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Kashmiri Women to Adopt Gujarat Orphans, Anti-Muslim Attacks Continue
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| Hindu attacks
against Gujarat Muslims left some 2,000 dead, said HRW.
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SRINAGAR,
Indian-controlled Kashmir, May 13 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) -
A group of women in Kashmir said Monday, May 13, they would take in
orphans and widows made destitute by anti-Muslim riots in the western
Indian state of Gujarat, news agencies reported.
The
women, who did not identify themselves, issued an appeal through the
local media for other women to come forward and help the victims of
Gujarat, where nearly 2,000 people, mostly Muslims, have been murdered
since late February, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
"Given our own tragedy [in Kashmir], there is little we can do
for our less fortunate sufferers of Gujarat," read a front-page
appeal in the leading daily newspaper, Greater Kashmir. "But even
within our constraints, some small things can be done. Some ladies,
mostly housewives, have got together to take an initiative."
The women said they "have offered to adopt some orphans and
widows to enable them to resume their normal life."
Despite
"torture, torment and deprivations here, something worse is
happening in Gujarat," read the Kashmiri women’s appeal.
"The
feeling of siege and helplessness among the Gujarat Muslims cannot be
matched by even the worst kind of atrocities in a scenario where we
have been at least free to share our agony with each other," it
added.
Hindu-Muslim
riots broke out in Gujarat February 27, ending up in the killing of up
to 2,000 people, mostly Muslims.
Human
rights groups accused the state leadership, led by Prime Minister Atal
Behari Vajpayee's Hindu-nationalist BJP party, of turning a blind or
even sympathetic eye to attacks on the minority Muslim community.
In
a report released April 30, New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW)
said the state government of Gujarat, led by Vajpayee's
Hindu-nationalist BJP party, was engaged in a "massive
cover-up" to hide its role in two months of communal violence
that has left up to 2, 000 people dead, and almost 100,000 homeless.
HRW’s
count was confirmed by the International Federation for Human Rights.
"What
happened in Gujarat was not a spontaneous uprising; it was a carefully
orchestrated attack against Muslims," Smita Narula, Human Rights
Watch's senior South Asia researcher, said in the 75-page report.
"The
attacks were planned in advance and organized with extensive
participation of the police and state government officials," she
said.
Muslim-majority
Kashmir has been in turmoil since 1989, when Kashmiris launched a
campaign for independence from India or joining neighboring Pakistan.
More
than 35,000 people have died in the independence war, which created
over 20,000 widows and orphans in the Himalayan former tourist haven.
Pakistan
put the death toll at 70,000.
The
humane gesture by the Kashmiri women came as the Muslim minority in
Gujarat were still under almost daily attacks by extremist
Hindus.
Two
Muslims were killed in the troubled Western Indian state, reported
AFP.
One
Muslim was stabbed to death in the Kalupur area of Gujarat's
commercial capital Ahmedabad late Sunday night, a police spokesman
said.
Another
was stabbed to death, and one injured during police fire in
Ahmedabad's Maninagar area Sunday afternoon, the spokesman added.
The
latest murders came as police and local authorities in Ahmedabad met
leaders of Hindu and Muslim communities to try to establish communal
peace.
Senior
police officials, including the newly appointed commissioner K.R.
Kaushik, were reportedly patrolling the city to ensure peace, the
spokesman said.
One
Hindu, armed with a trident, was caught by the police before he could
attack a Muslim woman in Ahmedabad's Gomtipur area Sunday morning, he
said.
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