Vadodara Tribal Belt

Crime Against Humanity 
Volume I An inquiry into the carnage in Gujarat 
List of Incidents and Evidence 
By Concerned Citizens Tribunal -Gujarat 2002

Incidents of Post-Godhra Violence

Vadodara Tribal Belt

TEJGADH
PANWAD
KANWAT

The Tribunal recorded the testimonies of 18 witnesses from the Chhotaudaipurtribal belt in Vadodara district and received statements from another 17. This areasaw unfortunate attacks by the instigated Adivasi section of the population, whichhas been influenced by the BJP and VHP systematically over the past years. Kanwat,Tejgadh, Panwad and other villages in this region have been virtually wiped clean ofany Muslim population. Shops and homes have been looted, destroyed and then burnt,often in the presence of the police. The VHP had been having late-night meetingswith Adivasis for two months before the Godhra incident. Chhotaudaipur is locatedclose to the Madhya Pradesh border where on January 17, the RSS had held a massivetwo-day meet of tribals.

TEJGADH

The violence in Tejgadh took place from March 2 onwards, though tension hadbeen brewing since the day of the Godhra incident. Witness Khatri Abdulkader NisharAhmed who has lodged FIRs against both the SP Keshav Kumar and the collector,…… has detailed the cynical manipulation of the Adivasi population against Mus-lims. The other complainants are Khatri Usmangani Daudji, Khatri Daudji,Massombhai V, Khatri Mahmedji Umerji, Khatri MY, Khatri Ahmed Ahmedji,Fakirmohammed, Khatri Yusuf Umerji, Kureshi Amjadali, Khatri Abdul Majid AKadar, Khatri Shabbirbhai M, Khatri Abdul Kader Mahmoodji, Syyed MahboobaliHusseinmiya, Khatri Suleimanji Usmanji, Khatri Abdul Karim Usmanji and KhatriAhmedji Usmanji.

These witnesses have stated that on February 27, the day of the Godhra trainkillings, there was complete peace in their village. The next day, the traders of themajority community, including the sarpanch and the deputy sarpanch, had requestedBohra Muslims to shut their shops in response to the call of Gujarat bandh. To showtheir opposition to the inhuman killings on the train, the Muslims had closed theirshops all over. The next day, on hearing about Bharat bandh, the minorities again kepttheir shops closed to show their opposition to the train killings. On the third day, allthe shops in the village had opened as usual.

There was, however, an uneasy feeling prevalent in the village. On March 2, thevillage sarpanch came to the area. While he was there, a person from the minoritycommunity, Khatri Yusufji Daudji, suggested to him that in order to maintain peacein the village, they should call a meeting of the Peace Committee so that through anexchange of confidence in each other, peace could be maintained. The sarpanch in-formed them that there was no need to call a meeting of the Peace Committee and noreason to be worried.

But Muslims began to suspect that some scheme was being hatched in the village,and 4 families of the minority community living in the mixed locality of Limdi marketcame to live in Tejgadh on March 1. On March 3, around 10 o’clock at night, the sarpanch came to this area and told Muslims that they should not sit around in groupsbut stay in their houses, otherwise he would invoke section 144 and arrest them underit. Muslims, however, replied that they needed to be awake and in groups to protecttheir properties, as one jamadar and three police constables at the village outpost werenot enough to protect the village property. In this way, the night of March 3 passed inuneasy peace.

On March 4, through an inhabitant of the village, Abdul Latif Rehmanji Khatri,Muslims informed the leader of the BJP, Ashwinbhai Rawal (village Chichod), that asthe atmosphere of the village was not good, he should use his position to contact thezilla police chief and get more policemen. To this Rawal replied that he was going toChhotaudaipur right then to make appropriate arrangements.

But up to the evening of March 4, no additional police force was seen. At about11.05 that night, a Muslim farmer, Yakubji Daudji’s shop was set on fire. Fifteenminutes later, the shops and buildings of the minority community situated in Limdimarket were also set on fire, even as 8 persons of the minority community werepresent at the spot. They saw with their own eyes that a crowd of 150 to 200 peoplewas screaming and howling, spreading fear through the village.

The Muslims who were present told the jamadar on duty to stop the crowd fromindulging in arson. He replied that as the place had already been set on fire, he wasgoing to the police station to call the fire brigade on the wireless. Saying this, he leftthe place with his staff. But on the spot was Home Guard commandant, ArvindbhaiDesaibhai Patel, who was performing his duty.

Meanwhile, on noticing the Muslims standing there, the crowd rushed towardsthem. The Muslims ran into their area to save their lives. Just then, the telephone andelectricity connections in the Muslims area went off. Half an hour later, the watertanker of the fire brigade arrived but the unruly crowd did not allow the brigade to doits job because of which the fire continued raging.

In the meantime, more police arrived from Chhotaudaipur and started firing teargas shells. As this seemed to have no effect, they started firing in the air. When eventhat was not effective, they thought it their duty to fire into the crowd. Meanwhile,the Muslim houses and shops in Limdi market continued to burn. Then, from a rearapproach road to the market, on Kikawala Road, another mob arrived, screaming andhowling, to set fire to the Muslim houses. They were also shooting arrows.

In Limdi market, PSI Pandya, who was performing his duty, started firing tear gasshells. This had no effect on the crowd, and a cabin near the bus stand was set on fire.As the violence continued, the police had no alternative but to start firing in which, asper the witness’ knowledge, 4 to 5 persons were injured. The crowd took the injuredpeople and ran away with them.

At that time, the mamlatdar of Chhotaudaipur and the SP arrived on the spot. Thewhole night was spent in great anxiety. In the morning, members of the minoritycommunity went to meet the PSI on duty, Pandya. The PSI informed them that theprevious night, he was given orders to fire on the crowd but now he had instructions from above not to fire and so would act accordingly. He added that one person hadbeen injured in the firing the previous night and his condition was serious. If he died,the police was apprehensive that the Adivasis of the surrounding villages would at-tack Muslims during the funeral procession. He, therefore, advised the minority com-munity to leave the village in order to save their lives.

In view of this, 210 people left Tejgadh village for Bodeli, where they took shelterwith their relatives and acquaintances. The report of these 210 people was given tothe Bodeli police station. More than two months later, they were still sheltered inBodeli. From the time they moved out up to mid-May, when they deposed before thetribunal, Muslim shops and houses were continuously being first looted and then seton fire. This went on for weeks but the police took no appropriate action. In theabove-mentioned incidents, at least 65 properties (40 houses and 25 shops) werelooted and burnt down. The damage is estimated at about Rs. 1.5 crore. Refugeestook shelter in Bodeli and were living there under terrible conditions with no basicamenities.

PANWAD

On March 10, in village Panwad, 12 km from Kanwat, tempos and trucks, houses,shops and cabins of Muslims were looted and set on fire by mobs from the surround-ing villages. The incident took place on the very day on which the SRP and the BSFforces were withdrawn from Panwad.

Panwad is located within a largely Adivasi area. There are over 600 houses inPanwad, of which 200 belonged to Muslims. Muslims have been living in Panwad forseven generations, during which time there have been no incidents of communalviolence. They say that Muslims and Adivasis used to attend each other’s functionsand were on cordial terms. Banias and Dalits also live in the same village. Most of theMuslims who have had to leave Panwad were petty traders with paan-beedi shops andother small businesses, or worked in other shops, dealt in forest produce, or took onsmall contracts for construction material. None of them own much land or have anymoney in the bank. Most trading activities were carried on with Chhotaudaipur andKanwat.

According to victim–survivors from Panwad, over the past two months nightlymeetings were held among the Adivasis. “We never bothered about them. Peoplefrom the VHP, Bajrang Dal and RSS would address these meetings. However, theywere being organised and instigated against us without our even being aware of it.Rumours are rife that the Adivasis were paid a lot of cash and were given alcohol too.But we cannot verify this.” A report in The Hindu states that refugees from Panwadstaying in the Chhotaudaipur camp named three non-Adivasi Hindus who, they said,had directed the violence.

There was continuous violence in the surrounding areas right from March 1. Indi-vidual houses had been burnt in around 60 to 70 villages. Many people from theseareas came to Panwad. On March 8, the people were threatened that their village would be burnt on March 10. According to the victim-survivors, the police was presentwhen the threats were made.

The trouble in Panwad began at 2.30 p.m. on March 10. Around 5,000 to 7,000people surrounded the village. They used everything to intimidate the people —arrows, stones, dharias, weapons, private firing, etc. In the melee, two Adivasiswere killed in police firing. Muslims from Panwad said, “We were stoning, too, butwere very soon outnumbered and realised we could no longer resist them. Fifty tosixty SRP police standing there ordered us to go inside instead of stopping the mob.This continued till 1 a.m. We were terrified. Most of the women were asked to hidein one pucca house while most of the children were in another 2-3 pucca houses.There were 400 to 500 men standing out all night with no hope, no weapons and nopolice support.”

There was firing in the air, and tear gas was used to disperse the people instead ofthe mob. They were also severely beaten by the police. “The mob was not warnedeven once. In fact at one point the police went up to them and came back, and themob got even more violent and active. It was clear what was happening. They wereAdivasis from nearby villages: Panibar, Bhindol, Jhaab, Sadli, Kawra, Chimli etc.”According to the witnesses, “They told us we would be lynched because twoAdivasis had been killed. We appealed to the SP. We told him that we wanted toshift to Chhotaudaipur and he should help us shift. They asked us to wait till 8a.m. and said that nothing could be done before that. We could not hold out anylonger and 1,000 to 1,500 of us left at around 5 a.m. with nothing on us but theclothes we were wearing.”

At 8 a.m., the Adivasis entered the village, looted all the houses and burntthem systematically. Around 1,000 people were still in the camps in Chhotaudaipur(Nazar Bagh) in mid-May. Most of the people left their daughters and other youngwomen in the camp there for safety. There were around 500 Panwad residents inVadodara. According to one victim, “People from our community are helping uswith whatever they can. One of them is Judge Sadiqbhai. But how long can theyhelp us?

“It is evident that they do not want us in Panwad or even any trace of us. Theylooted all we had and saw to it that we left empty-handed. Some of us barely manageddaily wages. A small contractor dealing with bricks has lost around Rs 1.5 lakh whileanother contractor has lost property worth Rs 8 lakh.” Otherwise, most of the Mus-lim residents in Panwad had a meagre income. Women used to carry loads for Rs 40-50 per day.

The people are further disappointed in their Congress leaders who they feel were ofno help. The local MLA is Sukhrambhai Rathwa, while the MP of the area is RamsinghRathwa. Most of the people had all their cash in their houses and have lost all theirbelongings. They continue to maintain that they faced no problems from the localHindus in the village. They say that it was the Adivasis instigated by the VHP, BajrangDal and RSS who were responsible.

KANWAT

Rajesh Mishra of Arch Vahini filed an FIR as an eyewitness to the violence thattook place in his native village, Kanwat, between March 10 and March 18, 2002. OnMarch 12 and 13, in Kanwat, more than 250 houses and shop/establishments ofMuslims, were looted and then set on fire by tribal mobs from the surrounding vil-lages. Most of the houses belonging to Muslims were totally destroyed and their busi-nesses ruined. There were 185 Muslim and 52 Bohra Muslim households living andconducting their business in Kanwat. It was so far back that even elders cannot recallwhen and from where the Muslims came and settled in this interior village of Kanwat.(See FIR by Activist, Detailed Annexures, Volume III).

All 185 Muslim households lost all of their belongings. Their houses and businesspremises were looted, burnt and destroyed. Out of 185 households, 38 had pucca RCCstructures and the rest were kuccha structures. They lost property worth approximatelyRs 3.50 crore, invested in their shops, garages, cabins, handcarts and vehicles. Theywere homeless and had become paupers, taking shelter in Vadodara and Chhotaudaipurwith relatives and Muslim jamaat khanas.

The 52 Bohra Muslim community households were well-to-do traders in Kanwat.Bohras had lived in Kanwat for over generations and had developed business in var-ied spheres and on a large scale. Going by even by a very conservative estimate, theBohras lost property worth Rs. 7 to 8 crore.

From March 1 onwards, Muslims in Kanwat had been receiving threats and threat-ening calls from various sources, which made them tense and anxious. They had re-peatedly asked the local administration, the mamlatdar and the police for protection.As the tension mounted, they also demanded deployment of the Border Security Force(BSF), Rapid Action Force (RAF) or State Reserve Police (SRP) in adequate numbers.But no protection was forthcoming.

The fears were not unfounded, especially when it became known that the sarpanchand other village leaders had cancelled the traditional weekly market (haat) scheduledfor March 4 and March 11. Cancelling the haat was an extraordinary decision becausehaats are almost never cancelled. This indicated the gravity of the situation and thedanger that loomed large over the law-and-order situation. Later it became clear thatthe target was obviously the Muslim community.

As reports of incidents in Panwad reached Kanwat on March 10, panicky Muslimsdesperately urged the local administration to provide them security. They knew it wastheir turn next, for stories had been pouring in over the past ten days, that the mobswould first target Panwad, and then Kanwat. The local BJP leader, who was trying tokeep peace in Kanwat, had also sensed impending trouble. He repeatedly imploredthe district collector and the police authorities to provide adequate police and BSFprotection to Kanwat to avoid the great tragedy that could overtake the village.According to victim-survivors in Qureshi Jamaatkhana Camp, Vadodara, a greatdeal of tension was created among Muslims from February 24 by tribals from thesurrounding area, who were traumatising the Muslims by asserting that they should all be thrown out of the village. There was increased tension in the area since March 1.The local people, including the local MLA, repeatedly appealed to the administrationfor deployment of SRP and BSF forces, but this was not done.

On March 10, after the withdrawal of SRP and BSF forces, violence broke out inPanwad village, 12 km from Kanwat. The local people in Kanwat had been warnedthat their village would be attacked next. After repeated pleas made over severaldays, an army unit finally arrived on the night of March 11. In the early morning ofMarch 12, the army shifted the 185 Muslim families. That afternoon, Bohra Muslimfamilies, took shelter in the Kanwat police station. Later on in the night, these fami-lies, too, were shifted out under police protection from Kanwat to Dahod town. Theyleft their houses and property exposed.

When the attacks started on March 12, even simple measures like tear gas orfiring in the air were not resorted to by the police, to prevent the mob from loot-ing and setting fire to Muslim and Bohra property. On March 13, the looting andburning spree started from early morning and went on till late afternoon. Sud-denly at about 3.15 p.m., the police imposed curfew and within minutes it droveaway the looting mobs.

According to Meherunissa Fakir Mohammed, a resident of Kanwat staying in acamp in Tandalja, “A mob of around 4,000 Adivasis had come. Initially they peltedstones but later they started shooting with arrows that burnt because they had tipswrapped in cloth and soaked in kerosene. We then went and asked the police forprotection to take us to a safe place. They gave us a vehicle (M 7-8) that had about 5-6 policemen. We ourselves arranged 5-6 jeeps and followed the police van. When wereached Bodeli, there was curfew in the area. Some Hindus refused to shelter us inBodeli, citing the curfew as an excuse, but their reluctance was probably more be-cause they didn’t want to shelter Muslims coming from outside. The DDO asked usto make our own arrangements and leave the place in two hours. We finally landed upin the Tandalja Camp. Here they give us meals in the daytime and in the evening. But,how long this will continue? Now we don’t want to go back to the same place.”During the burning and looting, the police did not take any action. According toMishra of Arch Vahini, the mob consisted largely of women and children who werenot heavily armed, and the incident could have been quickly brought under control,had the police taken some action even by firing in the air or tear-gassing the mob. Butthis was not done. The police imposed curfew only on the afternoon of March 13, andthe mob dispersed.

As one victim-survivor, Jaitunbibi, said, “In my whole life, we have never hadtrouble or conflict with the Adivasis. This is not their work, some people from outsidehave provoked them and local Adivasis have looted and burnt shops using petrolbombs. Because of this incident, the children are frightened, their education has beenaffected and their future is uncertain.”

According to Mehrunissa Mohammed, some Hindus in the area had paid aroundRs.1,000 to 1,200 to the Adivasis to get their houses burnt. Muslims targeted in the attacks generally seemed to feel that the Adivasis could not have participated in theloot and arson without instigation and direction by non-Adivasis. An Adivasi school-teacher in Joj, quoted in the Hindu report, expressed a similar opinion, stating thatAdivasis had been used. The schoolteacher said that Adivasis who had taken part inthe violence told him that they were given liquor and money and forced to participatein the arson, and that many of the Adivasi women had wept while watching thedestruction. Victims of the violence too believed that Adivasis had been threatenedand coerced into participation by VHP activists, with active police support.An important respect in which the attacks by the Adivasis differed from muchof the general pattern of violence was that they were restricted to destructionand looting of property. While the Muslim victims were driven from their homes,there were no killings, and women were not sexually assaulted or abused by theAdivasi attackers.

At Pipalda village near Kanwat, some properties of Muslims were destroyed. Thereare clear indications that the attacks had been planned well before the incidents. Theattackers had noted and knew exactly the location of Muslim houses and shops —how many and in which lanes — and the attacks on these places were well timed. Inall places, petrol bombs and gas cylinders were used. Threats had been issued to non-Muslim residents not to support the Muslims, and in some places, local people sup-ported the attackers. There seems to have been pressure from above on the police andfire brigade to not help. Some witnesses complained that the police and fire brigadearrived late on the scene. In many cases, the police were in the front helping therioters in the attacks.

The violence that took place in the Chhotaudaipur belt, where Adivasis looted andburnt the houses and establishments of Muslims was unprecedented in the history ofthe area. Mishra, an activist for twenty years, born, brought up and working in theKanwat region, asserts positively that Muslims and Adivasis have co-existed in har-mony till recent times. It is widely being claimed that the Adivasis attacked Muslimsas a reaction to exploitation by Muslim moneylenders. However, it should be notedthat the logic of Adivasis being mobilised against the exploitation of Muslim money-lenders does not hold in this area. In Kanwat, Banias are involved in money lending,but Adivasis did not attack them. This indicates that Hindu communal organisationsexplicitly mobilised Adivasis against Muslims.