2002 Gujarat violence: Encyclopedia - 2002 Gujarat violence

2002 Gujarat violence

The riots were triggered on February 27, 2002 by a fire on a passenger train, the Sabarmati Express, passing through the town of Godhra. The train was carrying Hindu activists called Kar Sevaks returning from a disputed religious site in Ayodhya. The train was allegedly set to fire by Muslim extremists. Hindu sympathisers often cite this as the primary provocation or the "first use" of violence. However, there were reports alleging that it was the Hindus riding the train who were the first to provoke standers-by Muslims in Godhra railway station by shouting Hindu-religious slogans like "Jai Shri Ram" (Victory of Shri Ram). An estimated 59 passengers were killed, most of whom were women and children. A four-member railway committee appointed to investigate the fire, as well as forensic scientists from the state Forensic Sciences Lab, concluded that the fire was likely started from within the train, and not by a mob gathered outside the train [[1]].

2002 Gujarat violence - The Riots

While some refer to the violence as riots others refer to it as an anti-Muslim pogrom.

In one of the worst incidents, on February 28 a mob set fire to the mainly Muslim locality of Naroda Patia in Ahmedabad, killing at least 65 people. The community religious place was burnt using LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) cylinders. According to Human Rights Watch, who visited Naroda Patia three weeks later, homes in the area were completely burnt for the affected. Several witnesses claimed that the police failed to protect residents. In the following days, hundreds of young people with swords, daggers, axes, and iron rods walked around the area, shouting angry slogans.

Among those killed during the first few days of the riot was the former Muslim MP of the city, Ehsan Jafri. A mob attacked his housing colony. In retaliation he fired several shots at the mob. Central Government stated in parliament "The police under the Joint Police Commissioner, DCP, rushed to the site and tried their very best to protect and shift the residents. The police succeeded in saving 180 people including women and children. But unfortunately, the lives of late Jafri and 17 others could not be saved." [2] [3]

These killings were investigated in an official inquiry comprising of Justice (retd)G T Nanavati and Justice (retd) K G shah. The inquiry included gathering and analysis of 2094 oral and written testimonies, both individual and collective, from survivors and independent human rights groups, women's groups, NGOs and academics.

2002 Gujarat violence - Eyewitness Accounts

The violence commited against Muslim women and young girls was particularty disturbing, the following excerpt was taken from the human rights watch report pertaining to the massacre:

A female eyewitness told Human Rights Watch, "they raped them, cut them and then threw them in a well. They cut them with swords. Everything is gone, you won't even find dogs there."33 Samuda also witnessed the raping and killing of young girls: "They took young girls, raped them, cut them and then they burned them."34 Others simply did not have the words to describe the attack: "You won't be able to bear it if we tell you. They are scared, they won't speak, people have been asking for days what happened. What difference has it made? We don't want to go back there. Our lives are in danger there [Naroda Patia].... We won't go back to Patia; we will go anywhere else. We even left without our shoes, all our hard-earned saving are gone."35 One female resident said, "Some girls even threw themselves into the fire, so as not to get raped."36 A ten-year-old girl added, "I saw it also, they cut them down the middle."37

Even pregnant women were not spared. In some cases, their bellies were cut open and the fetus was pulled out before the women were killed.99 A gravedigger at a mass grave site next to the Dariyakhan Ghummat camp in the Shahibaug area told Human Rights Watch: "There were at least three pregnant women and one of the fetuses was partially hanging out. We had to stick it back in before burial. If the fetus was completely removed then we left it out but still buried it with the mother."100

2002 Gujarat violence - The role of the Central and the Gujarat state government in the riots

Various independent human rights groups as well as major Indian newspapers have accused the Gujarat state government, led by Chief Minister Narendra Modi of supporting, and in some cases instigating, the riots. India's own National Human Rights Commission indicted the state government saying "the commission has, therefore, reached that (sic) there was comprehensive failure of the state to protect the constitutional rights of the people of Gujarat." [4]

On 3rd March, 2002, as mobs ruled the streets, Mr. Modi is reported to have stated: "Every action has an equal and opposite reaction". However, Mr. Modi has since denied making this quote. At the height of the violence, Modi further added that Gujarat's 50 million Hindus had shown "remarkable restraint under grave provocation", implying that the violence could have been worse [5].

As a result of Narendra Modi's alleged role in abetting the riots, the US government revoked his visa under Section 212 (a)(2)(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act which makes any foreign government official who was responsible or directly carried out, at any time, particularly severe violations of religions freedom, ineligible for the visa ([6]). The decision was protested by the Indian government, but in response the US government pointed out that their decision was based on the report by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) of India [7].

On part of the government's effort to control the riots:

• Deployed the army, within 72 hours.
• Made preventive arrests of over 33,000 people.
• Fired over 12,000 rounds of bullets
• Fired over 15,000 rounds of tear gas shells

In parliament debate, Government stated that "Ahmedabad and these riots were to be the only riots in the history of India where hundred persons have been killed in police firing." [8]

The President of India at that time, K. R. Narayanan, later blamed the ruling BJP government which was perceived as a "Hindu" party, for supporting the riots. In an interview to the Malayalam magazine Manava Samskriti on the eve of the third anniversary of the Gujarat riots he said: “If the army had been given the powers to suppress the violence, but the [BJP] state government did not do it; the Centre also did not do it. It was a conspiracy between the state and the central government that was responsible for the Gujarat violence.” ([9]) Narayanan's views were consistent with reports by Rahul Bedi that the soldiers were held back by the government in the initial days of the riots which gave the rioters a free hand [10].

India's Supreme Court, expressed its displeasure at the government's handling of the case. [11]. The Court also rebuked both the Gujarat High Court and the local justice system, stating, “Judicial criminal administration system must be kept clean and beyond the reach of whimsical political wills or agendas.” [12] Some of the most damaging allegations came from Mr.RB Sreekumar, who served as intelligence chief for the Gujrat Government during the riots. Mr. SreeKumar alleged that the government ordered the killing of Muslims after the Godhra incident [13][14]. He presented his notes to India Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) which investigates complaints by civil servants.

The Government of Gujrat refuted the allegations and chargesheeted R B Sreekumar in connection with his ‘‘semi-official’’ diary on the grounds of releasing official documents [15]. Some critics of Mr. Sreekumar questioned the authenticity of the dairy he submitted as evidence[16].

2002 Gujarat violence - Conviction

In India, Conviction in riot-cases is rare[17] [18]. The first of the convictions in post-Godhra riot cases came on Tuesday, November 25 2003 with the Kheda district court sentencing 12 persons to life imprisonment [19].

On 14 December 2005, a special fast-track court in Godhra, Gujrat sentenced 11 people to life imprisonment for killing 11 Muslims during religious riots in 2002 [20]. Another 21 suspects were acquitted due to lack of evidence. In a related judgement the court also convicted three people for leading the mobs that had attacked Muslim houses in the same village in the Panchmahals district of Gujarat. They were sentenced to 10 years in prison and fined [21].

2002 Gujarat violence - The Best Bakery Case

The Best Bakery case, one of the most famous in recent history, is still ongoing. The incident involved the gruesome killing of 14 people when the Best Bakery, in the Hanuman Tekri area of Vadodara, was attacked by a large mob[22].

A Sessions court in Vadodara had acquitted 21 accused in the case as witnesses turned hostile. The Gujarat High Court also upheld the decision. Later, a key witness Zahira Sheikh asked for retrial of the accused outside Gujarat and said that she lied in the court due to threat to her life. The Supreme Court of India ordered a retrial, out of the state of Gujarat and described Gujarat's administrators as "modern day neros", saying that they "were looking elsewhere when Best Bakery and innocent women and children were burning, and were probably deliberating how the perpetrators of the crime can be saved and protected" [23].

Zaheera, however changed her stance and said that the decision by the Sessions court was correct. This time she accused social activist Teesta Setalvad of getting her signature on the petition by telling her that the petition filed was for her property. A "sting" operation carried by the magazine Tehelka failed to prove that she had accepted bribes from Srivastava Brothers (BJP MLA Madhu Srivastava and Congress Municipal Councilman Chandrakant Srivastava) [24].

The other witnesses in the case have maintained their stand and some of identified the accused in their depositions.

2002 Gujarat violence - The cause of the train fire in Godhra

The cause of the train fire and the riots are fiercely disputed.

• One hypothesis states that the attackers were Muslim vendors at the Godhra station who had an altercation with the Kar Sevaks earlier, and that the riots were an expected retaliation to the train fire.

• A railway ministry inquiry led by Retired Supreme Court judge Umesh Chandra Banerjee concluded that the fire was accidental. "There has been a preponderance of evidence that the fire in coach number S6 originated in the coach itself without any external input," he said, "The possibility of an inflammable liquid having been used is completely ruled out as there was first a smell of burning, followed by then (sic) smoke and flames thereafter.". The report was attacked by the BJP and its sister organisations in the Sangh Parivar as being politically motivated.

2002 Gujarat violence - External references

• A report on the altercation between the Muslim tea vendor and the kar sevaks in magazine Outlook
• Human Rights Watch (HRW) report 'We have no orders to save you'
• The HRW Report on Gujarat: Another Assassination Commentary on the HRW report
• After the carnage: the predatory 'intelligentsia' Commentary on the "predatory 'intelligentsia" by Rajeev Srinivasa
• Crime Against Humanity - An Inquiry into the Carnage in Gujarat published by Citizens for Justice and Peace
• Gujarat page on site of Siddharth Varadarajan, editor of Penguin book, Gujarat: The Making of a Tragedy (2002)

2002 Gujarat violence - Compilations of newspaper articles

• Indian Express-Full Coverage
• The Gujarat Riots Homepage
• Efforts to bring justice to the victims of the violence

2002 Gujarat violence - Newspaper articles

• In India, a Child's Life Is Cheap Indeed, The New York Times, March 7, 2002
• After Deadly Firestorm, India Officials Ask Why, The New York Times, March 6, 2002
• India Death Toll Passes 300 in 4th Day of Religious Riots, The New York Times, March 3, 2002
• More Than 200 Die in 3 Days of Riots in Western India, The New York Times, March 2, 2002
• Hindu Rioters Kill 60 Muslims in India, The New York Times, March 1, 2002
• Firebombing of Train Carrying Hindu Activists Kills 57, The New York Times, February 28, 2002
• Early news reports on the violence
• The sufferings of victims
• India: Hate speeches on the violence in Gujarat must be stopped

Categories: Cleanup from December 2005 | 2002 | Riots | Riots in India

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