That the State commit itself to accepting the recommendations.

In addition, a People’s Judicial Commission of Inquiry with a time frame of a few months and a series of other interventions have been worked out and will be initiated shortly.

On the issue of relief and rehabilitation of no less than 35,000 displaced persons within Ahmedabad alone, we need to make a concerted demand on the following issues:

• Bare necessities like food, clothing and temporary shelter have not reached several of the camps on the outskirts of Ahmedabad.
• Tin sheets in large numbers are needed to make temporary shelters;
• There are still unconfirmed reports of corpses lying in a well at Naroda, the scene of the most brutal violence. It is important that the Army goes, with some community leaders among Muslims, to rescue these bodies and give them a dignified burial;
• The issue of rehabilitation on government land with constructed homes is looming large especially as in many areas, persons are not willing to go back. Relocation without sensitivity and examination can however be mindless as locations of communities have more to do with economic reasons, the sources of livelihood rather than any other; there needs urgent attention to be paid to the matter
• Civil society groups need to ensure that ration cards are made afresh and swiftly for all inmates of relief camps. If this is not done there is a real danger of the State, which has already displayed a blatantly partisan and fascist role may tomorrow actually rob these residents of Ahmedabad their basic right, that of citizenship.
• All groups working in these areas and there are many need to pay special attention to assisting eye witnesses and survivors registering FIRs promptly.
• The State government needs to provide on a mass basis bore wells to the Muslim peasants of the State who have already been targeted and their bore wells destroyed.

Please join our campaign for speedy and meanigful relief and rehabilitation by faxing these demands to

Teesta Setalvad Fr Cedric Prakash Sushobha Barve