Riot victims in India suffer behind 3 metre wall
07 Sep 2004 10:21:06 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Thomas Kutty Abraham

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/DEL95619.htm

PANDARWADA, India, Sept 7 (Reuters) - Zahir Kalubhai
Sheikh used to earn enough from farming his 2 acre
(0.9 hectare) plot and doing occasional odd jobs on
his Hindu neighbours' farms to support his wife and
four small children.

But more than two years after religious violence in
the western state of Gujarat left more than 1,000
people dead and robbed him of his livelihood, Sheikh
lives in a tarpaulin tent under a tree, wondering
where his next meal will come from.

"I am scared to go back to my house and field. I'm not
sure whether I will be able to save myself and my
children if there is another riot," said Sheikh, with
a weary smile.

Sheikh and his family were lucky to escape when a
Hindu mob, seeking revenge for the deaths of 59 Hindu
pilgrims on a train torched by suspected Muslim
militants, rampaged through Pandarwada.

Thirty two people, mostly Muslim women and children
trying to escape the village, were killed.

Sheikh was so severely beaten in the attack on
Pandarwada that he was bed-ridden for months.

"I'm not able to even bend and pick a piece of wood
without difficulty. I am surviving on the generous
dole outs of my relatives and help from some voluntary
organisations," he said.

Most of the 112 Muslim families who once lived in
Pandarwada had their homes and farms burned.

Like thousands of Muslims displaced by the Gujarat
riots, many of them have rebuilt houses or moved to
predominantly Muslim areas.

Sheikh's family, and nearly 20 others, have not been
so lucky and are still living in tents made of plastic
and tarpaulin sheets tied to wooden poles.

The Muslims who remain here say that on top of dealing
with the grief and hardship visited on them during the
riots they now face a social boycott and a 10 ft (3
metre) wall built by Pandarwada's majority Hindus.

NO WAY OUT

"They have built a concrete wall to separate their
houses from ours. That speaks for our relationship
with them," said Sanurbhai Imam Syed, who now lives in
a cluster of more than 80 houses built for riot
victims by a Muslim non-governmental organisation.

"In a way, the wall is a good thing as it gives us
protection from attackers. But it could also prevent
us from easily escaping from attackers," Syed said.

Eight members of Syed's family, including his mother
and younger brother, were killed in the riots.

"Muslims here are facing an unofficial social boycott.
Hindus don't want them any more in their
neighbourhood," said Mukhtar Muhammad, a social
worker.

India's Supreme Court recently ruled that Gujarat
authorities must reopen more than 2,000 criminal cases
against rioters that had been closed by the local
police, who said that the suspects could not be
traced.

The Supreme Court ruling has revived the hopes for
justice for many Muslim residents of Pandarwada -- but
a more immediate hope, for harmony with their
neighbours, still seems a long way from being
realised.

"We used to work in their fields and eat at their
homes. But now, they (Hindus) don't want us," said
Mustafa Hakim Syed, a labourer.

But the Hindu head of Pandarwada village said the
attacks on Muslims here were orchestrated by outsiders
and relations between Hindus and Muslims were fast
improving.

"It may not be the same as before the riots. But there
is a lot of give and take again," he said.
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Complete Coverage of Gujarat Massacre at:
http://www.geocities.com/WestHollywood/Park/6443/Gujarat/






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