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
Banaskantha
The Tribunal recorded evidence from 6 witnesses and collected 10 written statements from Banaskantha. Violence in this district broke out on March 1, 2002 and engulfed Dhanera, Pantwada,Palanpur, Vadga, Sihori and Gazipur.
Muslims living in Gazipur started receiving threatening calls from 9.30 a.m. on that day. One of those whotestified, Memon Janmohammed Ibrahimbhai (53) is a localtrader who had been living in Gazipur for the past 15 years. He is a trader dealing in grains, cloth andprovisions. From 9.30 a.m. on March 1, the witness started receivingtelephone calls repeatedly advising him to leave immediately because the mob was approaching Gazipur. BrahminThakar, Rajendra Prasad and Vasudev were with themob. The person who called to tell him this, is a big trader (name withheld) from whom the witness boughtgoods. The people in the village told him to leave, as he wasa threat to all of them. The witness said that since this was the opinion of the whole village, he took hisjoint family of 22 members and went to the hilly forest area nearby.
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He left his house with nothing and fled. His children did not have water or food and his family faced a lotof hardship that night. They spent the whole night in the jungle.The next morning, they started walking towards the next village, Kasampura. On the way, a mob approached andsurrounded them. The mob was set on robbing them butsince they had nothing valuable with them, they were let off. However, due to this encounter, they decided notto go on to Kasampura and spent the next night in thejungle as well, without food and water. Then, some Adivasis gave them fresh clothes to wear and they managedto reach Daroi, from where they called the witness’ brother-in-law. PSI Bharwad then came and took them to another village. The witness and his family reached the camp atIdar on the third day after fleeing Gazipur. When he wentback on March 4, to check on their house, not a thing was found in it. The witness was chased away by thepolice when he went to file a complaint. He had received nocompensation. The witness also said that people had been trying to chase him out of the village for the past 2years.
