III. MASSACRES IN GODHRA AND AHMEDABAD
Godhra
The ongoing violence in
Gujarat was triggered by a Muslim mobs' torching of two train cars carrying
Hindu
activists on February 27,
2002. The attack followed an altercation between Hindu activists and Muslim
vendors at the train station
in Godhra that morning, around 8:00 a.m., but the sequence of events is
still
disputed.7
Fifty-eight passengers were killed, including fifteen children and twenty-five
women, according to
Gujarat state officials.8
Among the victims of the
Godhra massacre was Gayatri Panchal, a sixteen-year-old girl who saw her
father
and sisters burnt alive.
She told the press, "After pelting stones, they poured kerosene on our
compartment
and set it afire. I was
pulled out of the broken window. I saw my father and sister inside. I saw
them
burning."9
After a visit to the massacre scene, the chairman of the National Human
Rights Commission,
Justice J.S. Verma
stated, "I saw the burnt coach and saw chappals [sandals] still strewn.
There were chappals
of children too."10
Godhra, a city of 150,000,
is evenly split between Hindus and Muslims, most of whom live in separate
neighborhoods.11
Godhra was placed under curfew for a year after communal clashes in 1980.
Serious
clashes occurred again in
1992 after the destruction of the Babri mosque in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh.
The Godhra railway station
is situated in an overwhelmingly Muslim section of the city. For three
weeks
preceding the killings,
trains carrying Vishwa Hindu Parishad activists had been stopping daily
in Godhra.12
The activists were coming
to and from Ayodhya, where the VHP sought to begin construction of a Hindu
temple on the disputed site
of the mosque destroyed by Hindu activists there. VHP leaders had set March
15,
2002 as a deadline to bring
thousands of stone pillars to the site in order to begin construction of
the temple.
There are significantly divergent
accounts about the events leading to the dispute that resulted in the Godhra
killings. Human Rights Watch
was not able to independently verify the accuracy of these varying accounts,
but
it was widely reported that
a scuffle began between Muslim vendors and Hindu activists shortly after
the train
arrived at the station.
The activists, who had been chanting Hindu nationalist slogans, were said
to have refused
to pay a vendor until he
said "Jai Shri Ram" or "Praise Lord Ram."13
As the train then tried to pull out of the
station, the emergency brake
was pulled and a Muslim mob attacked the train and set it on fire.14
Initially Gujarat Chief Minister
Narendra Modi claimed that the killings were an "organized terrorist attack."
15
Federal government sources speculated that they were "pre-meditated," or
the work of Pakistan's
Inter-Services Intelligence
(ISI).16.However, senior police officials
in Gujarat have now concluded that the
killings were "not preplanned"
but rather the result of "a sudden, provocative incident."17
In addition, a report
from the Railway Protection
Force (RPF) has concluded that the killings resulted from a spontaneous
altercation between VHP
activists and merchants on the railway that escalated out of control, rather
than a
planned conspiracy.18
There was some forewarning
of violence from within the police itself. Additional director general
of police G.
C. Raigar, had provided
intelligence ahead of the Godhra incident that VHP volunteers were moving
in and out
of Gujarat and could instigate
communal violence. He was removed from his post after presenting evidence
to
news media that law and
order in the state could be compromised by VHP volunteers coming to and
from
Ayodha. He had also questioned
the government's ability to provide security to the Hindu activists or
take
other measures, despite
repeated warnings.19
Over sixty persons have been
arrested for the Godhra train attack.20
Unlike the persons who have been
arrested for revenge attacks
on Muslim communities in Gujarat, the Godhra arrestees were initially charged
with crimes under the Prevention
of Terrorism Ordinance, now the Prevention of Terrorism Act.21
The
charges under POTO were
eventually dropped after considerable pressure, but Chief Minister Modi
reserved
the state government's right
to pursue charges against the Godhra arrestees under POTO at a later time
"if
thought fit."22
In response to heightened
national security concerns, and as relations with Pakistan deteriorated
and violence
in Kashmir and elsewhere
escalated, the Indian government introduced POTO, a modified version of
the
now-lapsed Terrorist and
Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) of 1985, which facilitated
the torture
and arbitrary detention
of members of minority groups and political opponents. POTO was introduced
as a bill
during India's winter session
of parliament in 2001 and signed into law by the president pending parliamentary
proceedings on the ordinance.
POTA was passed on March 27, 2001. Under TADA, tens of thousands of
politically motivated detentions,
systematic torture, extrajudicial executions, and other human rights violations
were committed against Muslims,
Sikhs, Dalits, trade union activists, and political opponents in the late
1980s
and early 1990s.23
In the face of mounting opposition to the act, India's government acknowledged
these
abuses and consequently
let TADA lapse in 1995. Civil rights groups, journalists, opposition parties,
minority
rights groups, and India's
National Human Rights Commission unequivocally condemned POTO. POTA sets
out a broad definition of
terrorism that includes acts of violence or disruption of essential services
carried out
with the "intent to threaten
the unity and integrity of India or to strike terror in any part of the
people." Since it
was first introduced the
government has added some additional safeguards to protect due process
rights but
POTA's critics stress that
the safeguards don't go far enough and that existing laws are sufficient
to deal with
the threat of terrorism.
The Ahmedabad Massacres:
Naroda Patia and Gulmarg Society
Naroda Patia and Gulmarg
Society were the site of two of the deadliest massacres in Ahmedabad. Human
Rights Watch visited both
sites and interviewed numerous eyewitnesses to the attacks who have since
been
residing in relief camps.
Some of their testimony is included below.
Naroda
Patia
Located just across the
road from the State Reserve Police (SRP) quarters, Naroda Patia was the
site of
some of the most brutal
attacks in Ahmedabad. On February 28 at least sixty-five people were killed
by a
5,000-strong mob that torched
the entire locality within minutes. Countless others sustained severe burns
and
other injuries. Women and
girls were gang-raped in public view before being hacked and burned to
death.
Homes were looted and burned
while the community mosque, the Noorani Masjid, was destroyed using
exploding gas cylinders.
Extensive use and access to Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) cylinders has
also been
cited as evidence of official
collusion.24
Naroda Patia used to be a
mixed community of Hindus and Muslims. The nearly one thousand Muslims
were
in a minority and lived
in a slum facing the state transport workshop.25
Most surviving Muslim residents are
now scattered in relief
camps.
In the days that followed
February 28, hundreds of youths brandishing swords, daggers, axes, and
iron rods
were seen shouting "Jai
Shri Ram" and roaming roads lined with gutted shops and littered with burned
trucks,
rickshaws, and other vehicles.26
Human Rights Watch visited
Naroda Patia three weeks after the attacks. The Muslim homes were completely
burned while the Hindu homes
stood unscathed. The area's mosque, the Noorani Masjid, just across the
road
from the SRP post, had also
been destroyed. According to one human rights activist who visited the
site of the
burned mosque soon after
the attacks, at least sixteen gas cylinders, used as explosive devices,
remained
inside the mosque.27
A thirteen-year-old boy described the role of the police during the attack:
The police was with them. The police killed seventeen- and
eighteen-year-olds. The mob also burned down our home. At 10 a.m.
they went after our mosque. Thirty to forty tear gas shells were
released by the police as we, about fifty boys, were trying to save the
mosque.... They killed one seventeen-year-old and eight to ten other
boys were injured.... We kept calling the police but no one came....
The police would pick up the phone and hang up when they heard it
was from Naroda Patia.28
Another eyewitness interviewed
by Human Rights Watch added: "When we tried to run, the police started
firing. It was morning time.
Many were hiding in Masjid Chali [lane]. We came here [to the camp] early
on the
morning of March 2."29
Fifty-five-year-old Salima
Banu, a resident of Naroda Patia was a witness as her son was shot and
killed by
the police:
My son was running to save his life and the police shot him. Our home
was behind Noorani Masjid. They were coming to set the mosque on
fire. Then we started running. A bullet hit my son's arm and then his
stomach. No one was answering the police phone. The police took
their side and not ours. My son's name was Shafiq. He was eighteen
years old... No one came to help. He was suffering so much. His arm
fell off. I have received nothing from the government.... So many
people are also missing. Some have lost their mother, their son, their
father.30
Samuda Bhen, a mother of
two, lost all her valuables in the looting and burning on February 28 and
the days
that followed and identified
members of the Bajrang Dal, Shiv Sena, and the police as the main culprits:
They took my daughter's dowry. This is my daughter [she pointed to
her]. She is seventeen. Her name is Mumtaz. She was supposed to get
married. Now the groom won't come. They also burned my son's
rickshaw. They burned everything after we left. During the attack they
were screaming "Kill them. Cut them." We left on March 1. We
stayed at home until then. The police sided with them. They were
Bajrang Dal people. They were wearing saffron bandannas. There
were also Shiv Sena people. First the police came, they searched the
mosque, they were checking for weapons to see if it was safe for the
others to come. Then the others came. The police station is right near
us. The police was with them for three full days. We kept telling them
to help us.31
Forty-year-old Naseem Banu
told us: "Wherever we hid, the police showed them where we were. The police
remained standing when our
homes were burned down."32
Naroda Patia residents interviewed
by Human Rights Watch also witnessed rapes and other forms of sexual
violence against Muslim
women and girls during the attacks.
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
Testimonies collected by
the Citizens' Initiative, a coalition of over twenty-five NGOs, and submitted
to the
National Human Rights Commission
are replete with incidents of gang rapes of Muslim girls and women and
the role of the police during
the attacks, particularly in Naroda Patia. These testimonies are cited
as
transcribed by the Citizens'
Initiative. A resident of Naroda Patia, Ahmedabad testified that eight
out of eleven
family members were killed
on February 28, two after being raped. The surviving three members sustained
serious injuries:
It was morning and I was cooking. My husband, my three children and I
were in my house while my mother-in-law, my brother-in-law and his wife
along with their three children was in the adjoining house. A mob of 5,000
came and we started running. We were cornered from all the sides. SRP
(State Reserve Police) personnel were also chasing us. It was 6:30 by now
in
the evening. The mob caught hold of my husband and hit him on his head
twice with the sword. They threw petrol in his eyes and then burned him.
My
sister-in-law was stripped and raped. She had a three-month baby in her
lap.
They threw petrol on her and the child from her lap was thrown in the fire.
My brother-in-law was hit in the head with the sword and he died on the
spot. His six-year-old daughter was also hit with the sword and thrown
in the
fire. My mother-in-law had with her the grandson who was four years of
age
and he was burnt too. We were that time hiding on the terrace of a building.
My mother-in-law with her heavy body was unable to climb the stairs so
she
was on the ground. My mother-in-law told them to take away whatever
money she had but to spare the children. They took away all the money and
jewelry and burnt the children with petrol. ([My] mother-in-law was raped
too). I witnessed all this. Unmarried girls from my street were stripped,
raped
and burnt. A 14-year-old such girl was killed by piercing an iron rod in
her
stomach. All this ended at 2:30 A.M. The ambulance came on the scene and
I sat in it along with the bodies of my husband and children. I have injury
marks on both my thighs and left hand that was caused by the police beating.
My husband, my daughter and son had 48%, 95% and 15% burns
respectively. Both my husband and daughter died in the hospital after three
days.... The police was on the spot but helping the
mob. We fell in their feet
but they said they were ordered from above (not to help). Since
the
telephone wires were snapped we could not inform the fire brigade.38
Like hundreds of others,
a resident of Naroda Patia witnessed the gang rape of girls and women.
The names
of the victims have been
omitted to protect their privacy:
We were cooking and were informed to be in the house only as there was
tension in the area. We went to the nearby society [neighborhood] and took
shelter on the terrace. People from the Hindu society told us to take shelter
in
their houses. There were only men in there and none of the women and
children. Then they told us to escape towards Naroda (an area). We
requested them to allow us escape towards the SRP (colony). SRP said, "24
hours have been given to beat you up." Society (place of refuge) brought
us
out on the road and told us to go to Naroda. We disagreed knowing that
it is
a far place. So they started beating us with sticks, hockey sticks and
pipes.
They accused us that we had come there to riot and asked us to get out.
We
came out to face a big mob armed with sharp weapons, kerosene and petrol
cans.... All adult males were then beaten, fallen on the ground and burnt.
The
residents of the gopinath society [neighborhood] segregated young girls
(Muslims) and made them stand on one side. They were raped and we
watched this as some of us were on the terrace.
We were 400-500 people on the terrace.... The girls were stripped and then
two men held them down by legs and arms. Those who raped were 20-25 in
number. The girls screamed so loud that even now when I remember my
blood boils.
They [the attackers] were given twenty-four-hours time (to beat us). If
we
were given even two hours time we would have shown them (dealt with
them). I know the face of the persons who raped. The rape started at 6:00
in
the evening until 9:00 at night. The girls were then burnt. I still remember
their
loud screams. When Asif Khan, a 25-year-old youth pleaded SRP to let us
go he was beaten up badly and he managed with difficulty to get out of
their
hold. We can identify the SRP men. We can also identify the residents of
gopinath society.... 11 of our youth died in private gun firing.39
Gulmarg
Society
In the neighborhood of Gulmarg
Society, Chamanpura, Ahmedabad, over 250 people took refuge on the
morning of February 28 in
the home of Muslim Ehsan Jaffrey, a former member
of parliament. An ordeal that
began at 10:30 a.m. ended
seven hours later and left at least sixty-five dead, including Jaffrey
himself, who was
hacked and burned to death.
The closest police station was less than a kilometer away. The two Ahmedabad
Home Guards already stationed
at Jaffrey's home only had sticks as weapons and according to eyewitnesses
interviewed by Human Rights
Watch provided no protection; one said the guards "were watching and laughing
as the attacks took place."40
In a petition submitted to
the NHRC, the Citizens' Initiative stated that the mob, estimated at 5,000,
had
grown since morning in Gulmarg
Society. Jaffrey made countless phone calls to the police, the chief minister,
and the central home minister
among others asking for protection but to no avail. The telephone lines
were cut
after the neighborhood's
homes were set on fire. Armed with swords, pipes, acid bottles, kerosene,
petrol,
hockey sticks, stones, and
trishuls, the mob was unrestrained for six hours. Among the perpetrators
identified
were workers and local officials
of the VHP and Bajrang Dal.41
Thirty-eight-year-old Mehboob
Mansoori lost eighteen family members in the attack at Gulmarg Society.
He
described the day's sequence
of events to Human Rights Watch (full testimony in introduction):
They burnt my whole family.
At 10:30 a.m. the stone throwing started. First there were 200 people
then 500 from all over, then more. We were 200-250 people. We
threw stones in self-defense. They had swords, pipes, soda-lemon
bottles, sharp weapons, petrol, kerosene, and gas cylinders. They
began shouting, `Maro, kato,' [Kill them, cut them] and "Mian ko
maro." (Kill the Muslims). I hid on the third floor.
Early in the day at 10:30 the police commissioner came over and said
don't worry. He spoke to Jaffrey and said something would work out
then left. The name of the commissioner of police that visited in the
morning is P.C. Pandey, commissioner of police Ahmedabad....
At 3:30 p.m. they started cutting people up, and by 4:30 p.m. it was
game over. Ehsan Jaffrey was also killed. He was holding the door
closed. Then the door broke down. They pulled him out and hit him
with a sword across the forehead, then across the stomach, then on
his legs.... They then took him on the road, poured kerosene on him
and burned him. There was no police at all. If they were there then this
wouldn't have happened.
Eighteen people from my family died. All the women died. My
brother, my three sons, one girl, my wife's mother, they all died. My
boys were aged ten, eight, and six. My girl was twelve years old. The
bodies were piled up. I recognized them from parts of their clothes
used for identification. They first cut them and then burned them.
Other girls were raped, cut, and burned. First they took their jewelry,
I was watching from upstairs. I saw it with my own eyes. If I had
come outside, I would also have been killed. Four or five girls were
treated this way. Two married women also were raped and cut. Some
on the hand, some on the neck.42
Fifty-three-year-old Mansoori
Abdulbhai, also a resident of Gulmarg Society, Chamanpura lost nineteen
family members in the attack.
He told Human Rights Watch:
Nineteen members of my family were killed. My wife, my mother, my
son, my daughters-in-law, my brother's daughter-in-law, and others.
We found fourteen of the bodies, five are still missing. Those fourteen
are buried here [at a mass grave site next to the Dariyakhan Ghummat
camp in Shahibaug]. Sixty-two people were killed there, twenty-nine
bodies have not been found. First they cut people so they couldn't run
and then they set them on fire. One or two women were taken aside
and gang-raped. After five hours the police came and brought us here.
It was so well planned. We buried fourteen members of my family
here on March 7.43
As with Naroda
Patia, even pregnant women were not spared. The husband of an eighteen-year-old
woman
and resident of Gulmarg
Society, Chamanpura told the Citizens' Initiative: "She was pregnant and
it was the
9th month of the pregnancy.
Her house was attacked by a large mob. Her womb was cut open with a sharp
weapon and the unborn baby
was taken out and both mother and the child were burnt dead."44
Sixty-year-old Rosam Bibi,
who used to live in Vijay Mill, Naroda side, also fled to Ehsan Jaffrey's
home for
refuge: "We went to Ehsan
Jaffrey's home on the 28th.. I was on the ground floor. The mob came in
and threw
petrol and started a fire.
There was heavy smoke. They told us to give them our jewelry. They took
everything. Then they hit
everyone and I got burned. Then they pulled people outside and cut them
and burned
them."45
Bibi's eighteen-year-old
son, Ilias Bhai, added: "At 10:30 a.m. the stone throwing began, we got
surrounded.
They were shouting `Ram,
Ram, Jai Ram' [Ram, Ram, Praise Ram].... My brother and sister-in-law were
both
killed."46
Twenty-three-year-old Rasida
Bhen, Ilias's wife, still bore visible head injuries at the time of the
interview with
Human Rights Watch. She
spoke to Human Rights Watch about the murder of her husband's brother and
his
wife, twenty-three-year-old
Aslam Usman Bhai, and twenty-one-year-old Naseem Bano:
They pulled them out and cut them up. When we came out then we
saw that he was cut in the stomach, the chest and the head. They
came with trishuls. My sister-in-law was burnt. First they took her
jewelry. Then took her into the kitchen and exploded the gas cylinder.
They wanted to get rid of all the evidence. They had been married for
fifteen months and she was five months pregnant.47
Referring to attacks on other women, Rasida added:
First they took everyone's jewelry. Then they raped the women, then
they cut them up, and then they burned them. They should get as strict
a punishment as possible.... I was hit with a pipe. We ran outside
when the gas cylinder exploded and then later the police came and we
left.48
A forty-five-year-old man
named Yousuf Bhai told Human Rights Watch that the police commissioner
"betrayed" the victims:
They wanted to leave by the railroad behind Jaffrey's house, but the
police commissioner said, " No, don't you trust me? You must stay
here." Jaffrey even said, "Kill me and leave them alone." After the
police brought people here [the camp] then all night they set bodies on
fire, so there could be no cases against them, so there could be no
evidence. Without police support, none of this could have
happened.49
P.S:
7 Celia Dugger, "After Deadly
Firestorm, India Officials Ask Why," New York Times, March 6, 2002.
8 "Death toll in Indian train inferno rises to 58," Reuters, February 28, 2002.
9 Praveena Sharma, "Survivors
of Indian Train Attack Tell of Fire Horror," Agence France-Presse,
February 28,
2002.
10 "NHRC Chief Sets Deadline," Times of India, March 24, 2002.
11 Rajiv Chandrasekaran, "Provocation Helped Set India Train Fire," Washington Post, March 6, 2002.
12 Priyanka Kakodkar, "`Just like Hindustan-Pakistan,'" Outlook, March 18, 2002.
13 Dugger, "After Deadly Firestorm";
Rajiv Chandrasekaran, "Provocation Preceded Indian Train Fire:
Official
Faults Hindu Actions, Muslim Reactions for Incident That Led to Carnage"
Washington Post,
March
6, 2002; "Train attack not pre-meditated," Times of India, March 8, 2002;
Siddharth Darshan
Kumar,
"Muslim attackers set fire to train carrying Hindu nationalists, killing
at least 57," Associated
Press,
February 28, 2002.
14 Dugger, "After Deadly Firestorm"; Chandrasekaran, "Provocation Preceded Indian Train Fire."
15 Ashok Sharma, "Indian violence
spreads in wake of train fire that killed at least 58," Associated Press,
February
28, 2002. Reacting to government assertions that the Godhra incident was
an act of terrorism,
a
resident of Chartoda Kabristan relief camp told Human Rights Watch: "They
keep talking about terrorism
and Pakistan.
But isn't what has happened to us worse than terrorism?" Human Rights Watch
interview
(name
withheld), Ahmedabad, March 23, 2002.
16 "Needle of Suspicion Points Towards
ISI in Godhra Incident," Press Trust of India, March 1, 2002;
"Conspiracy
Theories Abound Over India's Religious Riots," Dow Jones International
News,
March 6, 2002.
17 Chandrasekaran, "Provocation
Helped Set India Train Fire," Washington Post; Kingshuk Nag, "Godhra
Attack Not Planned," Times of India, March 28, 2002.
18 The Railway Protection Force
is a central government police force for Indian railways. RPF officers
were present during the Godhra massacre; S. Satayanarayanan, "Godhra Carnage
Not Preplanned: RPF
Report Dispels Conspiracy Theory," Tribune, April 9, 2002.
19 Sheela Bhatt, "Intelligence chief
who had warned Gujarat government transferred," rediff.com, April 8,
2002,
http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/apr/08bhatt.htm
(accessed April 17, 2002).
20 "Gujarat Defers Use of POTO against Godhra Accused," Times of India, March 26, 2002.
21 A resident of Chartoda
Kabristan relief camp in Ahmedabad told Human Rights Watch: "POTO is
being put up but why has the government not filed a POTO case against the
VHP? Is the law only against
Muslims? It should be applied equally against everyone." Human Rights Watch
interview (name withheld),
Ahmedabad, March 23, 2002. In September 2001 the Indian government also
drew sharp criticism from
numerous minority groups for selectively banning the Students Islamic Movement
of India (SIMI) as part of
its post-September 11 actions to counter terrorism while ignoring the "anti-national"
activities of right-wing
Hindu
groups. At least four people were killed when police opened fire on a protest
in Lucknow on
September
27, following the arrest of some SIMI activists. Human Rights Watch, World
Report 2002:
Events
of 2001 (New York: Human Rights Watch, 2002), p. 225.
22 Ibid. During the riots that followed
the destruction of the Babri Masjid in 1992 and 1993, a number of
Muslims
were also arrested under the provisions of TADA. See Human Rights Watch,
"India: Communal
Violence
and the Denial of Justice," A Human Rights Watch Report, vol. 8, no. 2,
April 1996, available
at http://www.hrw.org/reports/1996/India1.htm
(accessed April 15, 2002).
23 Human Rights Watch, "India Human
Rights Press Backgrounder: Anti-Terrorism Legislation," November
20, 2001,
http://www.hrw.org/backgrounder/asia/india-bck1121.htm (accessed April
15, 2002).
24 Prasenjit Bose, Dr. Kamal
Mitra Chenoy, Vijoo Krishnan, and Vishnu Nagar, "Ethnic Cleansing in
Ahmedabad:
A Preliminary Report," SAHMAT, March 10-11,
2002,
http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20020322&fname=sahmat&sid=1
(accessed April
15, 2002).
25 Radha Sharma and Sanjay
Pandey, "Mob burns to death 65 at Naroda Patia," Times of India, March
2,
2002.
26 Ibid.
27 Human Rights Watch interview (name withheld), Ahmedabad, March 23, 2002.
28 Human Rights Watch interview (name withheld), Ahmedabad, March 22, 2002.
29 Human Rights Watch interview (name withheld), Ahmedabad, March 22, 2002.
30 Human Rights Watch interview, Salima Banu, Ahmedabad, March 22, 2002.
31 Human Rights Watch interview, Samuda Bhen, Ahmedabad, March 22, 2002.
32 Human Rights Watch interview,
Naseem Banu, Ahmedabad, March 22, 2002.
See also Bose, "Ethnic Cleansing in Ahmedabad."
33 Human Rights Watch interview (name withheld), Ahmedabad, March 22, 2002.
34 Human Rights Watch interview, Samuda Bhen, Ahmedabad, March 22, 2002.
35 Human Rights Watch interview (name withheld), Ahmedabad, March 22, 2002.
36 Human Rights Watch interview (name withheld), Ahmedabad, March 22, 2002.
37 Human Rights Watch interview (name withheld), Ahmedabad, March 22, 2002.
38 Citizens' Initiative, "Sub: Asking
for appropriate action in the communal riots of February 2000 in
Gujarat."
(Signed petition submitted to the National Human Rights Commission of India,
New Delhi),
March 2002.
39 Ibid.
40 Human Rights Watch interview (name withheld), Ahmedabad, March 22, 2002.
41 Citizens' Initiative, "Sub: Asking for appropriate action."
42 Human Rights Watch interview, Mehboob Mansoori, Ahmedabad, March 22, 2002.
43 Human Rights Watch interview, Mansoori Abdulbhai, Ahmedabad, March 22, 2002.
44 Citizens' Initiative, "Sub: Asking for appropriate action."
45 Human Rights Watch interview, Rosam Bibi, Ahmedabad, March 22, 2002.
46 Human Rights Watch interview, Ilias Bhai, Ahmedabad, March 22, 2002.
47 Human Rights Watch interview, Rasida Bhen,, Ahmedabad, March 22, 2002.
48 Ibid.
49 Human Rights Watch interview,
Yousuf Bhai , Ahmedabad, March 22, 2002.