Even after five days past the residents of Gajapur village, the area remains cordoned off and under the deployment of police. However, the alleged “real masterminds” behind the violent attack on the Muslim residents, their houses, shops and vehicles remain free, as stated by activists. Activist and member of the Indian Congress Party, Shakir Tamboli, who has been working on ground and trying to seek justice for the victims of the violent attack, spoke to SabrangIndia and expressed his disappointment with how the authorities have been handling the case, deeming them to “lack the seriousness that this kind of unlawful act warrants.”
For context, the Vishalgad-Kolhapur violence that erupted on July 14 has left multiple Muslim families of the Gajapur village helpless and distraught, with not even a pair of clothes to change during the rainy reason. On July 14, a Sunday, disturbing visuals of a Mosque being demolished emerged from Maharashtra’s Kolhapur district. A video from the ground showed a group of men belonging to an extremist Hindutva mob climbing atop a Mosque holding saffron flags and vandalising a Mosque with hammers. The video showed mobs of people standing upon the Mosque and planting a saffron flag on it. While the police rushed to the spot of the mob demolition to get a hold of the situation as the Mosque was being demolished, a mob of thousands entered the Gajapur village and wreaked havoc. As per on-ground reports, the Gajapur village was the worst violence hit village during the whole incident with approximately 50-60 houses and shops belonging to the Muslim community were attacked, torched and loot by the mob.
Detailed reports of the violence and the plight of the people of Gajapur can be accessed here and here.
Tamboli has provided that a copy of the memorandum that he had, with a group of locals from Gajapur village and Vishalgad area, submitted to the District Collector. The said memorandum had been submitted to the Collector on July 15, one day post the eruption of the violence. Through the said memorandum, Tamboli has majorly raised a total of four issues. The first issue raised by him through the memorandum is that the encroachment drive that has been initiated, and is ongoing, be paused till the rainy season is going on. As per multiple media reports, the protest called on by Sambhaji Raje had only been called off after an assurance by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde that action will be taken against illegal encroachments in the fort. It had also been reported that following the violent incident on Sunday, about 35 illegal shops were razed by authorities on Monday on the orders of CM Shinde who arrived in Kolhapur on Sunday night. Additionally, it had been highlighted by Tamboli that these alleged “encroachments” consist of shops of certain vendors and structures, the removal of which no one is contesting. But the same should not be done during the rainy season.
In addition to this, as the second demand, Tamboli has asked the authorities to ensure that the people who will be rendered homeless after the encroachment drive is conducted should be provided with adequate rehabilitation, as is the legal norm.
The third demand raised by the Tamboli was regarding a judicial high-level inquiry into theviolence that took place in the Gajapur village as well as the demolition of the Mosque.
It is crucial to note that a letter demanding judicial inquiry into the Vishalgad violence was also sent by Congress leader Vijay Wadettiwar on July 18 to Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. In the said letter, the leader of opposition in the state assembly claimed that anti-social elements targeted a particular community in the name of removing encroachment in Vishalgad. “The violence at Gazapur in Vishalgad was government-sponsored,” Wadettiwar had alleged in his letter, urging for the main culprit to be unmasked, as per The Print.
It is further essential to point out that Wadettiwar had also addressed a press conference wherein he had claimed that the targeted violence against Muslim in Gajapur was the result of the ground was slipping under the feet of communal forces after the victory of a candidate upholding progressive values in the Lok Sabha polls in Kolhapur.
“The violence was engineered keeping in mind the upcoming assembly elections. Those indulging in violence cannot be followers of Chhatrapati Shivaji. Hence, the government must find out who are the culprits,” he had said.
In addition to the same, the Congress leader had accused the police of inaction while the violence was on. Tamboli had previously highlighted how the Superintendent of Police was present a mere one kilometre away when the violence was taking place in Gajapur, which also left 40 Muslims, including children, injured. Wadettiwar also claimed that the issue of encroachment could have been resolved through dialogue, but the government did not want that to happen.
Lastly, the fourth demand that was raised by Tamboli in his memorandum was that the superintendent of police, Mahendra Pandit, be transferred be suspended as it was under his charge, that the present incident of targeted violence had taken place. Tamboli also stated that the failure of the SP in containing communal incidents is evident as in the past one year itself, this was second such major incident where Muslims had been targeted. According to him, it was the failure on the part of the police authorities that a mob in thousands, armed with weapons, had run freely and burnt down houses, vehicles and shops that belonged to Muslims.
The complete memorandum can be read here.
While speaking to SabrangIndia, Tamboli had also highlighted that prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the erstwhile Code of Criminal Procedure are still in place, and police is still deployed in the area. The police present there is preventing any aid, provided by certain non-government organisations, from reaching the affected people. The families whose houses have been burned down by the mob are left with nothing, and yet the police are not allowing for any aid to be provided to the persons affected. As provided by Tamboli, the authorities are ensuring that the affected Muslim families are harassed even after suffering through the violence. Tamboli stated that “the police failed to do anything before, but now they are harassing the people by not letting us give them ration and not letting us meet them. it was only after talking to the Collector and arguing with the police for atleast two hours was I allowed to meet them before. I will go and meet the IG today and raise this issue with him.”
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