Today we bring to our readers this Factfinding report by a group of citizens.

Fact finding report

Vadavali village is situated in Patan district of North Guajrat. Out of the 4 MLA seats from this district 3 seats belong to BJP and 1 to Congress. Vadavali village comprises of nearly 350 Muslim, 700 Patel, 60 Darbar, 150 Thakore, 150 Dalit, 50 Rawal, 50 Prajapati, 30 Rabari, 40 Devi pujak families. This village is part of the Gujarat Government Samras Gram Panchayat Model. The Samras Model was welcomed by this village and especially by Ibrahimbhai Lal Belim who was shot at in the recent rioting incident. In the 2002 Gujarat genocide this village was not affected, in fact the villagers did not participate in the genocide and had also rescued some injured people during the 2002 riots and hence became a bright example of communal harmony.

The village school in Vadavali was one of the centre’s for the Class 10 board exams and children from neighbouring villages were also taking their exams in this centre. On 25/3/2017 post the exams, a scuffle between a Muslim boy from Takodi village and a Thakore boy from Sunsar village broke out. The Muslim residents of the village Vadavali intervened in the scuffle and asked both the children to go back to their respective homes. A while later 15-20 people from Sunsar village arrived at Vadavli village and started thrashing the Muslim boy from Takodi village, the elders from the village intervened and tried to resolve the issue amicably.
he Panchayat elections of Vadavali village are due, in order to declare the village as part of the Samras Model, a gram sabha was organised where all the leaders of various communities came together at the Shiv Temple, and with unanimous consensus Rashidaben Sultanbhai Kuresh was declared the Sarpanc(Village head). Just as the gramsabha was ongoing, huge mobs of nearly 7-5 thousand people who belonged to the Thakore community from Dharipur, Rampur, Merwada approached Vadavali village. The mob attacked the villagers, nearly 142 house of the Muslim community were damaged, 100 houses were burned down, 42 houses were damaged and looted. Ibrahim Lal Khan Belim was killed during the violence and nearly 15-20 people were injured. 2 FIRs were registered in this incident; one of the FIR was filed against the Muslim community and the other against the Thakore community. 14 persons from the Muslim community and 31 persons from the Thakore community were implicated in the FIRs that were filed. Indian Penal Code sections such as Section 120 B which is a section attributed to criminal conspiracy has been included in the FIR. 13 people have been arrested and FIR against the Muslim community was falsely filed as a strategy to create pressure and fear among the community. The FIR is an integral part to prove the communal violence against the Muslim community of Vadavali village.

Conversations with the Locals:

1. It was decided that Vadavali village will be part of the Samras Model and for 2.5 years there would be a Patel Sarpanch and for 2.5 years there would be a Muslim Sarpanch. Rashidaben Sultanmiyaan was elected immediately after which the incident of violence broke out. Rashidaben’s husband Sultanmiyan was the target in the violence and it was he who was injured. Ibrahimbhai, who welcomed this decision of samras and he also felicitated everyone with garlands was also targeted.
2. The mob seemed to have planned the attack, they arrived with barrels of petrol, private guns and other weapons etc. The mob started damaging and looting the gold and silver ornaments and burning vehicles of the Muslim houses, the young Muslim men who tried to resist were attacked with swords and gun firing and were grievously injured.
3. The scuffle between the students was resolved, but one person there threatened saying “within an hour all of you will be finished” this person is a member of Shiv Sena. One of the teachers name Mr Jhala played a pivotal role in instigating this whole incident, he also directed the rioting mob.
4. 2 SRP Jawans were also part of the rioting mob, these two Jawans were from the Thakore community and they were firing with a private gun, a bullet from this firing hit Rashidaben’s husband on his thighs, he is currently undergoing treatment at a private hospital in Patan.
5. The mobs came from villages close to Vadavali, from a distance of not more than 10 Km. Within an hour a mob of 5-7 thousand people emerged loaded with petrol barrels, guns and other dangerous weapons. People said that the police did not do anything and the mobs went unruly and looted and burnt our houses and vehicles.
6. The Haji Peer’s fair was also on the same day as the incident took place, there were several people from the Muslim community who were going on foot to the Haji Peer Dargah, there could have been even a bigger causality. The mobs were aware that there would not be too many people in the village and hence it would be easy to attack.
7. One of the injured persons said that the police was clearly biased, when the mobs were burning the houses and vehicles, beating up residents the police stood there watching, especially Jamadar Gambhirsingh. Jamadar Gambhirsingh thought that I was dead and said “this one is dead, go and kill as many as you can in the village. When the mob finished looting and burning it was then that the police used tear gas. Had the police stopped the mob, there would have not been such a huge loss and Ibrahimbhai would not have died.
8. Vinay Singh who is a member of the BJP and also a lawyer, he has played a very crucial role in the entire incident. He was leading the mob and he directed the mob in various directions to loot, kill and burn.
9. Ibrahimbhai who died in the violence, his body reached Vadavali village from Chanasma Government hospital on 26/3/17. The people in the village decided that the last rites of Ibrahimbhai will not be conducted, his body will not be buried until the accused were arrested. The police was quite rattled by this and hence the village elders agreed to perform the last rites after the range IG gave an assurance that the accused would be arrested. The entire village including people from various communities participated in the burial of Ibrahimbhai.
10. Khorsan is a village close to Vadavali, the Thakor’s of Sunsar had threatened the Muslims of Khorsan that if they helped any Muslim from Vadavali their village too will meet with the same fate as Vadavali. It is interesting to note that for the past 4-5 years the Muslims of Khorsan village have themselves been excommunicated. They are not allowed to associate with any of the people of the Hindu community, this was decided by the Hindu community of the village. Just after a member of the Muslim community filed his nomination for the Panchayat election, the community had started interacting with the rest of the village normally only since the last 15 days. The deputy Sarpanch was Muslim person who was unanimously elected.
11. The miscreants have also recorded the whole incident on video and have also posted it on social media to display their gallantry in sparking communal violence.

Observation:
Across Gujarat communally coloured incidents are becoming rampant and also in a very organised manner. This is also dividing the both the communities on the lines of hatred, the communal powers are also moving ahead in an organised manner, the incident at Vadavali is one such example.
The Vidhansabha elections in Gujarat are due, BJP is strategically using violence through its various wings, to create a communal tension in the atmosphere.

Factfinding Team:
Advocate Samshad Khan Pathan, Jan Sangharsh Manch
Advocate Govind Parmar, Human Rights Law Network
Hozefa Ujjain, Jan Vikas, Gujarat
Kherunisa Pathan, Parvaz Organization, Gujarat
Dashrat Bhai Thakor, Action Aid
Usman Bhai Sheikh, Aman Biradri
Asim Shaikh, Jan Sangharsh Manch
Makrani Mir Khan, Aantarik Vistapit Committee
and other social workers
 

The post Targeted Violence Preparing Ground for Assembly Elections,Gujarat: Factfinding Report appeared first on SabrangIndia.

 
“While it is necessary to keep alive good deeds, it is also essential

I found bandh supporters freely moving on road equipped with sticks, shouting anti-Muslim slogans, burning tyres and waste material right on the roads and so on. They were forcing the commercial establishments including pan shops and street vendors to close down their business, in presence of inactive and unresponsive policemen, deployed on the spot and patrolling mobiles. I stopped my vehicle at a police static point and questioned policemen on duty, watching public nuisance, in front of them silently as to why no interventionist action, as per their duty obligations, was taken. They responded that they had no instructions in this regard from Police Commissioner of Ahmedabad city.
 
In the afternoon I met DGP K Chakravarthy in his chamber. I found him to be quite perturbed, helpless and stress-ridden about widespread mass violence in the cities of Ahmedabad, Vadodara and many rural areas. He lamented that things were taking a bad shape and activists of VHP, Bajrang Dal and BJP were leading armed crowds and police officers, at decisive level on the ground, were not intervening effectively as they were keen to avoid crossing swords with supporters of the ruling party. He hinted that the Chief Minister had convened a meeting of senior officers at his residence after his return from Godhra in the late evening of February 27, 2002. DGP said that the CM told officers in the meeting that “in communal riots, police normally takes action against Hindus and Muslims on one-to-one proportion, this will not do now, allow Hindus to give vent to their anger.”
 
The DGP added that no officer present in the meeting – PC Pande, Commissioner of Police (Ahmedabad city), Ashok Narayan, Addl Chief Secretary (Home Department), Swarankant Verma, the incharge Chief Secretary, Dr PK Mishra, Principal Secretary to CM (now he is the Additional Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi) Anil Mukim, Additional Secretary to CM and K Nityanandam, Home Secretary including himself did not take any objection or speak against the illegality of this verbal instruction from CM. DGP had apologetically admitted that this posture of the CM was a major impediment in initiation of action against communal elements, perpetrating bestial brutalities on the minority community. He added that parading of dead bodies in Ahmedabad city of those killed in Godhra train fire incident, including dead bodies of those who did not belong to Ahmedabad city, had magnified communal frenzy of motivated Hindus.[8] [9]  
 
To relieve myself of the burden of my heart, subsequently I had prepared anonymous notes on, abominable stance of police positioned in sensitive areas acting as facilitators to rioters, higher number of persons from victim community getting killed in police firing and riots, belligerent mobs shouting about police abetment to their crimes thus “it is an open secret, the police is on our side” (Yah Andar ki Baat hai, police hamara saath hai), Muslims steadily losing faith in the integrity and dexterity of State administration.

(The) Apprehension of the DGP proved to be prognostic. From the morning of February 28, 2002 morning until March 3, 2002, when Army contingents and additional personnel from Central Para- Military Forces (CPMF) (actually) commenced effective patrolling in the affected areas, there were instances of horrendous mass murders, wherever police failed to perform their mandatory duties relating to maintenance of law and order. On my return journey from Gandhinagar to Ahmedabad residence on the late evening of February 28, 2002, I found many business centres, shops, houses and colonies in minority localities looted and destroyed. Riot victim survivors had been shifted to relief camps, organized by community leaders and activists. By the evening of March 1, 2002, media reported graphic details of targeted mass murders amounting to ethnic cleansing in those areas of minority dwelling pockets surrounded by majority community settlements.
 
In predominantly minority-dominated areas of Dariapur, Shahpur and Juhapura, violence was negligible. To relieve myself of the burden of my heart, subsequently I had prepared anonymous notes on, abominable stance of police positioned in sensitive areas acting as facilitators to rioters, higher number of persons from victim community getting killed in police firing and riots, belligerent mobs shouting about police abetment to their crimes thus “it is an open secret, the police is on our side” (Yah Andar ki Baat hai, police hamara saath hai), Muslims steadily losing faith in the integrity and dexterity of State administration and so on. These notes, basing on my personal observation, I had dispatched to the President of India, the Opposition Leader and senior leaders of major secular political parties. I was quite aware that it was an act of misconduct as per conduct rules, but I was forced to do it for getting some solace from the intense agony and tormenting helplessness felt by me in those days, having failed to do anything, due to legal constraints, to contain and control violence against hundreds of innocents though I was moving comfortably in a police flag car with three stars, beacon light and security cover. I heaved a sigh of relief when my friend in the Rashtrapati Bhavan informed me that my anonymous notes were read by the President, who, according to him, would be writing to the Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee about his concern and anxiety on demoralizing Gujarat situation.
 
Modern psychology confirms that a person’s mind-set and attitude are formulated by his inherited nature and the ambience impacted on him (upbringing). Indian psychology (has) spoke(n) about ‘Vasana’ (inclination), ‘Samskara’ (acquired culture) and ‘Samsarga’ (human and material surroundings) formulating one’s basic nature and ‘constructed realities’. In retrospect, I did a self-analysis about my extreme dejection and depression about the plight of community bearing the brunt of heinous motivated crimes by Sangh Parivar activists aided by the State machinery.
 
Having brought up in Kerala, historically well-known for communal amity, despite the spread of Semitic religions – Christianity and Islam – contemporaneous to their germination in places of origin, I never felt about the Muslims as people belonging to ‘the other’ – a social segment  alienated from Indian ethos and heritage. My close companionship with my maternal grandfather, late Balaramapuram G Raman Pillai, one of the founder leaders of Indian National Congress in erstwhile Travancore State, his undiluted commitment to secularism and socio-cultural and political camaraderie with the Muslims during the freedom struggle, had germinated in me a deeper sense of fraternity with the community. This had, however, never come in the way of my law enforcement in my police career.
 
Islam and Christianity reached the shores of Kerala along with the merchants and traders like Parsis did in Mumbai and Guajrat. In north India, the message of Islam came along with
invaders and conquerors, the Arabs in the 8th century (Muhammad bin Qasim) and Afghans and Turks (Muhammad of Ghor) in the closing decade of the 11th century. Repeated invasions by Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni against Gujarat, had deeply wounded Gujarati psyche, thanks to the coloured presentations on the advent of Muslims by the British and a section of Indian historians. The bitter truth and lesson of history regarding defeat of Indians by all outside invaders, irrespective of their religious persuasion, from the Persians, Alexander the Great in era Before Christ (BC) to Colonial powers of Portuguese, French and British, in modern times, on account of comparative inadequacies of Indian Army, constituted on unmerited and unscientific basis of caste, refusal of Indians to absorb fresh military technology and update the war strategy, tactics and hardware, were the main causative factors for the loss of all battles.
 
Is merely blaming Muslim conquerors for Indian losses, a shrewd strategy of caste Hindus, who are responsible for (the)mediocrity of Indian Army confronting the invaders, from ancient times? Ignoring these facts and condemning merely the Muslim invaders for defeat of Indians, in the medieval times, with a view to treat rulers professing Islamic religion as foreigners, even though no Muslim ruler of India from Sultan Qutb-ud-din Aibak to Mugal Emperor Aurangzeb (AD 1206 to 1707) had ever sent gifts or paid any indemnity to any political power outside India like Khalifa, is part of a communal political agenda. This strategy is adopted for creation of a sectarian exclusivist pro-Hindutva mind-set – and it was a contributing factor in making of an intense anti-Muslim disposition among all Hindus in Gujarat – cleverly window-dressing the historic failures of caste Hindus. Besides, the persistent communal indoctrination by Sangh Parivar, since the intensification of Ram Janmabhoomi liberation movement in 1980s, had transformed a large section of Hindu population, as carriers of the virus of deep-rooted animosity to Muslims. This must be a driving factor, which propelled many rioters, who inflicted beastial violence against Muslims during 2002 riots, acting like programmed human robots.

(Excerpts from Chapter 2, Gujarat Behind the Curtain, RB Sreekumar, former DGP, Gujarat, Manas Publications, New Delhi, 2016)
 

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