The
PUDR report says that the VHP (World Hindu Council) and its youth wing,
the Bajrang Dal, organized trishul (tridents) distribution ceremonies in
villages with Muslim populations. Speeches were made abusing and
threatening Muslims during these ceremonies.
The
report gives the instance of Pandarwada village where one of the worst
massacres and sexual abuse cases took place. A meeting was held in this
village about a fortnight before the attack.
The
PUDR report provides detailed lists of people named as organizers and
attackers. Many of these are functionaries of the ruling party, BJP, the
VHP and the Bajrang Dal.
The
report gives a list of victims in some of the mass killings, which
establishes that their numbers were higher than the ones the government
admits.
The
PUDR has accused the state government of abetting the anti-Muslim
pogrom. “The fact that the Gujarat government supported the bandh
(general strike) of February 28 and March 1 despite its experience of
large-scale violence against Muslims after a similar bandh in 2000, is
evidence of its complicity in the violence right from the start,” it
said.
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Man
with his baby born in relief camp
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The
report also accuses the judiciary of not performing its duty. It
illustrates as to how the criminal justice system in the state is
complicit in the denial of justice to the riot victims. It corroborates
the widely-reported fact that the police make a mockery of the
investigative process. And that even courts have shown reluctance to do
their duty.
The
PUDR team visited 21 relief camps and 75 villages and towns where it
spoke to government officials, members of traders' associations, the
VHP, the Jamait-e-Ulema-e Hind and NGOs.
It
has demanded the Narendra Modi government in Gujarat be dismissed and
asked for an independent probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation
into major incidents of communal violence, and expressed doubts over the
Modi government’s intentions to take action against the perpetrators
of riots
