Sabarkantha

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

Sabarkantha

KIDIAD
PRANTIJ
MADHOPUR KAMPA
TALOD
HIMMATNAGAR
SALAL
BHILODA
VIJAYNAGAR
ASAD
MUJETHI

The entire district of Sabarkantha and its talukas namely Himmatnagar, Khedbrahma,Vijyanagar, Bhiloda, Modasa town, Modasa village, Prantij, Talod, Vadali are among themost severely affected areas of Gujarat state. In Sabarkantha district alone, 55 mosques,40 tombs and 50 madrassas were completely demolished. This is one district where therewere clear cases of attacks being launched on the night of February 27 itself.

The most ghastly incident took place near Kidiad village on March 2, when 74persons escaping in two tempos were burnt alive and killed. Elsewhere, two personswere killed in Idar taluka, 9 stabbed to death in Khedbrahma, and 4 died in policefiring in Modasa, 5 drivers killed on the Modasa-Godhra highway, 4 persons killedjust outside Prantij, 3 burnt alive in Salal village. Two more persons were killed in thesecond bout of violence on March 19. Previously, Sabarkantha and Banaskantha weretargeted with violence for 8 days in August 2000, after blatant incitement by VHPinternational general secretary, Praveen Togadia. (See Build-Up in Gujarat, Volume II.)

KIDIAD

The Tribunal collected 7 written statements about the ghastly incident that befell resi-dents of Kidiad village, Modasa taluka, on March 2. Muslims from Kidiad village werefleeing in two tempos after their neighbours created a severely threatening atmosphere inthe night. They were intercepted and a total of 67 persons were killed, most of themburnt alive. Arzooben, the eyewitness who was living at the Modasa camp, made a com-plaint to the police in which she stated all the facts. Victim-survivors, whose writtenstatements were placed before the Tribunal, claim that out of thoise trying to escapein one of these tempos, in all 67 persons were killed. But offcial record admits of only8 deaths as only those many bodies were recovered. A complaint for the deaths of 8persons travelling in only one of the tempos was recorded. The police did not record anyfurther evidence. Arzooben could identify the culprits. One is the taluka panchayat pramukh,Kalubhai Malwad, who belongs to the BJP. He was arrested.

Kidiad village has about 45 households of Muslims and 200 of Harijans, Bharwadsand Thakors. On February 28 and March 1, reports about burning of houses in neighbouring villages like Haloder had started pouring in and tension kept mounting.When residents asked for police protection, PSI Mukesh Patel of Malpur PS sent onlyone policeman to supposedly provide effective police protection. On March 2, themobile police armed with .303 rifles came to the village at about 3 p.m. and told theMuslims to run to save their lives, as they would not be able to protect them. Thesarpanch requested the police to escort them up to Malpur but the police flatly refused.

The frightened Muslims then started trying to cross the rivers Eru and Vatrak acrossthe dryer parts of the riverbed. After trying for almost an hour, they returned to thevillage by 3.45 p.m. or so, where they were confronted by a mob of about 400-500people from their own village and outside, shouting, “Kill them! Hack them! Don’t letthem go!” The mob was carrying dharias (sickles), swords and trishuls. There were 224Muslims in the village at the time, as well as 20 guests from outside. Desperate to flee,118 of these boarded two tempos and set off. Those who could not do so, hid in thefields around the village.

About 34 people boarded the first tempo (GJ 17 T 9283), which left at about 4 p.m.to try to make its way towards Modasa. Zakirbhai Shamsuddin Sindhi was driving thistempo. The sarpanch of Kidiad, Saleembhai Jamubhai Sindhi was also travelling onthis tempo. When they reached the Godhra – Modasa highway they found their roadblocked at Malpur with stones and about a 1,000 people all around, who stoned thetempo, breaking windows and injuring the people inside. However, the tempo man-aged to turn towards Lunawada, and crossed Limbadiya chowki in Panchmahal dis-trict. On the way, from Naroda village near Limbadiya, a jeep and a motorcycle (with3 riders) started following them. One of them was carrying a dharia. The road wasblocked at various twists and turns. As they passed through villages, the tempo wasstoned sporadically. Finally, between Sanparia and Badesara villages, the motorcycle over-took the tempo and forced it to stop. As the people in the tempo tried to jump off andescape, they were attacked by the men on the motorcycle. When the driver, ZakirbhaiShamsuddin Sindhi was attacked, his 4-month-old son Mohsin fell from his hands anddied. He picked up his dead child and ran. The people ran towards Karanta village acrossthe Bhadrod river nearby, hoping to take shelter in the dargah there. The Patels of Sanparia,however, came out in support of the attackers and killed 6 people. One woman, Sarabibi,who is an eyewitness to the murders, was able to hide beneath a tarpaulin sheet in a shedbehind a Patel house. In fact, the Patel’s wife took her to the Modasa relief camp 2 dayslater. Other survivors somehow managed to reach the security of the Karanta dargah. Thedriver, Zakir Mian, finally buried his dead child there. The survivors complained to thepolice when they reached the relief camp at Modasa 10 days later.

The second tempo (no. GJ 9T 6439) left Kidiad for Modasa at about 4.15 p.m. overseventy people, including a large number of women and 32 children, were packedtightly into the cramped tempo. Heavy stone pelting started from village PunjaraniMuvadi. When the tempo reached Choriwad crossing, a crowd of about 1,000 wasstanding there. All other roads were blocked. In desperation, Ayub Mian, the driver,turned the tempo towards Lunawada, Panchmahal district. From Babaliya, four motorcycles, a jeep, a truck and a tempo (No. GJ 7 Y 2131) started chasing the tempo. On oneof the four motorcycles was Naresh Bhai, a resident of Gogawada. As soon the temporeached Limbadiya chowki, about 15 km from Lunawada, the motorcyclists overtook thetempo and fired at the front tyre, which burst, bringing the tempo to a standstill.

A large armed crowd of 1,000-2,000 people, which had been alerted by the passingof the first tempo a little while earlier, surrounded the tempo along with the pursuers.The attackers were wielding dharias, trishuls, swords and guns. About 16 people, in-cluding the driver of the tempo, managed to run away. These were mainly men, withthe exception of one woman and two small children. They hid in the fields and sawwhat followed. After hacking those who remained on the tempo with swords, theattackers threw tyres on them, poured petrol and set the tempo on fire. Eight peoplewho tried to jump off were fired at and then hacked to death. One woman, ArzooBibi Ayub Mian Sindhi, sitting in the driver’s cabin was also attacked when she jumpedoff but she survived, albeit with severe injures, by pretending to be dead. They ranuntil the mobs caught up with them, beat them mercilessly and killed them. Thoseinside the tempo were burnt to ashes, as the fire raged for over 2 hours.

According to the SP Panchmahal, Raju Bhargava, only 8 deaths have been regis-tered in the case as only the bodies of those killed while trying to jump off have beenfound in a half-burnt condition. In fact, Arzoo Bibi was told to identify these bodiesbut she could only identify 1 of the 8 bodies, as that of 80-year-old Pirzada GulabuddinImam Mian, a resident of Karanta, who had come to Kidiad on February 27 to offerFriday prayers. The other 7 bodies were charred beyond recognition. Yet, there areeyewitnesses who state categorically that 59 other people were charred to death, bring-ing the total to 67. The dead included 37 women and 30 men, of whom 15 were boysunder 12 years. Four infants who were less than a year old, also perished in the attack.The eyewitnesses have also identified the accused.

Complaints have been given to all the authorities by the survivors and also to theKhanpur PS investigating the case. The driver of the tempo, Ayubbhai Subha MianSindhi, is the main complainant. In the absence of any concerted effort to collectevidence and locate bone fragments if any, the huge disparity between eyewitnessaccounts and the official story remained.

This was one of the most horrendous incidents to have happened in Gujarat. Thedeceased: 67 persons from Kidiad village were burnt alive. The accused: Kalubhai Malwad(BJP), taluka panchayat pramukh, and Naresh Bhai, resident of Gogawada.Yusufbhai Bakrawala from Motiraanth, along with two boys from Lunavada, wastrying to escape from the mobs when they were attacked. The army found 2 of the 3bodies, when the fisherfolk handed them over ten days later. There was no trace ofYusufbhai’s body – only bones were found.

On the highway, there were Tata Sumos moving around tracking persons who weretrying to flee. Refugees from other villages of Gujarat, bordering Rajasthan, had crossedover and were in the Pithgaon camp. On March 7, in the same area, one Muslim, ArabSaiyedbhai, was killed in police firing. The police never killed anyone from the mobs.

PRANTIJ

Four persons were killed brutally on the highway near Prantij town, nearHimmatnagar, on February 28. Two were declared dead and 2 were ‘missing’. Thetestimony of a witness, the relative of the deceased victim, was placed before theTribunal. The witness, Bilal Dawood, brother of Saeed Dawood and cousin of ShakeelDawood, UK, had been earlier interviewed by journalist Teesta Setalvad. This wit-ness detailed the circumstances that led to the brutal killings of three persons, includ-ing his brother, on the highway that leads from Ahmedabad to Himmatnagar, on Feb-ruary 28. Two of the 3 killed were British nationals.

On February 21, the mother of victim, Saeed Dawood, his cousin, Shakeel Dawoodand two others arrived in Mumbai from Australia. Bilal Dawood, brother of the vic-tim Saeed Dawood, who gave this testimony, reached the next day. On February 24,the witness’ brother Saeed Dawood, his cousin Shakeel Dawood, his friend from theUK, Mohammed Aswat, his nephew Imran Dawood and Yusuf, a driver from theirvillage Lajpur, took a jeep tour to Jaipur. After visiting Jaipur, they were returning toAhmedabad via Himmatnagar on February 28.

At Prantij, they were stopped by a mob of 15-20 persons. In no time, another mobof 40-100 arrived, circled the jeep and demanded of the occupants, “Are you Muslimor Hindu?” The answer, that they were British citizens, was not enough for the mob.“What about the driver?” they asked. Without waiting for an answer, Yusuf wasdragged out and the moment they had established his religious identity, he was at-tacked with sticks and dharias and killed on the spot.

Imran Dawood, Mohammed Aswat, Saeed Dawood and Shakeel Dawood, who rantowards a farmhouse to save their lives, were chased by the mob. Around 6.30 p.m.that evening, a police team found Mohammed Aswat, who was near dead, and ImranDawood, who was unconscious, on a dirt track that runs along the canal. At thePrantij clinic, to which the police took them, Dr. Dongri pronounced MohammedAswat dead while Imran Dawood was in such a state of shock that, even after regain-ing consciousness, he could not speak.

Bilal’s brothers, Saeed and Shakeel were last seen by the woman owner of thefarmhouse, running to save their lives. Since then, there has been no trace of them.The British Consul General, Ian Reeds, and Bilal Dawood visited the site of thekillings, along with the Gujarat DGP and the Ahmedabad CP, on March 8. The lady atthe farmhouse, obviously afraid for her own life, was not very cooperative but Dr.Dongri was very forthcoming.

During their visit, they found a totally burnt down factory about 100-200 yardsaway from where Mohammed Aswat and Imran Dawood had been picked up by thepolice. Behind the factory structure, they came across a spot where it looked as if afire had been built, possibly to burn the dead bodies. A little distance away, theyfound some teeth and bones, which were then sent for DNA sampling.The police gave the complainants a copy of the FIR lodged by them, and said thatthey had arrested 17 people. Bilal’s nephew, Imran, the only one to have miraculously escaped, had returnedto their native village. He seemed to recall that, while theywere being set upon, a police jeep was driving past but did not stop to help. The casewas referred to the MEA (Ministry of External Affairs, India) and the FCO was alsofollowing it up with the MEA. With regard to the murder investigations, Salman Kazi(related to Mohammed Aswat) had written a note to the home department in Britainand the family was actively pursuing the case to find out what exactly happened inMohammed Aswat’s and Yususf ’s case. As for Bilal Dawood’s brother Saeed Dawoodand cousin Shakeel Dawood, they were put in the ‘missing’ category. The family hadobtained the FIRs and the post-mortem reports. The entire sordid saga was reportedon BBC, Star News and even the Gujarati papers. James Watt, from the chamber ofFCO, met Salman Kazi, Ahmed Aswat and Salim Dawood in the UK. The family hadalso taken a delegation to the Indian High Commissioner in the UK, PC Haldar.

MADHOPUR KAMPA

Five drivers were killed on the Godhra-Modasa Highway on February 28. Three ofthem from Modasa were killed at Madhopur Kampa in Bayad taluka. Their names areKasimbhai, Anwar and Gaina. Of the 2 other drivers killed, one belonged to Rajasthanand the other to Mewat, Haryana.

On 28 February, at about 9.30 a.m., several trucks were stopped on the Godhra-Modasa highway by a mob of 2,000-3,000 people at Madhopur Kampa near Bayadtaluka town in Sabarkantha. The Gujarat bandh was observed on this stretch of thehighway by burning 5 truck-drivers alive and setting 20 trucks on fire. Kasimbhai, thedriver of one of the trucks (GJ 9 V 1654) owned by GA Suthar of Modasa, was firstbadly beaten by the mob as he got down from the truck. He managed to escape anddragged himself behind the wall of a nearby petrol pump. He was injured and lay downin a daze.

The Hindus from nearby Sadgal village, who came to loot the trucks, happened toknow him and helped to revive him. He came to the petrol pump and saw the burningvehicles. Unthinkingly, he shouted out to the mob to let his truck be. The mob thendragged him out and threw him into the blazing truck. The driver’s helper, Hanif, andanother person travelling in the truck when it was attacked, managed to escape. Bothof them were helped by the Sadgal villagers, who also dropped them to the reliefcamp at Modasa. The Bayad PS refused to lodge an FIR on the incident, despiteHanif ’s statement naming some members of the mob whom he was able to identifywith the assistance of the Sadgal villagers.

TALOD

Talod is a taluka in Sabarkantha district. On February 28, a crowd of about 150-200 persons took out a rally in the town, which terminated at the temple. Then, onMarch 1, at 12.30 p.m., a mob of 4,000-5,000 people gathered in the town and startedattacking the 80-odd Muslim households, scattered in different mohallas all over Talodtown. The Muslims took shelter in the houses of their Darbar neighbours.

When they, too, were threatened by the mobs, some of the Muslims, whose houseswere still intact, went back to their homes. On March 2, a mob of 500 people cameagain to destroy the remaining Muslim houses. The mob looted the houses and theMuslims managed to escape through the fields. They were trying to reach Harsol, aneighbouring village with a large Muslim population. After walking for about 7 kms,they reached a place near Salatpur, where this group of about 50 fleeing Muslims(including several old people and 20 children) was surrounded and attacked by a mob of about 150 peoplecarrying arms and kerosene. An old woman, Bashiran Shamsuben

Lohar, was injured on her head and arm with a dharia. The attackers then piled up dried thorn bushes aroundthe group of Muslims, shouting that they would light a‘Holi’ (bonfire) around the Muslims. They had just sprinkled kerosene on the dried thorn scrub and lit it,and had started stripping the women, when a group of 20-25Rabaris from nearby Khokhra Kesarpur ran to the defence of the Muslims. It was because of their interventionthat the Talod Muslims were able to escape.

After going back to Talod, staying in hiding that night and facing one more attack, they finally tookrefuge in the police station. The police then dropped them to Harsol,where they stayed for 10 days, after which they went to the Panpur relief camp just outside Himmatnagar.Bashiran Shamsuben was refused treatment at Talod civil hos-pital, and had to be taken to a hospital in Modasa for treatment. This group of Mus-lims from Talod wereunable to recognise the attackers. They did not complain to thepolice. They had not gone back to Talod since the attack.

HIMMATNAGAR

The Tribunal recorded 31 testimonies and statements from witnesess residing inHimmatnagar, the district headquarters. The Godhra incident occurred on February27. By 9 a.m. on the morning of February 28, VHP/BJP leaders with lists of Muslim-owned establishments had arrived all the way from Bhavnagar, a 6-hour journey fromHimmatnagar. A large mob was organised, which systematically went about lootingand burning Muslim shops, factories and showrooms, all of which were closed for the bandh.

In all, 232 establishments were burnt in Himmatnagar town. Eyewitnesses state that most of the mainperpetrators of the arson were outsiders, though local VHP members did participate in the attacks. The shopsburnt included the grandshowroom of Harsoliya Motors owned by Bohras, who have been in Himmatnagar for 9 generations. This is thefirst time that they have faced such an attack.

The attackers were intent on following, quite literally, the directions that they had been given. Forinstance, Raj Auto Traders on Dahod Road, owned by a Hindu from Godhra,was set on fire since a Muslim partner was mentioned in the list. They did not listen to onlookers, whopleaded that it was indeed Hindu-owned. Similarly, a soft drink factory,earlier owned by a Muslim, Saleembhai, but recently bought by a Kutchi Patel, was burnt down, despite theowner’s pleas, since the factory was marked as Muslim-owned. Someof the Muslim shop owners and factory owners who suffered losses have gone tocourt to get their own complaints filed as FIRs. The police have not yet complied withthe court directions to do so.

By mid-March, just as communal tension was beginning to ebb, an incident led toescalation of tension in the entire region. On March 19, Kamlesh Patel, a local youth,parked his scooter outside a Bohra shop, went to the market, and then simply disap-peared. His body was found on March 21, a short distance away from Himmatnagar.The Bohra shop owner was picked up for questioning and wild rumours that Muslimshad killed Kamlesh Patel started circulating. The VHP made this into a big issue, heldmany meetings, and fanned communal tension. Several prominent Muslims in the townwanted a thorough investigation to get to the root of the matter. This was, however, notdone and rumours and communal tensions continue to fester. There was a surfeit ofcirculars distributed in Himmatnagar, advocating the boycott of Muslims. On March20, a dargah near the Markaz was set ablaze and a mob gathered there shouting ‘JaiRam!’. At 11.45 p.m. a caller informed people that the SP had reached the sight and wasable to bring the situation under control. Maulvi Yusuf Islampuri and Mufti GhulamMohammad Patel of Himmatnagar presented their fervent appeal for aid and assis-tance, describing in detail and quantifying the unprecedented losses suffered by theMuslim population of Sabarkantha district.

SALAL

Witness Mohammed Hanief (45) from Salal village, Prantij taluka, is the owner ofa grocery store. This is a small village of 8,000-10,000, with 20 Muslim families. OnFebruary 28, Muslim shops were closed but at about 10 a.m., a mob of about 500-700came and they first torched a hotel on the highway, Sarvoday Hotel.

The witness and his family were in their houses. There are two parts to the village,the market area and the general area. Muslims live in the market area and when SarvodayHotel was attacked, they called 5-7 people from the village. The villagers assuredthem that they would have no problems as the villagers would protect them. Hence,they were not worried.

Then, at 6 p.m., the brother of the witness, Valibhai Ibrahimbhai Memon, wasattacked. His wife was burnt alive. Valibhai’s was the first house to be attacked. Theattackers wanted him to say ‘Jai Ram’. Then, they started beating up Valibhai. Histwo sons tried to save him and they beat them up also. They told them that if theywanted to live, they should run away from there. The whole family ran towards thewitness’ house, which is a little further away, and took refuge in a mosque, which isnext to the witness’ house.

From there, Valibhai called the witness to say that the situation was serious. Hedescribed how they were beaten up and mentioned that his wife was missing. It wasthen that 15 Muslim families got together and ran towards the village. At about 7.30p.m., they took shelter in a Rajput house, that of Prahlad Parmar. They stayed therethe whole night. Parmar protected them and gave them food.

On the morning of March 1, their relatives in Himmatnagar informed the policestation and the police took them to Himmatnagar. The nephews of the witness haveidentified the assailants and have named them in the FIR. Among the assailants, there were many from the village and a few from another village. Many of them were fromthe Patel community.

In Himmatnagar, the people with whom the witness and his family stayed owned twotrucks. The witness’ brother kept calling the drivers on March 1 and 2, to find out abouthis wife. The family thought that she might have been hiding in the village. On March 3,the family registered a complaint with the police. On March 6, the police informed thefamily that they had found a dead body in the house of the witness. The police van cameto pick them up in Himmatnagar, where there had been indefinite curfew since March 1,and hence, it had not been possible for the family to go to the village. The witness’ cousinrecognised the dead woman from the ‘payal’ (anklets) on her feet. Her name was Jubeidaben.

She had been burnt alive. In addition, two others were burnt alive from this village.The ironical thing about the testimony of this witness is that he said that he was theleader of the minority cell of the BJP. On the night of February 27, at 11 p.m., theBJP’s vice-chief of the taluka, Rajubhai Patel, who lives in the village and is a mem-ber of the district panchayat, woke the witness up and told him that he had beeninformed by higher ups in the state cabinet, that there was going to be a lot of troublethe next day, and he, therefore, advised the witness to run away during the night.The witness asked him how he could just run away like that when he had livedthere for 50 years and had property there? Rajubhai told the witness that he would notbe able to do anything for him. The witness’ younger brother owns a TV and elec-tronic repair shop and Rajubhai had called him over on February 27, at 5 p.m., forrepair of his TV. While the witness’ brother was there, Rajubhai was talking about allthis on the telephone. He said that a call for a Gujarat bandh the next day had beengiven by BJP and they would torch all the Muslim shops in the village and that if therewere anyone left alive, he too would be torched.

The witness and his family had been living in a relief camp in Himmatnagar, anduntil May 5, when they deposed before the Tribunal, although two months had passedsince the incident, they had not been able to go back to the village because they hadbeen threatened. Once or twice, they had tried to go and see their homes and proper-ties but they had received threats. Some BJP Hindus had even put up cabins in frontof their property. All the Muslim families have been out of the village and they feltstrongly that the Hindus were trying to take possession of Muslim property.

BHILODA

Rafikbhai Janmohammed Memon is the witness from Bhiloda taluka town, whodeposed before the Tribunal. On February 28, at 10 a.m., the witness’ neighbour,Arjunbhai Panjabi, came and informed him that shops were being looted in the mar-ket. When they called the police, they were told, “Well, this is bound to happen”.After about an hour, all the Muslim shops had been looted. All day there were shoutsof “Kill, slaughter.”The BJP, RSS, Bajrang Dal and police (Jhala was the PSI, Chawdawas the CPI -circle police inspector) and mamlatdar Waghela, all of them were in ittogether.

Many victim-survivors who deposed before the Tribunal described how they madedesperate calls to everyone in the police station. In response, inspector Chawda saidthat it was the Muslims’ turn next! This was at about 7 p.m. Then, the witness calledthe SP of Sabarkantha, Nitiraj Solanki on 4733 and on his mobile phone. He said,“You must protect yourself, we cannot do anything, we have no police.” At 8 p.m.,they called the SP again saying, “The Bajrang Dal and the VHP have been pelting uswith stones for the past hour.” The witness also stated that a meeting of about 500-700 persons was held at a school opposite the witness’ house. There are 7 Muslimhouses in their area. At about 8.30 p.m., the mob came and threw stones at them.There was a policeman standing there. The witness and his family locked themselvesin their house. But the mob broke down their iron grill with steel angles. About 12 to13 persons entered the house and started vandalising everything.

The witness came out from a side door and found CPI Chawda standing near a van.He started running but Chawda saw the witness and started shouting, “Catch him,don’t let him escape, he is to be burnt alive.” After breaking everything, they sprinkledpetrol in the house. Some people ran after the witness, but he went to their jamaatkhana — community hall — while his children and wife ran towards their locality inthe village, where there were 20-30 Muslim houses.

The other 6 families also went to the jamaatkhana with the witness and waited therewith him. CPI Chawda was waiting there with his jeep and a constable, Divaji, wasalso there. Petrol and kerosene cans had been readied. There were 11 other persons,including Gunvantbhai Bhagwandas Trivedi, a BJP member. They were saying, “He isto be burnt alive”. The witness named sarpanch Rupesh Trivedi, RSS pracharak (propa-gator/worker), Prabhudas Lalabhai Patel and 8 other people. Prabhudas Patel is thejoint secretary of the RSS for Banaskantha and Sabarkantha.

The witness and others heard CPI Chawda saying some Muslims were hiding upstairs. Theycame up to the second floor carrying a gas cylinder, which they had brought along in a van andwhich they set on fire. CPI Chawda also said that not a single house should be spared.Subsequently, the witness’ family ran to their relatives, who live in the village, andimmediately thereafter, went to the police station to meet the PSI. He bluntly said,“We have received orders from above and we cannot take your complaint.” The wit-ness warned that he would go to the SP and the PSI replied, ‘You can go wherever youwant to.’ The witness took a deputation from the village to SP Nitiraj Solanki and toldhim everything. Solanki himself said, “I am VHP and not SP”. The witness warnedof complaining to higher ups and he was once again told, “Go wherever you want to.”The witness repeatedly told him that he was siding with the VHP and the Bajrang Dal —and pleaded with him to at least record his FIR. He said, “You can go wherever you wantto but I will not take your FIR.” The FIR had not been registered until as late as May, whenthe witness made his deposition. Copies of the witness’ complaint had been sent to thePresident of India, the National Human Rights Commission, the SP, collector, mamlatdarand the taluka PSI. However, no arrests had been made until May, nor was there anyresponse to his complaints.

The witness was staying in a relief camp in Himmatnagar with his family all in astate of terror. They did not go anywhere out of fear for their lives. They could not goback to the village because their house had been destroyed and they believed that,with the trust broken, the police was set to kill them.

Witness Makrana Asiyaben Shaikh Mohammed, who deposed before the Tribunalis from Kisangadh village in Bhiloda taluka. She said that there are 15 Muslim housesin Kisangadh and that Muslims had been living there for the last 60-70 years. OnMarch 1, at about 8 p.m., 3,000-4,000 persons came in vehicles, with swords andother things. Some were from the village and the others were outsiders. They wereshouting, “Kill, slaughter!” and were set on looting. They had swords, sickles, chemi-cals and kerosene cans with them. They started throwing chemicals whereupon thewalls of the buildings became black and then started burning.

They pelted Muslims with stones. Two-three Muslims were killed and the witnesswas hurt in one or two places. They ran to the house of the Darbar, VikramsinghThakore, who sheltered Muslims. But someone told the crowd that Muslims werehiding there and then the crowd harassed them the whole night. Thakore tried to saveMuslims but he had nothing with which to fight back.

He called Bhiloda village and informed them that 72 Muslims were trapped inKisangadh and that they should come and take them away. As the people from Bhiloda,including the witness’ brother, tried to make their way to Kisangadh, the road wasblocked so they could not reach the village. At 5 p.m., the mob went away and thevictims then walked to Bhiloda. They were barefoot and they had to cover their children’smouths so that they would not cry. Finally, they reached Bhiloda police station andthere, they were told that unless they left quickly, they would be attacked again.They pleaded with the police to do their job and protect them and asked the police toescort them to Idar. They were told, however, that they must leave. The police officers,Jhala and Chawda said that they had received orders from above three days ago, so theMuslims must just go away.

So the victims carried on walking and reached Bhilodi. Here the Patels spread rumoursthat they had come to attack the village. They were driven out, and walked through thenight without any food until they finally reached Idar, where they were given shelter inthe camp. All their belongings and property were destroyed, including the graveyardwhere the mob had set fire inside the graves as well. As late as May, when she deposedbefore the Tribunal, the witness had not received any compensation.

There are 15 Mansoori houses, in another village of Idar taluka. The village had 10shops and one mosque. The village has a population of 2,000 Hindus in the village.Mansoori Rasoolbhai Rehmanbhai, a resident of the village, deposed before the Tri-bunal. He stated that on February 28, at 6:30 a.m., he opened his shop. Suddenly, amob came to his shop, which is the first in the row of shops, and one of them caughtthe witness by the collar and threw him down. He tried to stand up. They told him toclose his shop and go to the bus stand. He agreed and closed his shop, but went homeover the hill instead of going to the bus stand. That night passed off peacefully.

On March 1, at 8 p.m. a mob of about 500-700 came to the village. The witnessand his family was just sitting down to dinner. They torched his house and shop andthen they torched all the other shops in the village as well as the 15 other houses. Thewitness and his family escaped narrowly and went up the hill and hid — men, womenand children. The mob came looking for them twice but they could not find them.After the mob went away, they walked to the nearby Adivasi settlement, which theyreached at 3 a.m.

They spent the night there and at 8 a.m. the next morning, they started walkingtowards Sabri relief camp, which they reached at 2 p.m., having gone without food orwater for all this time. When they tried to go back, they were told not to return. Theysaw that their houses had been completely burnt down — nothing was left. All 15houses and 10 shops had been burnt to the ground. All the goods in the shops and thehousehold goods had been looted.

The witness sent a written complaint to the police by registered AD, mentioningthe names of the people involved in the attack. He was given a compensation of Rs.25,000 for his house. Depending on the extent of damage to houses, people receivedvarying amounts of compensation, ranging from Rs. 5,000 to Rs. 50,000, though heestimated his loss due to the damage to his shop and home at approximately Rs. 12lakh. The witness had no idea where he would go when the camp closed down. Hehad been threatened with his life if he returned to his village. The aggressors also saidthat he would not be allowed to do any (work) business there. His poignant questionto the Tribunal was, ‘then what should I do?’

VIJAYNAGAR

The Tribunal recorded the testimony of the imam of the local mosque in a village inVijaynagar. On February 27, at 10 p.m., the uncle and son of the witness were in theirshop — they have about 4-5 shops in the village. They called him to say that they hadbeen surrounded by an unruly mob, which was shouting, “Kill, slaughter!” When thewitness asked who they were, he was told that they were all Bajrang Dal people andmany of them were their regular customers. His uncle and cousin recognised about15-17 people in the crowd and named them. The father and son did not know what todo. At this point, they broke contact with the witness. The next morning the witnessfound out that the shop had been burnt, with both father and son inside it.

When the witness and others went there the next morning, they saw the two corpseslying in the burnt shop. At first, no one came out from the village. Then, the witness, alongwith others, went to Vijaynagar and brought the police with them. They were recordingthe panchnama when a crowd gathered and started throwing stones at them. They werethreatening to kill them too, and said that they would not allow them to take the corpsesaway from there. However, they somehow managed to escape and take the corpses toVijaynagar for post-mortem examinations and for the panchnama to be recorded.PSI PT Panchal told them that this was the last statement he would record. While thewitness and others were trying to flee with the corpses, they were stopped in several places and had to take diversions. After meeting the SP, the witness gave the police his statement,mentioning several names, but no arrests were made. Some 30-35 people were arrested,but when he called the police to inquire if any of the people named by him were amongstthem, he was told that he had no right to ask such questions.

He said that those arrested were treated like VIPs and felicitated. Air-coolers weresent to the jail in Himmatnagar. All those he had named in the FIR were still movingaround with naked swords as late as May. Muslims from Vijaynagar could not even goand check out their shops, which had all been burnt. The FIR was filed under section395 for looting, but Panchal cancelled it and made it sections 433 and 436 (destruc-tion of public property) so no arrests were made. The compensation this witnessreceived amounted to a few hundred rupees whereas his losses amounted to a fewlakh rupees.

ASAD

The owner of Hotel Asopalav, on the Sabarmati highway in Asad village, Virodataluka, also deposed before the Tribunal. At about 11 p.m. on the night of February27, a local doctor came to the witness’ house and asked him if his hotel was safe.When the witness replied in the affirmative, the doctor wondered aloud how his hotelremained untouched when so many others had been burnt. Then, he went away onlyto return to the witness’ hotel with some men in his jeep. He then told the witness’assistant that he was going to set fire to the hotel.

The assistant and the other people staying there realised that their lives were indanger so they ran to a factory opposite the hotel. They called their employer, whothen called the SP. The SP advised him to call Shamlaji police station. When he calledthere, it was about midnight. There was a constable there, who told the witness thathe was alone, and could not do anything. He advised him to call the collector. Thewitness then called the collector who told the witness that he would keep calling thepolice station and that he should also keep doing the same till such time as help arrived.They did not get any help at night. The next morning, he got a call to say that both theSTD booth and the hotel had been looted but no major damage had been done.

Then, on March 1, after the Friday prayers, he got a call from a family memberinforming that a mob of 400 to 500 persons had collected at the hotel. He immedi-ately called the collector but the collector wasn’t there. Then, he called the policecontrol room. The CRP force was there but they did not help at all. The mob lootedand then burnt the hotel. The witness had opened the hotel just 8-9 months previ-ously, it had cost him Rs. 70 lakh to set up and he was astounded. It had yet to startmaking profits.

His men were trapped near the hotel, in the nearby jungle, so he called the collectorand asked him to provide protection so as to enable him to rescue his men. His menremained in hiding for 3 days, and only then, with the help of the highway police theymanaged to come out. Two months later, they had still not received any police protec-tion. In Sabarkantha, all the Chillia hotels — the Chillia group had a reputation in the area for running good hotels — were burnt and looted. Many of the business partnershad sold their farmland and invested in these hotels.

The collector called the witness and told him that he could get another loan torebuild the hotel. The witness replied that he had already taken a loan on which hewas paying an interest of about Rs. 30,000 per month. How could he pay interest ona new loan? His urgent plea to the Tribunal was that all such affected persons be givenlong-term loans with no interest.

Another problem they faced was that they had been unable to return. Where couldthey rebuild their lives? When the victims had gone to register an FIR on March 8, ageneral FIR had already been made out. The victims told the police that their FIRlisted names — they had recognised people and there were eyewitnesses to the crimes.They were told that the two FIRs would be combined and the persons named ar-rested. In May, when the Tribunal sat, these arrests had still not been made. Thewitness strongly felt that the only reason groups like the RSS/BJP/VHP and BDcould be so brazen about their crimes was because they were sure of police support insubverting the process of justice. When the witness said as much to the SP, the SPtold him that he was wrongly accusing him. The witness replied that the situation inGujarat was such that people felt that they could kill whomsoever they wanted be-cause the police was not going to do anything to them; if you wanted to burn a shop,burn it, the police was not going to do anything to anyone. It was because there wasno fear of punitive action that they were blatantly doing what they were doing.

MUJETHI

Deposing before the Tribunal, witness Nasreenbano Raiskhan Pathan from Mujethivillage, said that on March 1, the deputy sarpanch of Mujethi village, Idar taluka, gath-ered Muslims together and assured them that they were safe and that no harm wouldcome to them. But at about 7.20 p.m., they were suddenly told by a mob that theyshould run away or they would be killed. The crowd included Adivasis and villagersas well as the deputy sarpanch, who had come with them. The deputy sarpanch gave theAdivasis liquor and they attacked Muslims.

They chased Muslims out who went and hid in the school where the villagers cookedfor them, but they were chased away from there as well. They went to the sarpanch andasked him to help but he refused and told them to flee. They did that, going to thehouse of a Darbar elder (Bade Darbar), who helped them. However, he was also threat-ened for helping them, so he used his influence to get the victims a police van and atempo, and all 120 Muslims got into the vehicles and escaped. The mob threw somechemicals on their houses and burnt them. The government has given residents amountsvarying from Rs. 800-1500 as compensation for what they have lost. The witness saidthat when Muslims went back to their village, the villagers told them to go away. Theyalso spread rumours that Muslims were going there to poison the wells. When someMuslims returned, two Adivasis told them that the whole thing had been done by thedeputy sarpanch and the villagers, not Adivasis.

Witness Sadikbhai Rahimbhai Mansoori (40) is from another village in Idar taluka.He said that he was asleep at home at 11 a.m. on February 28, when the peon fromthe panchayat came and told him that the sarpanch had sent for him. So he went to thepanchayat. The sarpanch, Dhanjibhai Patel and a few others were sitting there. All ofthem were armed and as soon as the witness entered, the peon pushed him and thewitness fell down. The sarpanch started abusing him, saying that he had told the wit-ness not to build his house in the village and yet he had built one. The witness ex-plained how with great difficulty he had got a loan and then built his house. Theystarted beating him but the witness managed to break away and ran home. The nameof the sarpanch is Kantibhai Hiralal Patel and the other men present with him were:Jayantibhai Patel, Nalinbhai Bhogilal Mehta, Devarkumar Chandrakant Tulsi andSaratkumar Kantilal Doshi.

The witness locked himself inside his house. In the afternoon a mob of severalhundreds came. They broke down the door and he ran to his brother’s house acrossthe road. From there, he watched as that they took out all the things from his house.They threw some things in the well and they took away the rest in an HMT tractor(the number plates had been removed). The witness said that the things were stilllying in the well, two months later, and that the police refused to take a complaint.The surveyor said that he had not seen the house, so what would he survey? Thepolice refused to take an FIR and had told him to effect a compromise. They eventhreatened the witness with his life. The police tore up the witness’ report. He wasnot allowed to enter his house and the attempt seemed to be to falsify the surveyor’sreport and snatch his legitimate property from him.

Another witness from the same village, Iqbalbhai Rahim Mansoori, described howon February 28, at 5 p.m., members of the gram panchayat along with the sarpanch,Kantibhai Patel, came to their house with a mob. They carried swords, knives andrifles. They told them to leave the village and chased the witness and others from thevillage. Then they came from the other side with a tractor with one Jayantibhai andanother person in it. At first, when the witness heard the sound of the tractor, hethought it was someone passing by, but as they got off the tractor, he realised thatthey had come to kill the Muslims. The witness put his mother over his shoulder andfled from there with the others. They hid in the nearby wheat field for 5 hours. Themob came looking for the victim-survivors, and even made barking sounds, and firedtheir guns. Two young daughters of the witness had to have their mouths held shut sothat they would not give their hiding place away. They were thus kept quiet until 11p.m. The witness’ children had been without water or food since 5 p.m. when they hadleft their homes to flee. If they asked for water, their father would slap them. Then, at1.30 p.m. he put his mother over his shoulder again and left with his two girls, until hereached the refugee camp.

This witness said that Suryakant Joshi, the BJP taluka leader, refused to listen to thecomplaints and said, “Don’t go to the police station, because if you do you will bekilled.” The witness was unable to visit his sister, who lived near the police station.

He has not been able to visit her at all. The villagers have told him that if he wants tocome back to the village, he must remove the names of key leaders mentioned in hiscomplaints. They threatened to sell off his land and destroy his well if he did notcomply. They had already cut the wheat belonging to the witness and sold it off.The Tribunal recorded the testimony of Kaderbhai Memon, a social worker, whoalso ran the refugee camp at Himmatnagar. This witness complained bitterly of thetreatment of camps and camp leaders by the government. (See Annexure on Status ofRelief Camps, Detailed Annexures, Volume III).

A hotel in Himmatnagar, called Bombay Hotel, was attacked by a mob of 3,000.The owner begged them to go away, pleading for his life. He said, “Why are you doingthis to me, I have always helped you in so many ways.” They did not listen to him andstarted pelting him with stones and damaged the hotel. So the owner started firing atthem in self-defence. In the firing some minor injuries occurred and he was arrestedunder section 307. After his arrest, his hotel was torched. Two months later, he hadnot been granted bail even by the High Court. He had a licence for the gun. Eightpeople from the mob had tried to torch his hotel and he had fired at them. This is onemore example of the obvious discriminatory treatment meted out to Muslims inGujarat.

Some people’s showrooms were being robbed and the witness and the others in thecamp called the SP. He was on the highway near Motipura, where a shop was beinglooted. The kingpins behind the attacks in this district could be easily identified fromthe complaints filed by victims. Though inspector Chauhan first arrested 5 personswho were named, they were released because they were not charged with any seriousoffence.

As communities, Adivasis and Harijans are very poor so some of them are temptedtowards theft. But many members from the 2 communities as well as the Rajputs,saved thousands of Muslims — they gave them shelter in their homes for as long as10 days and fed them.

Jagdish Taral, a VHP leader from Khhedbrahma personally intervened and stoppedreconciliatory measures launched by the collector in Sabarkantha. This happened inthe presence of Ranajit Sinh Naharsingh Chawda, elected MLA from Himmatnagarand minister of state for cottage industries in the Gujarat government. When attemptswere being made to take victim-survivors back to the villages, some of the youngmen there, said, “We do not want any Muslims in the village.” In the presence ofminister Chawda, the collector and the SP, Taral said, “In 1947, Muslims killed somany Hindus, now the Muslims have to pay for it. If they want to return, it is at theirown risk but we will not allow Vohras to come, only the Mansooris can come.” Andso they were trying to create divisions amongst the Muslims.

The witness stated that the ongoing law and order situation in the district was verybad. The collector and the SP of the district had not controlled the situation any-where and should be asked if they had managed to save even one Muslim establish-ment in Himmatnagar. There were Muslim shops at the crossroads only 100 meters away from where the collector and SP live, in an area, which they pass frequently.Forty-eight Muslim shops were burnt there, not even a bidi shop was spared, but theydid not try to put out the fires anywhere.

There isn’t a single instance where they called the mobile (van) so that the fires maybe put out. The only recourse that Muslims have is the law. But even there one hasseen the few culprits who were arrested go scot-free. Members of the VHP and theBajrang Dal used to move around with the police in their vans. Shops would be burn-ing for as long as 4 days and the SP would be do nothing.

State minister from Himmatnagar, Ranajitsingh Chawda, aided by Jagdish Taral,the vitriolic VHP leader from Khhedbrahma, who was named for mass-scale destruc-tion in August 2000, were directly involved in the violence this time round as well.Witness Kaderbhai Memon, who deposed before the Tribunal, stated that both Chawdaand Taral would sit in the premises of the Bombay Hotel, which was ultimately de-stroyed at their behest, and conduct operations from there. Chawda would point at ashop or house on the map and ask why it had been spared and why their people werenot doing anything about it.

After the first bout of violence that started on February 27, on the night of March9, Modasa town witnessed the worst ever arson and plunder of the Muslim commu-nity. On the morning of March 19, three young Muslim girls, who were returning froma school examination, were molested. They were asked why they had not applied teeka(vermilion) on their foreheads. As punishment, they were stabbed. When the Tribunalsat in May, they were still under treatment at the local hospital. Two persons, AbdulRahman and Nizam Husain Imam were burnt alive here. Kirat Shah Ballabhbhai andJagdeesh Gandhi, chairman, Modasa Nagrik Co-op. Bank, are reported to have at-tacked children. Khhedbrahma village had to be vacated by its Muslim inhabitantsunder coercion. A board renaming it, ‘Hindu Nagri’ (‘Hindu Town’) was fixed on itsbus stand declaring the village out of bounds for Muslims.