state-participation and complicity in communal violence in Gujarat

THE GUJARAT MASSACRES: THE COST OF SILENCE

State participation and complicity in communal violence in Gujarat:

While the Gujarat government has labeled the massacre a "spontaneous reaction" to the train incident in Godhra, research by several human rights and civil liberties organizations indicates that the attacks against Muslims were pre-meditated and planned well before the Godhra incident, and were supported by the police and the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP, Indian People's Party) state government in collusion with the Rashtriya Swamsevak Sangh (RSS), Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), and the Bajrang Dal. One of many examples of this diabolical collusion is that the Hindu attackers were guided by computer printouts listing the addresses of Muslim families and their properties--information obtained from the Ahmedabad municipal cooperation. Equally outrageous is the cover-up of the state's role in the massacres: even though eyewitnesses filed numerous police First Information Reports (FIRs) that named local leaders as instigators or participants in the attacks, few if any of the leaders have been arrested. A Citizen's Initiative report states the following: "Video footage by the fact-finding team showed slogans like, Yeh andar ki baat hai, police hamare saath hai (The inside story is that the police is on our side)--written boldly on the walls of gutted Muslim homes." (p. 18, April 16, 2002). And as for the police officers who made an attempt to do their job and maintain peace in their areas, the state government promptly transferred them but took little action against officers who did nothing to control the rioters.

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