Naroda Gaon and Naroda Patiya

Incidents of Post-Godhra Violence: Ahmedabad

Naroda Gaon and Naroda Patiya

Indicted

About 15 kms from Ahmedabad city, Naroda Gaon and Naroda Patiya have beenhome to around 1,000 daily wage earning Muslims. Many of the residents here aremigrants from Karnataka and Maharashtra. The area lies on a stretch of the outer city,situated along a deserted highway road. The Gopinath and Gangotri housing societiessituated nearby are home, the survivors allege, to many of the attackers. Thegovernment’s ST warehouse is located across the wide road.

Naroda Patiya and Naroda Gaon have a long history of VHP provocation. Policesources revealed to expert witnesses who deposed before the Tribunal, that in 1999 adargah was broken down and an idol installed in its place. At the time, the local policerepaired the dargah and arrested 10-15 persons, including Dr. Jaideep Patel, MayaKotdani and Amrish Pandey. Pressure was mounted on the police by the then homeminister, Haren Pandya, but the police stood their ground and the law-breakers wereforced to back down.

However, things were different this time round in Naroda. In fact, the attack byrioters on Naroda Patiya, and thereafter on Naroda gaon nearby--a settlement of about1,000 Muslims--left the entire area completely destroyed and devastated.According to several dozen survivor witnesses, who until August 23, 2002 wereliving in many different relief camps across Ahmedabad city, the first attack on NarodaPatiya and Naroda Gaon began at 9 a.m. on the morning of February 28, the day theGujarat bandh had been declared by the VHP and Bajrang Dal, supported by thegovernment in power. That morning, a large mob of 5,000 to 10,000 people dressedin half-pants (khaki chaddies) and saffron vests (banians) with black bandannas tiedaround their heads, set upon the hapless minority residents of the area. They werearmed with spears, swords, acid bombs and petrol bombs. They used gas cylinders fortheir work. The assaulters were mixing petrol with some solvent. According to theevidence gathered, diesel and petrol used was from the ST warehouse, too.They first attacked the Noorani Masjid in the area and began to burn it with the helpof LPG cylinders, tyres, petrol and kerosene. In self-defence, Naroda residents resortedto stone throwing. The police then fired at the community under attack. Four personswere killed and two injured in the police firing. It was around 10-10.30 a.m. that the minaret of the NooraniMasjid was destroyed. During the first attack, the family of Shabir Ahmed Khushid Ahmed and Mehmood AhmedKhushid Ahmed were burnt alive. The mobs were attacking Hussain Nagar and Jawaharlal Nagar in Naroda.

One of the elderly witnesses who deposed before the Tribunal testified that after the first attack on theMosque, when the persons attacked were running towardssafety into their homes, the assailants overtook them and burnt 2-3 people. One of the first to be so burntwas a physically handicapped youth. He was a Madrasi Muslimlad from Hajira, about 20-25 years old. They put him in a small paan-kiosk/shop [paanka galla] put petrol on him and burnt him. The victim-survivors ran into their homesand remained there till around 3 p.m. By this time the attack had intensified and,instead of using a single bullet at the leaders of the assault at Naroda, the police was firing at the victims. It was between 5 and 6 p.m., when the mob was at the height ofits frenzy, that many women and girls of Naroda Gaon and Patiya were first raped andthen doused in kerosene and petrol and burnt.

Survivors of the attack recall that the local police sided totally with the riotousmob. Residents in the camps deposed that the Special Reserve Police (SRP) forcepresent refused to provide them sanctuary and forced them towards the waiting riot-ers. Once resistance was broken with the help of the police, the rioters stormed insidethe settlement, burning and looting at will.

Witness after witness testified to the brazen refusal of the police and even the SRPpersonnel to do their bounden duty and protect those under attack. (“Nahi, aaj to uparse order aaya ke aaj tumhari jaan bachane ki nahi hai.” (“No, today we have orders fromabove that you are not to be saved”) one witness testified that a policeman, KKMysorewala, clearly told her.)

Commissioner of police, PC Pandey was aware of the attack on this lone Muslimsettlement on the outskirts of Ahmedabad from the morning of Feb 28 itself, whenover two dozen calls made to his mobile phone were desperate cries for help fromresidents in the area. But no help was forthcoming. His team and the local policestation with PI, KK Mysorewala, have been directly indicted by the evidence re-corded by the Tribunal.

Witnesses alleged that the leaders of the riotous mobs were waving copies of theSandesh newspaper, saying see what you Muslims have done to us Hindus at Godhraas they attacked the area. The men in the mob that attacked Naroda Gaon and Patiyawere described by witnesses as wearing khaki shorts, caps and had saffron bands [kesripatta] tied around them. Many witnesses testified that when out of distress theyscreamed, “Allah! Allah!” they were taunted by the attackers, who said, “No, say JaiSri Ram!”

Mohammed Hussain was one of the people who were shot dead by the police inthis area. His wife testified before the Tribunal. He was on the other side of the roadwhen the attack began in the morning with a six-month-old daughter in his arms.Across the road, his wife had their other two children with her. He was trying to crossover to where his family was when he was hit. The bullet hit him in the head; itblasted in from one side of his head out through the other. He fell down right there.Though his wife screamed to the police for help, there was none forthcoming. As shewas trying to reach him, the police beat her up severely and then they hit the children.They were hitting them with the butts of their rifles, preventing the wife from reach-ing her injured husband. Some Muslim youth tried to pull the witness’ husband out ofthe way. He was bleeding profusely so they tried to move him to the side. They hadmoved him just a little way when a Hindu mob came and poured kerosene on him, putcycle tyres on him and set fire to him there and then. The wife was witness to this. Shewas screaming for help, trying to get them to stop, but the police could do nothing.Then as the mob came towards them she had to run with her three children towardsGopinath society where her brother lived. When she met the Tribunal she was traumatised by the events of thatday. The assailants had burnt her husband so badly,his face, everything was burnt. Their 4-year-old son was an eyewitness to everythingthat happened and the child was still ill in May 02, still distraught at having lost hisfather. He saw his father’s body, he saw him bleeding. He was witness to his father’skilling. The third child, a girl, is 2 ½ years old. The six-month-old, injured by a brutalrod is recovering. This woman also saw many young girls running naked in front ofher eyes. According to her testimony, they caught hold of innocent children and slicedthem up. They were pulled out of their mothers’ arms. Her aunt (her mother’s brother’swife), has returned to her parents’ village in Gulbarga now, after her two children,Nilofer and Sohail, were burnt alive.

This witness, when trying to escape asked some Hindu women from the locality for adrink of water. They refused. She then went to the SRP post. She asked a man in uniformthere to allow her to go to the big water tank where she could get some water but he refused.He said the orders were that she was not to be allowed further. He added laughing, “Ye htumhara akhri din hai, vaise bhi tum marne wale ho” (“This is the last day of your life, you’re goingto die anyway”). It was a police officer in uniform, who said this to the witness.This witness and many others testified to the taunting demeanour of the SRP menwho did not help them at all. In fact, many were whistling at the victims from theirlocation up there, jeering and laughing. They were also playing religious songs (mandirke gaane, bhajans) on the tape recorder, blasting them at full volume. They also as-saulted young Muslim boys, grabbing hold of them, pulling them by their hair, shov-ing them around saying, “Hato, hato!” (“Move, Clear off!”) The police have not re-corded the statements of this witness and she had not received compensation either.She expressed the wish to use the compensation money for rehabilitation but not atNaroda where all was lost for her and many others.

After the first attack on the morning of February 28, the second assault beganaround 2.30 p.m. when the mobs gathered on all sides of the basti. There was ampletime between the first round of attacks and the second for the police to have galvanisedenough forces. This time, according to witnesses, many from the attackers were carry-ing jerry-cans (kerba) filled with kerosene, diesel [kaala tel] and black oil from the STworkshop. They first poured this on some of the victims nearest at hand. The workerspresent at the ST workshop were observed supplying them with black oil (diesel?)which they then used in the arson. The aggressors were lighting balls of cloth andthrowing them on the victims. They were throwing fuel and fire-balls at the residentsfrom the rooftops of nearby buildings as well. Many of those who were trying to comeout of the area were pushed back, prodded with long sticks. Over four dozen wit-nesses from Naroda, living at in different camps in Ahmedabad city during the visit bymembers of the Tribunal, narrated the fact that more than 150 calls for help had beenmade to the commissioner of police PC Pandey on his mobile phone. Initially, theyreceived terse responses, after which, witnesses averred, the mobile was simply switched off.

The falsity of the official figures, which suggested only around 70 deaths in theNaroda Patiya incident, was evident from the testimonies of so many survivors who have listed in detail the missing persons from that area and who named their kith andkin, whom they had seen dying in front of their eyes. The actual death toll has to bemuch higher. Many also narrated how SRP men misguided a large group of peoplewho were trying to escape into a trap, where the mob killed them and threw the bodiesinto a well. Most of the dead bodies were charred or mutilated beyond recognitionand an overwhelming majority of the survivors did not manage to have access to thebodies of their relatives in order to perform the last rites in a dignified manner.

Dozens of eyewitnesses who deposed before the Tribunal described gory incidentswhere children were burnt alive and women were raped. One woman, Kauser Bano,who was nine-months’ pregnant, had her belly cut open and her foetus wrenched out,then swung on the edge of a sword before being dashed to the ground and flung intothe fire. According to eyewitness accounts, at least two more women were subjectedto a similar fate. The enormity and ferocity of the attack forced all the survivingresidents of the settlement to run away. Every house was looted and some burnt. Theentire settlement was completely devastated.

The Tribunal also recorded the testimony of an eyewitness to the rape ofKhairunissa, daughter of Marukh Bano. An animal-like mob of 11 gang raped her.Soon after the brutal act, they burnt the family alive one by one. The mother’s headwas cut off. Those bodies of this family that could be found were in a horrifyingbrutalised condition.

The violence at Naroda Gaon and Patiya was marked, as in other areas of Gujarat,by pre-meditated and sinister levels of violence and, at the time of the Tribunal’svisit, arson burn among was a recurrent factor. Sexual crimes against women and girls,including rape, were determinedly used.

An eyewitness to the murder of 6-year-old Imran also deposed before the Tribunal. Thewitness described how petrol instead of water was poured into the mouth of 6-year-oldImran. A lit matchstick was then thrown into his mouth and the child just blasted apart.The 76-year-old father of Kauser Bano, who lost seven family members including hispregnant daughter, has survived along with his nephew, Javed Ismail, a 14-year-old whowas working. This witness testified before the Tribunal. His parents were burnt in frontof his eyes. He heard the mob, who attacked with iron rods and lathis before usingarson, shouting, “You have burnt our train, we will not let you go!” Javed was badlyhurt himself. He was hit on the head with a metal rod/pipe and fell unconscious. Beforehe was attacked he saw the assailants hitting a young girl from the neighbourhood onthe groin (pisaab ki jagah) with metal rods/pipes and then killing her. He was thenassaulted by a man who hit him on the eye and he fell down unconscious.

Young Javed’s father, Ismailbhai, a tailor, and two other family members, his motherand sister, were also killed. Only his uncle, Kauser Bano’s father is alive. None of thedead in this family could be identified.

Kauser Bano’s father told the Tribunal that he now had little with which to live.The gold ring that he wore would be used for the costs of his funeral.Many victim-survivors from Naroda Patiya had to be hospitalised and were admitted to VS hospital or LGhospital for several days. Many were re-united with theirfamilies after a week or ten days. The severity of burn injuries on the victims could beobserved by the Tribunal, especially among those living at the Sundaramnagar reliefcamp. There has been no aid or relief for victims of burn injuries though arson was atechnique of violence that was used relentlessly in the post-Godhra carnage.

According to the testimonies of witnesses as recorded by the Tribunal, at least 80people were burnt alive and thrown into the well, Tisra kua, behind Gangotri andGopi Park, behind the ST workshop. A 70-year-old woman, Tarkas bibi Abdul Ghani,was burnt alive. The police was completely inactive and this provided inspiration tothe mob. The message was, “Muslim ko zinda jalao” (“Burn the Muslims alive”). Theshocking thing was that the SRP also supported the mob. Tear gas was being flung atthe Muslim mohalla (neighbourhood), which was, in fact, being targeted by the mobs.

As one witness maintained: “… I saw them do this. We ran on ahead and by thetime I reached our mohalla it must have been about 3 p.m. By this time we were reallyworried. The mob had started burning houses, looting, throwing petrol and setting fireto buildings. Since ours were kaccha houses (crude/impermanent structures), weclimbed on to the roofs of pucca RCC buildings nearby. There were many of us, in-cluding women and children at Gopinath, Gangotrinagar. This was at about 3-4 o’clockin the afternoon.

Between 5 and 6 p.m., when the mob was at the height of its frenzy, many of ourwomen were first raped and then doused in kerosene and petrol and burnt… I sawthem doing this”

Fathers testified with pain and humiliation about the rape of their daughters. OneSufiya Bano, aged 22 years, was raped and burnt in front of her father. The CivilHospital, where she was admitted and later died, confirmed the attack on her.When her father, a witness who deposed before the Tribunal, tried to save hisdaughter, he was brutally caught hold off and his beard cut off. Seven members fromthis family were killed — three sons — Mehmood (18 ), Ayub (14) and Hussain, (7 ),three daughters — Sufiyabano (22), Afrinbano and Shahinbano (4), and his wife,Lalibibi (40).

Naroda Gaon and Patiya possibly witnessed the worst intensity of violence as also themost planning. Close to 150 persons are estimated to have been burnt alive after beinghacked, cut, gang raped. It is shocking that months after such gruesome carnage the statehas made no attempts to compute exact figures of loss of life. Bodies were thrown into awell. Women have been killed in very large numbers. At the mass grave that was dug onMarch 6, to provide burial to 96 bodies from Naroda Patiya, 46 women were buried.Victim-survivors of Naroda Patiya do not have any papers to show proof of existenceor residence. There are no death certificates since no remains were found as bodies wereburnt to ashes. The government has done nothing to address this problem. A majority offamilies from here have migrated back to Karnataka, Maharashtra, Bihar, Rajasthan.The scale and brutality of the violence needs not only to be recorded in detail butdealt with firmly. Swords, iron rods and trishuls were used in the attacks. Limbs of victims were severed off, before many were just quartered; while girls and womenwere stripped and paraded naked, before being raped and burnt. Most bodies were notrecovered. How could they be?

Apart from the police, including PI, KK Mysorewala, who told victims who beggedfor help, that “today there are no orders to save you”, witnesses also testified thatsome SRP police also supported the miscreants. Some of the SRP personnel report-edly told the victims that “Tumko aaj andar nahi lenge, tumko aaj marneka hai” (“Wewon’t allow you in (to shelter in the SRP post) today, today you have to die”). Manyworkers from the ST Workshop, government employees, were also involved. Theywere shouting “Jai Shri Ram!” and they threw stones at the victims and also suppliedthe fuel/diesel (kaala paani) for burning. Neither the SRP nor workers from the STWorkshop came to the aid of those being attacked.

The scale and the brutality of the attack suggest obvious pre-planning and training– especially considering that the attack on this neighbourhood went on for no lessthan seventeen and a half hours. Finally, it was under police escort provided by addi-tional CP Tandon at 2.30 a.m. that Sharif Khan of Shah-e-Alam Camp rescued vic-tims of Naroda Gaon and Patiya on the morning of February 29.

One of the significant testimonies recorded by the Tribunal was of young menfrom the area of Naroda Gaon and Patiya who had attended Bajrang Dal Camps atSardarnagar and Dwarkanagar on a weekly basis. These camps had started since Au-gust-September 2001. Some of these meetings were secret, only meant for trustedmantris. Swords and trishuls were distributed at these camps. Youth were galvanised tobe in a constant state of military preparation for a ‘war’ about to take place. Theregular indoctrination at these camps, as recorded by those who had attended them,and who divulged details about the same to the Tribunal, was that the main ‘target ofhatred’ was Muslims. Members who attended and were being trained were also as-sured of protection from the police and from the organisation if anything were tohappen to them. Many persons who deposed about the camps expressed the opinionthat the training made ordinary young men become terrorists.

At Naroda, 1,100 homes belonging to Muslims were first looted and then 25 per cent ofthese were burnt. Witnesses spoke about a particular substance – a packet of whitishpowder, which when thrown on a person’s skin made the skin peel off. Once the flesh wasbared, people were burnt to death. Many witnesses saw the attackers throw this whitishsubstance. They used their hands to throw it but witnesses could not say whether theattackers used something to protect themselves when they threw it. In Naroda, ShahinBano (22), spoke of one Hindu family living there who, she thought, must have heard thatsomething was going to happen because they ran away the night before the attacks began.Several witnesses who deposed before the Tribunal were eyewitnesses to Dr.Jaideep Patel (VHP) and Maya Kotdani (BJP MLA) actually leading the mobs. Theywere also instrumental in encouraging other accused to commit violent sexual crimes.Other accused among politicians were Ashok (MLC) and Vallabh(MLC) named di-rectly by eyewitnesses.

One of the main accused, Bhavani Singh Chhara was identified by many witnessesas intimidating and threatening residents before the attack. He was involved in themost loathsome crimes. He has another name but people called him Bhavani. He is adriver working for AMTS, has a son who is a lawyer practising at Bhadra Court, andlived in the mohalla/area. Witnesses said that he has a big moustache and is a Chhara(Tribal), a Rathod. He was responsible for stripping girls and women, parading themand then raping them. Young boys of eight have witnessed crimes of this natureagainst women who were their sisters and mothers. Limbs of women were dismem-bered, a variety of objects were thrust into women’s bodies. Apart from BhavaniChhara, Suraj Chhara and many Chharas from Chharanagar were in the mob, espe-cially initiating the crimes against women. Guddu Chhara son of Mukesh JiwanlalBanya (local level BJP/VHP worker), one of the accused, was absconding from theneighbourhood when the Tribunal recorded evidence.

Jaideep Patel (second in rank to Praveen Togadia of the VHP) was the leader ofthe mob. A doctor by profession, Jaideep Patel was one of those who travelled in themotor cavalcade from Godhra to Ahmedabad and incited persons along the way. GudduChhara, son of Mukesh Jiwanlal Banya; Ratilal son of Bhavani Singh; AMTS driver,Mungna Chhara; the Owner of Manoj Video Pvt. Firm; Murli Naran Sindhi; SatishMahadik; Bipin Panchal (a dangerous person who is said to have a lethal gun, he is theowner of Uday Gas Agency), are the main accused.

Ratilal, AMTS driver Mungna Chhara and the owner of Manoj Video were therapists. Bipin Panchal, also known as Bipin Sindhi, (a local level BJP/VHP worker), isbelieved to have 400-500 gas cylinders in stock. Many of them were used to explodehomes and other buildings. It is believed that trucks from Shola Satellite area werecommissioned to enable the huge mob to move freely.

Indicted:

• Naroda violenceVasant Rathod,
• Solanki,
• Ashok (BJP MLC),
• Vallabh (BJP MLC),
• Mayabehn Kotdani ( BJP MLA),
• Dr Jaideep Patel (second in rank to Praveen Togadia of the VHP), for leading the mob.
• Guddu Chhara, son of Mukesh Jiwanlal Banya (local level BJP/VHP worker)
• Ratilal, son of Bhavani Singh
• AMTS driver, Mungna Chhara
• Owner of Manoj Video Pvt. Firm
• Murli Naran Sindhi
• Satish Mahadik
• Bipin Panchal Sindhi, owner, Uday Gas Agency (local level BJP/VHP worker)
• Jai Bhagwan (Gangotri apartments); (local level BJP/VHP worker)
• Naresh and Chotta, (local level BJP/VHP worker)
• Praveen Modi,
• Langda Chhara,
• Natarajwala Sindhi,
• Sangeet Furniturewala Sindhi.
• Accused of Rape: Ratilal, AMTS driver Mungna Chhara and owner of Manoj Video
• Accused (assailants): Bajrang Dal/VHP activists
• Accused (police): the IGP, commissioner of police, PC Pandey, and PI, KK Mysorewala