SEXUAL VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN 
The fact-finding team found compelling evidence of the most extreme form of sexual violence against women during the first few days of the carnage - in Ahmedabad on February 28th and March 1st and in rural areas up to March 3, 2002. The testimonies point to brutal and depraved forms of violence. The violence against minorities was pre-planned, organized and targeted. In every instance of large scale mob violence against the community in general, there was a regular pattern of violence against women. Given the fact that the data on crimes against women has not been systematically collected, it is impossible to ascertain the extent of the outrage. We believe, however, that crimes against women have been grossly under-reported. For instance, in Panchmahals district only one rape FIR has been filed, though we heard of many other cases. There has been a complete invisibilisation of the issue of sexual violence in the media[1].
 

The situation is compounded by the apathy of law-enforcement agencies and the indifference of political representatives. In our interview with Maya Kodnani, BJP MLA from Naroda Patia[2], where several brutal gang rapes and rapes of minor girls have been reported (see testimonies below) we found that she was indifferent, complacent and even bemused. When questioned about the reported rapes she said - Accha, kya ye sach hai? Suna hai. Ek police wale ne mujhe bataya ki aise hua hai par usne dekha nahin. (Is this true? One policeman mentioned this to me but he had not seen anything) She had not taken the trouble to investigate further, and clearly indicated no intent to do so.

Given the gravity of the situation, it is incomprehensible that until the writing of this report the National Commission for Women, mandated as the apex body for protection of women's rights guaranteed under the Constitution of India, had not visited the State. This indicates a complete institutional breakdown as far as issues such as violence against women are concerned. As the District Collector of Panchmahals, clearly told us - `Maintaining Law and order is my primary concern. It is not possible for me to look into cases of sexual violence. If something is brought to my notice (like the Bilkees case, see below) I can take action, but nothing more than that. NGOs should take on this job. I would welcome their involvement.'

During our visits to the camps, we were besieged with detailed testimonies from rape victims themselves and from eyewitnesses - both activists and family members who witnessed the crime. For instance, in the short time we spent at Halol camp (Panchmahals district) we were able to get information about four incidents of rape. The fact-finding team also saw video footage where women spoke of witnessing rapes. In the film we saw slogans like - Muslims Quit India - or we will f*** your mothers - written on the walls of charred houses.

We reproduce below some of the testimonies that we were able to record.

A. Testimonies of Sexual Violence

WITNESSING MASS RAPE (INCLUDING MINOR GIRLS)

NARODA PATIA, AHMEDABAD, FEBRUARY 28, 2002[3]
"The mob started chasing us with burning tyres after we were forced to leave Gangotri society. It was then that they raped many girls. We saw about 8-10 rapes. We saw them strip 16-year-old Mehrunissa. They were stripping themselves and beckoning to the girls. Then they raped them right there on the road. We saw a girl's vagina being slit open. Then they were burnt. Now there is no evidence."

Source: Kulsum Bibi, Shah e Alam Camp, March 27, 2002 

"I saw Farzana being raped by Guddu Chara. Farzana was about 13 years old. She was a resident of Hussain Nagar. They put a saria (rod) in Farzana's stomach. She was later burnt. 12 year old Noorjahan was also raped. The rapists were Guddu, Suresh and Naresh Chara and Haria. I also saw Bhawani Singh, who works in the State Transport Department kill 5 men and a boy."

Source: Azharuddin, 13 years. He witnessed the rapes while hiding on the terrace of Gangotri Society. The Chara basti is located just behind Jawan Nagar. 

The mob, which came from Chara Nagar and Kuber Nagar, started burning people at around 6 in the evening. The mob stripped all the girls of the locality, including my 22-year-old daughter, and raped them. My daughter was engaged to be married. 7 members of my family were burnt including my wife (aged 40), my sons (aged 18, 14 and 7) and my daughters (aged 2, 4 and 22). My eldest daughter, who later died in the civil hospital, told me that those who raped her were wearing shorts. They hit her on the head and then burnt her. She died of 80% burn injuries.

Source: Abdul Usman, Testimony recorded by Citizens Initiative

SULTANI, A RAPE survivor, SPEAKS

VILLAGE ERAL, KALOL TALUKA, PANCHMAHALS DISTRICT, FEBRUARY 28th, 2002[4]

On the afternoon of February 28th to escape the violent mob, about 40 of us got on to a tempo, wanting to escape to Kalol. My husband Feroze was driving the tempo. Just outside Kalol a Maruti car was blocking the road. A mob was lying in wait. Feroze had to swerve. The tempo overturned. As we got out they started attacking us. People started running in all directions. Some of us ran towards the river. I fell behind as I was carrying my son, Faizan. The men caught me from behind and threw me on the ground. Faizan fell from my arms and started crying. My clothes were stripped off by the men and I was left stark naked. One by one the men raped me. All the while I could hear my son crying. I lost count after 3. They then cut my foot with a sharp weapon and left me there in that state.

Source: Sultani, Kalol Camp, Panchmahals District, March 30, 2002

Additional facts about the case:

· We had heard about Sultani's case from her relatives in Halol camp. The details and sequence of events of both testimonies matched.

· Sultani has not undergone a medical examination. Her leg had been swollen for three weeks as a result of the injury inflicted by a sharp weapon, but it is healing now.

· No FIR has been filed though a written statement has been submitted to the DSP. In her statement she names some men from the mob (Jitu Shah, PDS Shop owner of Delol village; Ashok Patel alias Don Dadhi of Ramnath village)

· When we spoke with her and her sister-in-law they both said they were feeling numb and lost, as they did not know where to go from the Camp. She categorically stated that they could not go back to her village. She was terribly worried about the future especially her children's. Sultani has still not been told that her husband had died in the attack. She believes he is missing.

A MOTHER'S ACCOUNT OF HER DAUGHTER'S RAPE 

VILLAGE ERAL, KALOL TALUKA , PANCHMAHALS DISTRICT. MARCH 3, 2002[5]

My father-in-law, a retired schoolteacher, refused to leave the village with the other Muslim families who fled to Kalol on February 28th. He believed no one would harm us. From the 28th about 13 members of my family sought refuge in various people's houses and the fields. On Sunday afternoon (March 3rd) the hut we were hiding in was attacked. We ran in different directions and hid in the field. But the mob found some of us and started attacking. I could hear various members of my family shouting for mercy as they were attacked. I recognized two people from my village - Gano Baria and Sunil - pulling away my daughter Shabana. She screamed, telling the men to get off her and leave her alone. The screams and cries of Ruqaiya, Suhana, Shabana, begging for their izzat could clearly be heard. My mind was seething with fear and fury. I could do nothing to help my daughter from being assaulted sexually and tortured to death. My daughter was like a flower, still to experience life. Why did they have to do this to her? What kind of men are these? The monsters tore my beloved daughter to pieces. After a while, the mob was saying "cut them to pieces, leave no evidence." I saw fires being lit. After some time the mob started leaving. And it became quiet.

Source: Medina Mustafa Ismail Sheikh, Kalol camp, Panchmahals district, March 30, 2002

Additional facts about the case: 

· Medina's testimony has been corroborated by the other two living witnesses - Mehboob and Khushboo. Khushboo in her testimony also recounted how her grandfather (Medina's father-in-law) and Huriben were killed. She also narrated how Ruqaiya's pajamas were taken off and then one by one the men started "poking her in the lower part with their body".

· We saw a copy of Medina's FIR, where the police has charged 5 persons with murder under section 302. Charges of rape have not been included. The FIR uses the colloquial phrase `bura kaam' rather than the specific term `rape'. We were also given the case report prepared by the camp leaders. The names of some of the accused are mentioned in the FIR.

GANG RAPE OF 25 YEAR OLD ZARINA: A HUSBAND'S ACCOUNT
HUSSAIN NAGAR, NARODA PATIA, AHMEDABAD. FEBRUARY 28, 2002
It started at 9 am on February 28th. That's when the mobs arrived, shouting - Mian Bhai nikalo (Bring out the Muslims). Many of them were wearing kesari chaddis (saffron shorts or underwear) The mob included boys from the neighbouring buildings - Gopinath Society and Gangotri Society. I ran out of my house with the entire family - mother, father, sister, sister's daughter, my wife Zarina, my brother, my sister-in-law, and my niece...there were 11 of us. We all ran towards the Police chowki. The Police said, `Go towards Gopinath and Gangotri'. In the melee, I was separated from my wife. What happened to her, she told me later. She tried to escape the mobs by leaping over a wall. But found herself in a cul-de-sac. They gang-raped her, and cut one arm. She was found naked. She was kept in the civil hospital for many days. Now she is recovering with her mother near the Khanpur darwaza.

Source: Naimuddin Ibrahim Sheikh, 30 year old husband of Zarina. Shah-e-Alam Camp, March 27, 2002. His family migrated from Gulbarga in Karnataka in 1971. He was born in Naroda. Naimmudin's testimony was corroborated by Mumtaz, who was among the women who found Zarina naked in the maidan.

RAPE OF 13 YEAR OLD YASMIN 
VILLAGE DELOL, PANCHMAHALS DISTRICT. MARCH 1, 2002

The extended families of Mohammad Bhai and Bhuri Behn - about 20 people - were chased by the mob to the river. Javed and another boy who managed to escape and hide behind a bush saw the mob kill Mohammad Bhai and rape Yasmin. They were about to kill the mother of the other boy who was hiding with him. So he screamed and ran out from behind the bush and was caught. He was made to walk around the dead bodies that were burnt (as if around a pyre) and he was then pushed into the fire.

Source: Women from Delol at Halol Camp, Panchmahals district, March 30, 2002. Javed, Mohammad Bhai's nephew, had come to Delol to help his uncle. He had narrated this to several of the women from Delol. Javed has returned to his village, Desar. 

STRIPPING AND BRUTALISING OF AN ENTIRE FAMILY, LIMKHEDA VILLAGE. 
DHEROL STATION, HALOL TALUKA, PANCHMAHALS DISTRICT. FEBRUARY 28, 2002

35 year old Haseena Bibi Yasin Khan Pathan along with her entire extended family of 17 people ran from Limkheda on the morning of February 28th. At 7 am they caught the train from Limkheda Station, disembarked at Dherol Station at 10 am. That's when they encountered the mob. Every one ran helter-skelter and the family got separated. Haseena, her husband, and young daughter managed to run towards Halol. Two children, Farzana (10 years old) and Sikandar (7 years old) escaped into the fields. Four boys - Ayub, (age 12), Mushtaq, (age 12), Mohsin, (age 10), and Shiraz (age 7) managed to hide behind bushes, and witnessed what happened. There was a large crowd. They were wearing pant-shirt and brandishing swords. According to Ayub, the mob caught his sister Afsana and cousins Zebu, Noorjehan, Sitara, Akbar, Rehana, Yusuf, Imran, Khatun (Aunt) and Zareef (brother). They were all stripped naked and made to run towards a nearby canal. That's the last Ayub saw of them. The bodies turned up charred near the canal the following day. He doesn't recognize the mob. No FIR has been lodged.
Source: Ayub, Halol Camp, Panchmahals district. The first part of the testimony is corroborated by his mother, Haseena Bibi. 

ACTIVISTS' EXPERIENCES OF DEALING WITH RAPE survivors
SHAH-E- ALAM RELIEF CAMP, AHMEDABAD.
Naseem and Mahmooda, from nearby Millat Nagar, work with Sahrwaru, a voluntary organization. They are presently working at the Shah Alam camp. They testified that many women arrived stark naked at the camp. Men took off their shirts to cover the women's nakedness. Some could barely walk because of torn genitals as a result of gang rapes. While talking to them we met Zubeida Apa, an elderly woman who has witnessed girls being gang raped. Her trauma was writ large on her face. We did not dare to rake up her pain by asking her more questions. We were told about Najma Bano who was brought to the camp unconscious, her body covered with bites and nail marks. She was bleeding profusely. Pieces of wood, which had been shoved up her vagina were extricated by the women who dressed her wounds. Najma Bano herself was too traumatized to recount her own story. She says she does not remember anything, except being chased by the men from Gangotri Society. Accounts like these require further follow-up.

Source: Naseem and Mehmooda, Millat Nagar

The following testimonies have been taken from documentation supplied to the fact-finding team by Citizens Initiative, Ahmedabad: 

MASS RAPE AND MURDER
NARODA PATIA. FEBRUARY 28, 2002[6]

By now it was 6.30 in the evening. The mob caught my husband and hit him on his head twice with the sword. Then they threw petrol in his eyes and then burned him. My sister-in- law was stripped and raped. She had a three-month old baby in her lap. They threw petrol on her and the child was taken from her lap and thrown in the fire. My brother-in-law was also struck on the head with the sword and thrown in the fire. We were at the time hiding on the terrace of a building. My mother-in-law was unable to climb the stairs so she was on the ground floor with her four-year-old grandson. She told them to take away whatever money she had but to spare the children. They took away all the money and jewelry, then 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 girl was killed by piercing an iron rod into her stomach. The mayhem ended at 2.30 am. Then the ambulance came and I sat in it along with bodies of my husband and children. I have injury marks on my both my thighs and left hand, which were caused by the police beating. My husband (48 % burns), my daughter (95 % burns) both died in the hospital after three days. The police was on the spot but they were helping the mob. We fell at 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.
Source: Jannat Sheikh, testimony to Citizens Initiative.

BILKEES: ACCOUNT OF A RAPE Survivor 
RANDHIKPUR VILLAGE, DISTRICT DAHOD[7]. MARCH 3, 2002

Twenty-one year old Bilkees was five months pregnant. When Muslim houses in her village were attacked on February 28th, by a mob comprising upper caste people from her own village and some outsiders, she and several of her family members fled. For two days they ran from village to village. At a mosque near Kuajher, her cousin Shamim, delivered a baby. But there was no respite for them. They had to leave immediately, including Shamim who could barely walk, carrying her newborn baby.

On March 3rd we had started moving towards Panivela village, which was in a remote and hilly area. Suddenly we heard the sound of a vehicle. A truck came with people from our own village and outsiders too. We realised that they had not come to help us. They stopped us and then the madness started. They pulled my baby from my arms and threw her away. The other women and I were taken aside and raped. I was raped by three men. I was screaming all the time. They beat me and then left me for dead. When I regained consciousness I found I was alone. All around me were the dead bodies of my family, my baby girl, the newborn baby, their bodies were covered with the rocks and boulders used to kill them. I lay there the whole night and most of the next day. I do not know when I was conscious and when unconscious. Later I was found by a police squad from Limkheda police station .I was taken to the hospital and then brought to the Godhra Camp.

Testimony to AIDWA and Anandi
Additional facts about the case:

· Her FIR has been filed and a medical examination done on the insistence of the District collector, Jayanti Ravi, even though six-days had passed. Rape has been confirmed.

· She has named the people who killed her family members and those who raped her: Sailesh Bhatt, Mithesh Bhatt, Vijay Maurya, Pradeep Maurya, Lala Vakil, Lala Doctor, Naresh Maurya, Jaswant Nai and Govind Nai (the last three gang-raped her)

· Initially all her family members were missing. Her father and husband have been traced to another camp at Dahod and her brother, Saeed, is with her in Godhra.

A META-NARRATIVE OF BESTIALITY

"But what they did to my sister-in-law's sister Kausar Bano was horrific and heinous. She was 9 months pregnant. They cut open her belly, took out her foetus with a sword and threw it into a blazing fire. Then they burnt her as well."

Source: Saira Banu, Naroda Patia (recorded at the Shah-e-Alam Camp on March 27th, 2002).

During our fact-finding mission, we were to hear this story many times. We read about it in other fact-finding reports. We were told about it by many survivors at the Shah-e-Alam camp. Sometimes the details would vary - the foetus was dashed to the ground, the foetus was slaughtered with a sword, the foetus was swung on the point of the sword and then thrown into a fire. Each teller of the story owned it. It was as if it was their own story. Were these simply the fevered imaginings of traumatized minds? We think not. Kausar's story has come to embody the numerous experiences of evil that were felt by the Muslims of Naroda Patia on February 28, 2002. In all instances where extreme violence is experienced collectively, meta-narratives are constructed. Each victim is part of the narrative; their experience subsumed by the collective experience. Kausar is that collective experience - a meta-narrative of bestiality; a meta-narrative of helpless victimhood. There are a thousand Kausars.

Members of the fact-finding team have seen photographic evidence of the burnt bodies of a mother and a foetus lying on the mother's belly, as if torn from the uterus and left on the gash. We do not know if that was Kausar Bano.
 

B. Sexual Violence and the Media
In many ways women have been the central characters in the Gujarat carnage, and their bodies the battleground. The Gujarati vernacular press has been the agent provocateur. The story starts with Godhra, where out of the 58 Hindus burnt, 26 were women and 14 children. But to really arouse the passions of the Hindu mob, death is not enough. Far worse than death is the rape of Hindu women - for it is in and on the bodies of these women that the izzat (honour) of the community is vested. So on February 28th, Sandesh, a leading Gujarati Daily, in addition to reporting the Godhra tragedy in provocative language, also ran a story on Page 1 saying the following: "10-15 Hindu women were dragged away by a fanatic mob from the railway compartment". The same story was repeated on Page 16 with the heading "Mob dragged away 8-10 women into the slums". The story was entirely false. The Police denied the incident, and other newspapers, including the Times of India could not find confirmation of this news. A day later, on March 1, 2002 Sandesh carried a follow-up to this false story on Page 16 with the heading - "Out of kidnapped young ladies from Sabarmati Express, dead bodies of two women recovered - breasts of women were cut off." [8] Violation of Hindu honour was now compounded by extreme sexual violence and bestiality. Both the abduction and the cutting of breasts were lies - totally baseless stories, which were denied by the Police. The fact-finding team was told that later Sandesh did publish a small retraction, buried in some corner of its pages. But the damage had been done. The murder and rape of Hindu women, emblazoned in banner headlines across the vernacular press became the excuse, the emotional rallying point, the justification for brutalizing Muslim women and children in ways not ever seen in earlier communal carnages. Unhonne hamari auraton aur bachchon par hamla kiya hai. Badla to lena tha (they have attacked our women and children we had to take revenge) - goes the sentiment of the angry Hindu. The newspaper literally became a weapon of war. According to a series of eyewitness accounts from Naroda Patia, the worst affected area in Ahmedabad, the mobs who attacked Muslim shops, homes, and brutalized Muslim women and children, were brandishing in their hands not only swords and stones, but copies of the Sandesh with the Godhra attack as the banner headline, shouting "khoon ka badla khoon" (blood for blood).

This one false story about the rape and brutalizing of Hindu women has spread like wildfire across Gujarat, almost assuming proportions of folklore. It now rests easily in the annals of undisputed common knowledge, and cannot be dislodged. Where ever the fact-finding team went, we heard some version of this story, spreading through word of mouth, through the channels of overworked rumour mills - sometimes it was 10 Hindu women raped, sometimes it was 6 Hindu women - but the essential contours remained the same. In one place we heard details like "The Muslims took the Hindu women to their madrasa and gang-raped them there." Because the madrasa is the site of learning, raping women there projects the perpetrators as truly bestial men to whom nothing is sacred. In another village, "Hindu women" had been replaced by "Adivasi women" and this was given as the justification for Adivasi participation in the attacks on Muslims.

When the fact-finding team met Aziz Tankarvi, editor of Gujarat Today, known to represent the Muslim voice' He said clearly. " Murder ho jata hai, chot lagti hai, to aadmi chup sahan kar leta hai, lekin agar maa, behen, beti ke saath ziyadti hoti hai to voh jawaab dega, badla lega." (When someone is murdered you are hurt. But man can bear it quietly; it is when your mothers and daughters are violated, then he definitely responds, takes revenge). The fact that rape is perceived in this manner (as violating the honour of men, and not the integrity of women) is problematic in and of itself. What is particularly heinous is the fact that the Sandesh newspaper should fabricate stories of sexual violence, and use images of brutalized women's bodies as a weapon of war; in terrible ways deliberately designed to provoke real violence against women from the Muslim community. What provocative lies a la Sandesh do, is to provide justification for the carnage - both in the minds of the mobs who carry out the violence, and in the minds of the general "Hindu" public which may be far removed from the site of the violence.

Ironically while false stories about the rape of Hindu women have done the rounds, there has been virtual silence in the media, including in the English language papers, about the real stories of sexual violence against Muslim women. Barring Gujarat Today, none of the Gujarati vernacular papers has carried stories about the brutal, bestial ways in which Muslim women were raped and burnt. Even Gujarat Today, despite being sympathetic to the Muslim experience, could only supply us with one clipping where the brutal experience of rape has been written about. The Times of India, since the beginning of the carnage, until April 1,2002, carried only one story about rape. The excuse was March 8th, International Women's Day (TOI, 9/3/02, "Women's Day Means Nothing for Rape Riot Victims"). When members of the fact-finding team spoke to senior journalists in Ahmedabad, their explanation was that rape stories are provocative, and that in the early days of the violence, they had to play a socially responsible role, and not incite more violence. But in the weeks that followed, the Press has continued to do self-censorship about rape stories.[9]

We find that, yet again Muslim women are being victimized twice over. They have suffered the most unimaginable forms of sexual abuse during the Gujarat carnage. And yet, there is no one willing to tell their stories to the world. Women's bodies have been employed as weapons in this war - either through grotesque image-making or as the site through which to dishonour men, and yet women are being asked to bear all this silently. Women do not want more communal violence. But peace cannot be bought at the expense of the truth, or at the expense of women's right to tell the world what they have suffered in Gujarat.
 

SCARS ON THE MIND

Saira age 12, Afsana, age 11, Naina, age 12, Anju, age 12, Rukhsat, age 9, Nilofer, age 10, Nilofer, age 9, Hena, age 11

They're all survivors from the horrors of Naroda Patia in Ahmedabad where more than 80 people were burnt alive and many women raped and maimed in what is probably the worst carnage in the current spiral of violence. The girls are young and making sense of what they have seen and heard seems impossible. But they have been scarred for life, their trust in Hindus shattered. They speak of `evil Hindus'. The Hindu who burnt our home. The Hindu who didn't let us escape.

Some of them have seen with their eyes things no child should see. Others have only heard things. But they are still things no child should hear. "Hinduon ne bura kaam kiya"(Hindus have done `bad things' - a euphemism for rape), they tell us, as their eyes shift uneasily. They look at each other as if seeking silent affirmation of what none of them really comprehended.

Or, did they?

"Balatkaar" (Rape) - they know this word. "Mein bataoon Didi" (Shall I tell you?), volunteers a nine year old, "Balatkaar ka matlab jab aurat ko nanga karte hain aur phir use jala deta hain." (Rape is when a woman is stripped naked and then burnt) And then looks fixedly at the floor. Only a child can tell it like it is. For this is what happened again and again in Naroda Patia - women were stripped, raped and burnt. Burning has now become an essential part of the meaning of rape.

Hindus hate us, they say.

Why?

Because we celebrate all their festivals - we play Holi, we love patakas at Diwali, but the Hindus can't celebrate our festivals. That's why they're jealous. So jealous that this year they did not even let us take out Tazia processions (in fact the decision to not allow tazia processions on the 10th of Moharram was taken by the Muslim community itself, for fear of violence).

These girls became friends only in the camp, although they all grew up and lived in Naroda Patia. Now they will probably share a life-long unspoken bond of victim-hood. But they are children still. Resilient. Survivors. Their eyes still bright and curious. They even giggle occasionally, as they follow us around Shah-e-Alam, scampering easily over human beings scattered like debris around the relief camp. But will they ever forget? Will Naina, who once had scores of Hindu friends, have them again? Will she trust again?

Venue: Shah-e-Alam Relief Camp, Ahmedabad

Date: March 27, 2002
 

Annexures

SECTION I:
SEXUAL VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

Testimonies Of Sexual Violence

Annexure 1.1
CORROBORATING TESTIMONY FOR MASS RAPE IN NARODA PATIA, AHMEDABAD
Rape Of Farzana Bano
Date of crime: 28th February 2002
Place: Jawan Nagar, Naroda Patia, Near Noorani Masjid, Ahmedabad.
Witness: She and her family survived but this is what she witnessed.

On one side of Jawan Nagar is the ST (State Transport) workshop and on the other side the Special Reserve Police (SRP) quarters. Gangotrinagar Society has been newly constructed. On the morning of the 28th, we were asked to stay indoors as there was tension in the area. When the mobs came we all ran out. Many women and children went to the nearby Society and took shelter on the terrace there. People from the Hindu Housing Society told us to take shelter in their houses. We found that there were only men in there and none of the women and children, who had been sent away for safety. Then they told us to escape towards Naroda. We requested them to allow us escape towards the SRP. The SRP said, `24 hours have been given to beat you up'. The Society people 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. We refused to go towards the mob so they told us that they have been assigned to protect us. All adult males were then beaten, thrown on the ground and burnt. The residents of the Gopinath Society segregated the Muslim girls 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 (rape victims) include Ruksana, Kheroon, Noorjahan, and Farzana, four in all. 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 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 with the SRP to let us go he was beaten up badly and he managed with difficulty to escape from their clutches. We can identify the SRP men. We can also identify the residents of Gopinath society.

Asif called Nawab Khan in Shah e Alam and Police came in four cars but they were stoned. We felt that some (perpetrators) were dressed as policeman. When the first housing colony was set ablaze, we feel, the fire brigade was stoned and sent back. 11 of our youth died in private gun firing.

Annexure 1.2
TESTIMONY OF SULTANI FEROZ RASUL SHEIKH (DELOL VILLAGE) WHO WAS GANG RAPED 
We lived in Delol village on the Godhra road. On the morning of 28th February 2002 our house was attacked by a mob. The men had painted their faces black and were wearing chaddi- bandi's (shorts - vests). The entire extended family of 33 members ran and hid in the fields. We, children and adults, spent the entire night in the field. The next morning we all made our way to a lime orchard near our village. There we found many other Muslim families hiding. In the afternoon, a tribal woman known to one of the families brought some rotlas to eat, which we fed our children who hadn't eaten for the entire day.

In the afternoon, the mob returned. We saw a huge crowd approaching the field shouting Maro, Kato (beat them, kill them). We all ran back towards our house. My husband Feroze's milk tempo was parked at a neighbour's. Expecting tension he had left it with the Baria (tribal) for safe keeping. We were sitting there terrified when we heard another mob approaching from the opposite direction (from Khadki village). We were now trapped. Our only option was to escape in the milk van. About 40 of us got in and Feroze drove the tempo towards Kalol, which is about 7 kms away. Just before the tempo reached Kalol town near (Lal Darwaja, Ambica society), a Maruti car was blocking the road. A mob had gathered. Feroze swerved losing control of the vehicle. We were forced to get off. We were all screaming with fear, the children were yelling and crying, old men were begging for mercy. We heard the screams of some family members, who were being attacked with sticks and swords. They threw kerosene and started burning people. We could hear the mob screaming " Take off their clothes, let them go naked on the streets". Some of the children fell at the feet of the mob begging to be spared. My sister-in-laws, (Medina, Ruksana, Saira, Shabima, Reshma, and children between the ages of 10 months to 6 years (Shaila, Akila, Shail, Junaid, Faizan Halima, Reshma, Afzal Amirull, Mooen, Imtiaz) were with us. We all ran towards the fields. My son Faizan was in my arms and I fell behind. Some people started chasing us and one of the men held me by my hair. I struggled to get free but was soon overpowered. They dragged me to the riverbed, which is dry and pulled me down. Faizan fell from my arms and started crying. My clothes were stripped and I was left stark naked. One by one the men raped me. All the while I could hear my son crying. I lost count after 3. They then cut my foot with a sharp weapon and left me in that state there.

After a while I got up picked up my son and started searching for my clothes. I could only find my top. I pulled it on and ran with my son along the river towards Delol. I didn't go to Kalol, since I don't know the place well. Just as the day was fading I reached the lime orchard where we had hidden the previous day and hid there with my son. I spent the entire night in a daze, and didn't move from there for the next two days. On the second day, Parvatbhai a neighbour saw me. I requested him to bring me a pajama as I had left some clothes in his house when the tension had started. On Sunday night, I finally started walking through the fields towards Kalol. I reached the Laldarwaja , Nava bazaar, in the morning. I collapsed on the street and asked a man in shop to reach me to the Kasba. He fetched the police and they dropped me to the camp.

Annexure 1.3
TESTIMONY OF MEDINA ON THE RAPE OF DAUGHERS AND OTHERS
I lived in a joint family with my in-laws and children in the village of Eral, Kalol Taluka in Panchmahals district. My father-in-law was a retired schoolteacher and my husband works in the State Transport Service. There are 45 Muslim houses in the village. On the 28th, neighbours came to tell us there was news of widespread rioting and we should leave the village immediately and go to Kalol where there is a larger Muslim community. My father-in-law believed that as he was respected in the village and as we had always lived here, no one would bodily harm us. All the other Muslim families left for Kalol that day.

As the tension escalated 13 members of my family including, Mehboob bhai a relative from Delol village who had sought refuge with us, left the house and hid in the fields. My in-laws hid in an empty house belonging to the Thakor. For 2 days and nights we kept changing our hiding places. My in-laws were asked to vacate the house on Saturday morning. The house owners were apprehensive that their house too would be set on fire as people were now aware of where we were taking refuge. Chaganbhai who had given us food and water for two days had given them this information.

On Saturday the 1st, at around 5:00 p.m., a mob of 400-500 men, armed with sharp weapons, petrol and kerosene, first looted then burnt the houses of Muslims. That night no one gave us refuge. They were afraid of being attacked if they were seen helping us.

On Sunday morning we all decided to hide in a labourers hut in the field of Adam Punja. At around 12:00 - 1:00 p.m. that afternoon, the mob attacked the hut. Having nowhere else to run, we ran helter-skelter and hid in the maize field. We lay low and tried not to make a sound. But the mob started searching the field, they found us and started attacking. I could hear various members of my family shouting for mercy as they were attacked. I recognized two people - Gano Baria and Sunil - of our village pulling away my daughter Shabana. She screamed telling the men to get off her and leave her alone. The screams and cries of help of Rukaiya, Suhana, Shabana, begging for their izzat to be protected could be heard clearly. My daughter was screaming in pain asking the men to leave her alone. My mind was seething with fear and fury. I could do nothing to help my daughter from being assaulted sexually and tortured to death. My daughter was like a flower, still to see life. Why did they have to do this to her? What kind of men are these? The monsters tore my beloved daughter to pieces. After a while, the mob was saying "cut them to pieces, leave no evidence." I saw fires being lit. And after some time the mob started leaving. And it became quiet.

As I stumbled out I heard the voices of children crying. I saw the kids huddled together. Khushboo was carrying baby Taufiq whose thumb was bleeding. The mob had found 11 people, tortured and killed 6 people. They left the children alone but cut a thumb of baby Taufiq who was in his mother's arms when they attacked her. Khushboo was a witness to all these events. In her testimony to us she recounted how her grandfather (Medina's father-in-law) and Huriben were killed. She also narrated how Rukaiya's pajamas were taken off and then one by one the men started "poking her in the lower part with their body".

I sat there numbed with the children. Later the police came and I rushed out with the children recounting all I witnessed. I was joined by Mehboob, our relative from Delol who too was hiding somewhere in the field. The police took us away to a safe place in Kalol. Will my family members get justice? Will my daughter's assaulters roam free to do as they please?

Annexure 1.4
TESTIMONY OF JANNAT SHEIKH - RAPE OF A FAMILY
Date of crime: 28th February 2002
Place: Kumbhaji Ni Chali, Naroda patiya, Ahmedabad.
Witness: This witness has 11 members in the family, of which 8 have been murdered, two after being raped. The remaining three have received 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 were in the adjoining house. A mob of 5000 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 in the evening by now. 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 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 on the head with the sword and thrown in the fire. We were at that time hiding on the terrace of a building. My mother-in-law was not able to climb the steps so she was on the ground floor with her four-year-old grandson. She 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 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 bodies of my husband and children. I have injury marks on my both my thighs and left hand that was caused by the police beating. My husband had 48 % burns, my daughter 95 % burns. Both my husband and daughter died in the hospital after three days. The police was on the spot but helping the mob. We fell at 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.

Annexure 1.5
BILKEES'S STORY: (SOURCE, AIDWA FACT-FINDING TEAM REPORT)
Bilkees from Randhikpur village (District Dahod) is 21 years old and five months pregnant. We meet her at the Godhra camp. Frail, motionless, drained of all expression she tells her story in a monotone as though she is speaking of someone else.

Muslim houses in her village were attacked by upper caste people from her own village along with outsiders on March 1. She and several of her family members fled. She names them: my baby girl Saleha, my mother, Halima, my sisters, Mumtaz and Munni, my brothers, Irfan and Aslam, my maternal uncle, Majeed, two of my father's sisters, Sugra and Amina, one of their husbands, Yusuf, Amina's son, and three daughters, Shamim, Mumtaz and Medina and Shamim's son Husain. Shamim she says was nearing her full term. It was difficult for both of them to run.

At first, they escaped to Chundagi village, which was 5 - 6 kms away and took shelter with Bijal Damor, the local MLA. Then they were asked to leave since it was not safe and they walked to Kuajher where they were given shelter in a mosque. Here Shamim with the help of a mid-wife delivered a baby girl. They were asked to leave soon afterwards because mosques were a target of the rampaging mobs. Shamim, barely able to walk, her infant carried by her sister, they somehow managed to reach village Kudra. Here some Adivasi Naikas took pity on Shamim's condition and kept them in their huts. Bilkees remembers: "They were kind to us. Shamim's clothes were dirty. Even though the adivasis were poor they gave her something clean to wear. They let us rest, but then again we had to move but they came with us, escorting us to the next village Chhapadvad. We had started moving towards Panivela village. It was a remote and hilly place. Suddenly we heard the sound of a vehicle. A truck came with people from our own village and outsiders too. They had not come to help us. They stopped us and then the madness started. They pulled my baby from my arms and threw her away. I and the other women were taken aside and raped. I was raped by three men. I was screaming. They beat me and then left me for dead. When I regained consciousness I found I was alone. All around me were the dead bodies of my family, my baby girl, and the newborn baby. They were covered with stones. I lay there the whole night and most of the next day. I do not know when I was conscious and when unconscious. Later I was found by a police squad from Limkheda police station. I was taken to the hospital and then brought here". Following a medical examination, the doctors confirmed that she had been raped.

She has named the people who killed her family members and those who raped her: Sailesh Bhatt, Mithest Bhatt, Vijay Maurya, Pradeep Maurya, Lala Vakil, Lala Doctor, Naresh Maurya, Jaswant Nai and Govind Nai (the last three gang-raped her). Her father and husband have been traced to another camp at Dahod and her brother, Saeed, is with her in Godhra. Her five-month foetus is still alive.
 

Annexure 1.6
Sexual Violence Against Women Reported in Newspapers.
Excerpts from two of the largest circulation vernacular Gujarati daily newspapers.
Sandesh (Published from Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat, Rajkot, and Bhavnagar).
Gujarat Samachar (published from Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat, Rajkot and Mumbai).

Sandesh, 28-2-02, Page 1. Story: Heading - `Religious fanatics kidnapped some 10-15 Hindu women by snatching them from Railway Coach. (2) Ladies ran away to save their lives and miscreants catch them'.

`Along with Karsevaks of Sabarmati Express, children and ladies were massacred and fanatic miscreants dragged away some 10-15 ladies from the compartments which has made the position of Godhra very tense. Talks of massacre and kidnapping of Hindu young ladies created tension in Godhra town. The survivors of the massacre confirmed this incident. Police are not sure about who were the ladies and about the truth of this incident. It cannot be denied that young ladies ran away to save their lives and might have been caught by the miscreants. The in-charge of Karsevaks Kaushik Patel made allegation about the kidnapping of young ladies who have still not been found. Although police authority has not confirmed this but discussion of this incident made the position tense in Godhra city.'

Sandesh, 28-2-02 page 16 Story: Heading - `8-10 ladies dragged away in slums -helpless women were struggling to escape from the grip of Saitans. Report by an eye witness of Bapunagar ` - repetition of same story.

Sandesh, 1-3-02 Page16 Story continued page 4 Headings' (1) Two distorted dead bodies of the women, from those women who were kidnapped from Sabarmati Express, found (2) Breasts of both the women were cut'

The news that distorted dead bodies of two kidnapped ladies dragged away from the coach of Sabarmati Express train found near lake of Kalol has not only in Panchmahal district but all over Gujarat inflamed the violence. In a heinous act the breasts of the dead bodies were cut. On seeing the dead bodies it can be known that they were raped many times perhaps innumerable times and they were killed during that time. The keeping of mum by police has added fuel in the burning position. As per talks during the night one more dead body of a lady has been found. Many pilgrims of Sabarmati Express confirmed this. In a very sensitive incident before police can enquire into the matter, dead bodies of the ladies were found. In a very short time this talk spread very quickly in Kalol town and many people gathered to see the dead bodies. According to unofficial news the faces of these ladies were so much distorted that they cannot be known. Seeing the distorted dead bodies and cut breasts panic spread among people and they were very angry. The police is not ready to give any type of information. On the other hand the dead body of third lady has added fuel to the burning position.

Gujarat Samachar - Page 1 Story `wicked villains of this mob kidnapped some ten women (behno) whose whereabouts are not yet known

Gujarat Samachar - Page 10- Story heading `Some men were saying take all the girls'

(Annexure material and translations provided by Valjibhai Patel, Council for Social Justice, Ahmedabad)