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Muslims
Fear the Worst in India’s Gujarat Ahead of Hindu March
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A
mass grave in Gujarat in which 61 victims of anti-Muslim riots
are buried
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AHMEDABAD,
India, July 11 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Thousands of
Muslims have returned to relief camps in the riot-hit western Indian
state of Gujarat fearing fresh attacks by Hindu hardliners during an
annual procession Friday, July 12.
“We
realized that the number of refugees at our camp had shot up only
after we fell short of food some days back, and when we did a head
count the number had gone up by almost 2,000,” said Mohsin Kadri, a
coordinator of the Shah Aalam camp in Gujarat’s commercial capital
Ahmedabad, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
More
than 4,500 people already live in the camp, one of many set up after
India’s worst anti-Muslim violence in a decade broke out in
February.
Devout
Hindus will march for 14 kilometers (eight miles) in tense Ahmedabad
on Friday as part of the Jagallath Yatra, an annual religious
procession.
Leading
Muslim leaders have called on the government to forbid the public
ceremony in the current climate.
Earlier
this month a political procession was called off under pressure from
Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, fearing it would shatter
Gujarat’s relative calm in recent weeks.
An
orgy of mob violence broke out in Gujarat on February 27, when a mob
torched a train carrying Hindu activists in Gujarat, killing 58.
More
than 2,000 Muslims have since been killed in mob violence and more
than 250,000 made homeless.
The
relief camps have also been internationally criticized, with Human
Rights Watch and other groups saying the shelters lack basic
sanitation, food and medical services.
But
some Muslims say they would rather return to the camps than face
thousands of marching Hindus on Friday.
“We
don’t want to risk our lives again,” said Jabin Shaikh, 41, who
has taken shelter at the Shah Aalam camp.
“The
procession will pass through our area and despite heavy security
arrangements anything could happen. We will be safe at the camp with
our people,” he said.
Inamul
Iraqi, who works at the Dariakhan Khummat relief camp, said most of
the people who are returning to the camps “are from communally
sensitive areas from where the procession will pass.”
Gujarat
is the largest state ruled by Vajpayee’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya
Janata Party. Human rights groups have accused the state government of
turning a blind or even unsympathetic eye to attacks on the Muslim
minority.
Many
Muslims put little trust in the police, saying they watched on
impotently as Hindu extremists attacked them in March.
“After
meeting with the city police commissioner, we have appealed to our
people to not to go by rumors and check every information that floats
that day with the police to alleviate the distrust,” said Maulana
Gulam Syed Ashrafi, a Muslim leader.
“But
we cannot force them to stay in their home when they feel safer in the
camps,” he said.
Police
insist they are taking utmost security measures for the event to go
off peacefully.
Senior
police official Satish Verma said police will be stationed on
rooftops, on main routes and on adjacent roads. Several points have
already been sealed off, he said.
But
he acknowledged: “The security arrangement is fail-proof, but not
fool-proof.”
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also:
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