The camps were :1. Shah Alam Dargah (9000 people), Sundram Nagar (3,500 people), Bapu Nagar Aman Chowk (8000 
people), Juhepura Sankalit Nagar (3000 people) Dariyakhan Ghummat and Kankaria Primary School 7 and 8 (700 dalits) 

The Kankariya camp had 175 dalit families from the Shah Alam Toll Naka area. Gopal Bhai Sharma who was in 
charge of the Kankaria Municipal Schools 7 and 8 told us that 700 people from this area came to this camp on the 
28th after they were attacked after the rioting started on the 28th morning. He said that stones and acid were 
thrown on these people by Muslims living in an 11 story building nearby . Bhagaji was killed. 40 houses were burnt. 
They have been back since to see their houses which are undamaged. They are all daily wage-earners and dalits. 
The women work as domestic servants in their neighbourhood. They are all anxious to return home and start 
working again but are demanding that a police chowki be established in the area.  Click for more...  
 
 

OVERVIEW OF THE ATTACKS AGAINST MUSLIMS 
`I have never known a riot which has used the sexual subjugation of women so widely as an instrument of violence as in the recent mass barbarity in Gujarat. There are reports everywhere of  gang-rape, of young girls and women, often in the presence of members of their families, followed by their murder by burning alive, or by bludgeoning with a hammer and in one case with a screw driver'. Women in the Aman Chowk shelter told appalling stories about how armed men disrobed themselves in front of agroup of terrified women to cower them down further. 
Source: Harsh Mander, "Cry, the Beloved Country: Reflections on the Gujarat massacre," South Asia Citizens' 
Web, March 13, 2002, http://www.mnet.fr/aiindex/Harshmandar2002.html (accessed April 15, 2002). 
Harsh Mander spent twenty years in the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), and currently heads Action Aid India, a 
 nongovernmental poverty prevention organization. 

A gravedigger at a mass grave site next to the Dariyakhan Ghummat camp in the Shahibaug area told Human Rights Watch: "There were at least three pregnant women and one of  the fetuses was partially hanging out. We had to stick it back in before burial. If the fetus was completely removed then we left it out but still buried it with the mother." 
Source: Human Rights Watch  interview (name withheld), Ahmedabad, March 22, 2002. 

According to a human rights activist working in the camps, one woman arrived at the Dariyakhan 
Ghummat camp unconscious and with an iron rod stuck inside her vagina. 
Source: Human Rights Watch  interview (name withheld), Ahmedabad, March 22, 2002. 

A woman who washed the bodies of female victims before burial at the same site told Human Rights Watch         about the conditions of the bodies upon arrival: 

I washed the ladies' bodies before burial. Some bodies had heads  missing, some had hands missing, some were like coal, you would touch them and they would crumble. Some women's bodies had been split down the middle. I washed seventeen bodies on March 2, only one was completely intact. All had been burned, many had been split down the middle. On March 3 fifteen more bodies came. Then I just threw water over them, I couldn't stand to be around them  anymore 
Source: Human Rights Watch  interview (name withheld), Ahmedabad, March 22, 2002. 

An interim report by the People's Union for Civil Liberties on "women's experiences and perspectives" on the communal violence in Vadodara, based on data collected between February 27 and March 26, 2002, states: 

The wide range of data collected reveals that the post-Godhra carnage has affected most women living in Vadodara in some way or the other. Lives of minority women have of course changed drastically. However, women from all communities are also affected by the reign of fear and the terror promoted by the state and the police. The Hindu  women are caught in a fear psychosis that the "other" will attack. A lot of this has to do with the rumours that are being systematically spread through various pamphlets and booklets. Livelihoods of all poor, working class women have been affected. The situation in the minority households is far more serious, and hunger has become an acute  problem because the minority men too cannot go out to work. The deep sense of 
betrayal that women feel by neighbours and children  "who grew up in front of my eyes [or in my aangan]" is seen across  classes. 

Source: People's Union Civil Liberties-Vadodara, Shanti Abhiyan, "Women's Perspectives," February 27 - March 
        26, 2002, http://www.pucl.org (accessed April 13, 2002). 
click for more... 

THE CONTEXT OF THE VIOLENCE IN GUJARAT 
A young women's association, the Durga Vahini, was also founded at this time. Unlike other organizations affiliated to the RSS, the Bajrang Dal is not directly controlled by the sangh parivar. With its loose organizational structure, it initially operated under different names in different states. Its activists are believed to be involved in many acts of violence carried out by Hindutva organizations 
source:Ibid. 
click for more... 

RELIEF CAMPS AND REHABILITATION:Medical Care and Psychological and Social Services 
The psychological impact on victims of the communal violence is immense. Aid workers have cited an urgent need      for counseling to help the victims cope with their trauma. Sociologist Susan Vishwanathan told Channelnewsasia, 
     "The psychological degradation that comes from watching people closest to you being killed, raped, mutilated, 
     ravaged. These [are] far greater than that of loss of material possessions." Rape victims are also in desperate need  of psychological support. 

Source: "Muslim refugees face new horrors in camps," South China Morning Post. 
             "Refugees in Gujarat camps pray for more relief aids," Channelnewsasia 
click for more... 
 
 

On Children: 
"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 
The Effect on Children and Young People  OVERVIEW OF THE ATTACKS AGAINST MUSLIMS click for more... 
source: (Citizens' Initiative, "The Survivors Speak.")  
 
...Many children have also been orphaned or have suffered serious stabbing and burn injuries. In the aftermath of the violence, 
their education has been severely disrupted and little counseling is available to them to cope with the trauma of what they 
experienced. 
 

Nineteen-year-old Sheikh S. from Mehndi Kuva, Shahpur, slum quarters in Ahmedabad, explained the long-term 
consequences of the attacks on children's education and on the livelihood of affected families: 

               All the children's education has been disrupted. All businesses are closed. All savings 
               are gone. My parents are so old they cannot go back to work. I will surely have to 
               leave my studies now and go to work. I was studying in the 11th standard. Still we 
               won't get the government jobs, those are given to Hindus. We will have to do labor. 
"All my education certificates and medical reports that were in a suitcase were also destroyed. I have a blood disease and 
need  those reports." (Ibid. ) 
 

In addition to destruction of educational records, students have been attacked while going to school. An eighteen-year-old 
student in Bharuch was pulled off a rickshaw and hit on the head and killed while returning home after taking a board exam. 
Source:"4 Killed in Police Firing in Bharuch, Modasa," Times of India. March 22, 2002.  
 

There are also disturbing reports that the same groups which collected information  on Muslim shops and residences in 
preparation for attacks, are now openly collecting information on the number of Muslim children in each school in order to 
intimidate Muslim children from attending. 
source: Vinay Menon, "Muslim School Kids Targeted in Gujarat," Hindustan Times, April 6, 2002.  

Click for more... 

The BJP and its allies continue at the national level and in various states to implement an agenda for the "Hinduization" of education, mandating Hindu prayers in certain state-sponsored schools and revising history books to include what amounted to propaganda against Islamic and Christian communities. 
source:Human Rights Watch, "India Human Rights Press Backgrounder." Click for more... 

On April 4 Prime Minister Vajpayee announced a federal relief package for the "riot victims" that included two months free rations for those families living below the poverty line in areas affected by violence. The package also  included a free set of textbooks and a school uniform for children living in relief camps. When announcing the  package, the Prime Minister warned that relief provisions should be distributed without discrimination based on communal lines (see below). 
source: "PM Announces Relief Measures for Riot Victims," rediff.com, April 4, 2002, available at 
     http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/apr/04train8.htm (accessed April 17, 2002).  

 Click for more. 
  

On Police: 

 · Implement recommendations on police reform made by the National Police Commission in 1980. click for more... 

· Take decisive steps to ensure that police use deadly force only as a last resort to protect life. Police agents   should act in accordance with international standards on use of force. The U.N. Basic Principles on the Use   of Force or Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials emphasize that the use of force and firearms should be   in consonance with respect for human rights and that deadly force should not be used against persons unless  "strictly unavoidable in  order to protect life." 
click for more... 

MASSACRES IN GODHRA AND AHMEDABAD 
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. click fore more... 

OVERVIEW OF THE ATTACKS AGAINST MUSLIMS    

State and Police Participation and Complicity reporter wrote that, "insiders in the Bharatiya Janata Party admit that the police were under instructions from the Narendra Modi administration not to act firmly." 
Source: Manas Dasgupta, "Saffronised police show their colour," Hindu, March 3, 2002. 

As the state offers one excuse after another-that the police were outnumbered, overwhelmed, did not receive orders to respond, or that their own feelings could not be "insulated from the general social milieu" -no excuse  proves sufficient to explain the direct participation of police in the attacks. 
Source:Ahmedabad Commissioner of Police P.C. Pande as quoted in Reuters: Sanjay Miglani, "Hindu mobs 
rampage in India, army called out," Reuters, February 28, 2002. 
State Director General of Police K. Chakravarty said that his forces were overstretched and given the simultaneous and large-scale nature of the violence added that, "available forces may not have been able to do justice." Bhushan, " 
Thy Hand, Great  Anarch." 

A key state minister is reported to have taken over a police control room in Ahmedabad on the first day of the carnage, issuing directions not to rescue Muslims in danger of being killed: 
Source:Praveen Swami, "Saffron Terror," Frontline, March 16 - 29, 2002. Bhatt is also facing murder charges in 
the killing of a police constable during anti-reservation riots in the state in April 1985. "Contempt, perjury 
proceedings sought against Bhatt," Times of India, November 8, 2001. 

We were calling the police all day. The police said, "You help yourselves, we are getting pressure from above, we cannot help you." We called fifty to a hundred times. Around 2:00 or 2:30 p.m. I saw a police inspector shake hands with the attackers and say, "You can loot peacefully, we won't do anything. We are with you". 
Source:Human Rights Watch interview, Sheikh S., Ahmedabad, March 22, 2002. 

click for more... 

The extent of police involvement in the attacks indeed raises key questions about police recruitment and training in Gujarat. Since retaking power in the state in 1998, Gujarat's BJP government has systematically been keeping  minority community officers away from the field and bound to the desk. According to an article in the Telegraph, as a result: 
                    not a single IPS [Indian Police Service] officer from the minority community 
                    is now on a "field posting".... All eight IPS officers in the state from the 
                    minority community... are working in insignificant "support systems" and not 
                    engaged in "active policing".... [Of] the 65 minority community officers of the 
                    rank of inspector in Gujarat, only two are handling field jobs. Most minority 
                    community officers below the rank of superintendent have been relegated to 
                    the CID [Crime Investigation Department]. According to norms, when an 
                    IPS officer is promoted, he is given a field posting. However, in Gujarat, 
                    when an IPS officer from the minority community is promoted, he is sent to 
                    the computer section or given charge of police housing.186 

The article also asserts that "as many as 27 police officers who had taken action against rioters have been  transferred."Ibid.  
click for more... 

THE CONTEXT OF THE VIOLENCE IN GUJARAT   
Muslims from all sections of the population were affected, "from slum dwellers to businessmen and white collar professionals and senior government bureaucrats." High court judges and Muslim police officers were also attacked. Muslim policemen have since sought special permission to be on duty without their name tags. 

Source: "Muslim policemen scared to wear name tags in Gujarat," Asian Age, March 24, 2002. 
click for more... 

 IMPUNITY IN THE AFTERMATH   
The state  government's claims to have arrested 2,500 people in early March in connection to post-Godhra violence were  undermined by reports claiming that no BJP, VHP, or Bajrang Dal activists were among those arrested. Police officials have either refused to name them in the police reports-FIRs-or under pressure from the state administration have booked some under less serious charges 
source: Robin David and Leena Misra, "Legal experts fear manipulation of FIRs," Times of India, March 26, 2002. 
 

Many police officers who have pursued charges against leaders of the attacks on Muslims, or those who tried to maintain law and order during the attacks, have since been transferred.Muslims in the state have been denied equal protection of the law and continue to be arbitrarily detained and booked on false charges following combing operations in Muslim neighborhoods. 

According to press reports, numerous BJP and VHP leaders and members have been accused of murder, arson, rioting with deadly weapons, and conspiracy, among other crimes, in the police reports filed following the massacres 
 in Naroda Patia and Gulmarg Society, although few if any have been charged. 
source: "VHP, BJP workers named in FIR on riots," Times of India, March 4, 2002. 

Police reports obtained by the Associated Press name a specific BJP leader as having led the attack on Gulmarg Society while pinpointing the responsibilities of named VHP leaders for participation in the killings at Naroda Patia: 

One report said nine people, including local Bharatiya Janata Party leader  Deepak Patel, headed Hindus who burned to death 42 people, including   former Parliament member Ehsan Jaffrey, in the Muslim neighborhood  known as Gulbarg Society in Meghaninagar. "These persons, armed with weapons, led a mob of 20,000 to 22,000, which attacked Gulbarg Society   and set it ablaze," said the report by Kirit Erda, senior inspector-in-charge of the Meghaninagar police station. "They first burned to death 18 residents and   later burned 24 more persons 
in the same place," said Erda's report, written in the Gujarati language. 

click for more... 

Muslim youths arrest:  
The mullana (cleric) of the Chotti Masjid mosque near Barasache ki Chali, Gomptipur, 
told Human Rights Watch he was beaten by the police on February 28, 2002 as they searched for the Muslim boys who had run inside his  mosque for protection, the police grabbed the boys and took them and beat them. There were ten or twelve of them. 

They were among twenty-six Muslim youth arrested between February 28 and March 1 and taken to the area police station before being transferred to the central station. One resident involved in following the legal proceedings told Human Rights Watch about the nature of cases filed against them: "A woman named Jainab was burned alive here by the police and the RSS. That case is on our boys under Section 302 [murder] of the Indian Penal Code and there are many other charges against them. They were hiding in the mosque and they arrested them." 

source : Human Rights Watch interview (name withheld), Ahmedabad, March 23, 2002. Other charges filed against the 
     Muslim youth include: obstructing a public servant in the discharge of his public functions (IPC, Sec. 186); 
     disobedience to an order duly promulgated by a public servant (IPC, Sec. 188); voluntarily causing hurt to deter a      public servant from his duty (IPC, Sec. 332); causing hurt by endangering the life or personal safety of others (IPC,  Sec. 337); assault, or the use of criminal force to deter a public servant from discharge of his duty (IPC, Sec. 353);   and mischief by fire or explosive substance with intent to destroy house, etc. (IPC, Sec. 436). Section 135 of the   Bombay Police Act, which authorizes arrest and punishment for violations of Section 37 that permits police to  prohibit various kinds of public assembly, was also invoked. The pattern is not unique to Gujarat. A study  undertaken by former Inspector General (Border Security Force) Vibhuti Narain Rai on police neutrality during  communal riots found that "even in riots where the number of Muslims killed was many times more than the Hindus, it  was they who were mainly arrested, most searches were conducted in their houses, and curfew imposed in a harsher  manner in their localities. This observation holds good for even those riots where almost [all those] killed were  Muslims" (emphasis in original). Asia-Pacific Human Rights Network, "Gujarat riots point to need for police  reform."  click for more... 

Police -Manipulation:  
People don't trust the local police. They are saying that all this happened in  their presence. There have been some arrests and some of the police have tried to save people. When witnesses file complaints, the police enter their statements according to their preference. They don't file complaints properly. People are uneducated and the police don't show them the statement, they   just get them to sign it. The police don't record statements properly. In some cases, they won't write the name of the accused. In one case, for example,seven people were identified but they didn't write their names. This area is covered by the Madhavpura police station but this is happening in all stations, also at the Sabarmati police station 

The effect of these FIRs was made clear by advocate Bhushan Oza, a member of the Citizens' Initiative that has collected a large number of what are know as "omnibus FIRs," where the accused is identified only as "an unruly mob" or "a mob of 10,000." Oza told the Times of India: "You need to hold an identification parade based on the information given in the FIR.... The procedure has to be completed before taking a particular case to court. You can't identify an accused for the first time in the court. The law does not allow this and there are judgments to this effect based on the 1985 riots" 
Source: Robin David and Leena Misra,, "Many FIRs' but culprits go scot-free," Times of India, March 24, 2002.  click for more... 
  

Police -Transfer: 
The transfer of police officers who tried to stop mobs from attacking Muslims has come under close scrutiny by the National Commission for Minorities and the NHCR (see below). In a letter to Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Ashok Narayan, reported in the Indian Express, Gujarat Director General of Police A.K. Chakravarty too took strong exception to the transfer of certain IPS officers who had taken steps to maintain law and order during the post-Godhra violence in their districts. click for more... 

BJP-VHP 
A separate report dealing with the Naroda killings blamed members of the World Hindu Council. 
"The carnage at Naroda Patia was the handiwork of a mob of 6,000, which was led by Babu Bajrangji, Kishan Kosani, T.J. Rajput, Harish Rohit and Raju Goyal," said the report written by N.T. Bala, an assistant police sub-inspector. "These people, possessing deadly weapons, led the mob of about 6,000, all belonging to the Hindu  community," said Bala's report. It details how the mob set fire to 24 homes, killing the 65 Muslims inside. 
source: Rupak Sanyal, "Indian police reports say governing party official and Hindu nationalist leaders led mobs,"   Associated Press, March 5, 2002. 
Click for more... 
  

Camps:  

RELIEF CAMPS AND REHABILITATION:Protection and Security of IDPs,   
In the first week following the attacks, displaced persons in Ahmedabad also feared for their security within the camps. In some cases, the police did not intervene to stop attacks or incitement to violence, in direct violation of the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement that state that internally displaced persons shall be protected against threats, incitement, and acts of violence intended to "spread terror" (Principle 11). On March 18, the Odhav camp in Ahmedabad was reportedly attacked with stones and petrol bombs. Camp residents told reporters that several similar attacks had taken place since the camp was set up on February 28. The police failed to intervene during the 
attacks, resulting in the deployment of army troops for the camp's protection.2 

source: Amnesty International, "India: The state must ensure redress for the victims. A memorandum to the Government    of Gujarat on its duties in the aftermath of the violence," March 28, 2002. 

Activists in the state have also pointed to problems related to damage assessments of Muslim properties and homes. Speaking on conditions of anonymity, an attorney told Human Rights Watch: "The police panchnama [statement of witnesses] is being done in the victim's absence. Let's say I had two lakhs [Rs. 200,000] worth of damage in my  home, the police will only write that there is Rs. 25,000 worth of damage." 
In their March 7 appeal the coalition reported  that in certain camps in Ahmedabad in the week following the initial attacks camp residents were traumatized by  "cassettes...played late at night, from the home of the perpetrators of the crime living in nearby societies, sending out  the war-cry: `Looto, kato, maro, Jai Sri Ram!' (Loot, attack, kill, [Praise Lord Ram!]). 

Source: Citizens for Justice and Peace, "A trained saffron militia at work?" March 7, 2002, 
               http://www.sabrang.com/gujarat/7mar1.htm (accessed April 18, 2002). 

click for more... 
 

In the week following the initial attacks police and members of the city administration obstructed the work of NGOs and other organizations attempting to deliver relief supplies to relief camps and to the walled area of Ahmedabad. A number of local and international NGOs were either refused access or denied the protection they needed to be able to provide assistance, in violation of Principle 26 of the Guiding Principles that calls on states to protect persons engaged in humanitarian assistance, as well as their transport and supplies, from attacks or other acts of violence. 
source: Amnesty International, "India: population of Ahmedabad, Gujarat," Urgent Action, March 5, 2002. 

A Jesuit priest in Ahmedabad told reporters that government officials refused to lend a single truck to deliver food to the camps. He added: "They won't give us police protection. The other day, armed Hindu men stopped us as we  were coming out of a Muslim neighborhood and held spears to our throats." 
Source : "Muslim refugees face new horrors in camps," South China Morning Post. 

An organizer of the Chartoda Kabristan camp told Human Rights Watch that while the government had provided some food supplies, the amounts given were not enough to fulfill the camp's daily requirements. Moreover, in what was described as a "government boycott," the government refused to transport the rations to them and told them to get their own trucks and pick them up themselves 
Source: Human Rights Watch interview (name withheld), Ahmedabad, March 23, 2002. See also, Malekar, "Silence of    the Lambs," The Week. 
click for more... 
 

  (iii)Special facilities/camps should be set-up for the processing of insurance and 
                  compensation claims.The Chief Minister of the State had requested the Commission 
                  to issue an appropriate request to insurance companies for the expeditious settlement 
                  of claims of those who had suffered in the riots.The Commission will readily do so 
                  and recommends that the State Government send to it the necessary details at an 
                  early date in order to facilitate such supportive action. 

            (iv)Inmates should not be asked to leave the camps until appropriate relief and rehabilitation 
                  measures are in place for them and they feel assured, on security grounds, that they 
                  can indeed leave the camps.   ... click for more... 
 
Conditions in the Camps,   
some of the camps names: visited by Human Rights Watch: 
One of the camps visited by Human Rights Watch, at Dariyakhan Ghummat in the Shahibaug area of Ahmedabad,  was formerly a municipal school for first to seventh graders and has been hosting people since February 28. The school was also used as a camp during the 1985 riots. 

At Chartoda Kabristan, Gomtipur, the second camp visited by Human Rights Watch in Ahmedabad, residents were living in the most inhumane conditions. The camp is situated in a Muslim cemetery (kabristan). Many of its 6,000 residents were literally sleeping in the spaces between the graves. One resident remarked, "Usually the dead sleep here, now the living are sleeping here." click for more... 

Discrimination in the Distribution of Compensation and Relief Nongovernmental organizations have accused the state government of discriminating against Muslim victims of  violence who are being looked after almost exclusively by Muslim organizations and local NGOs. 
source:"Muslim refugees face new horrors in camps," South China Morning Post. Principle 4 of the Guiding Principles  on Internal Displacement stipulates that the principles must be applied without discrimination of any kind, including  discrimination based on religion. 

Although the vast majority of the victims of the violence belong to the Muslim community, reports indicate that the few camps in Ahmedabad which are hosting Hindus are visited more frequently by government authorities and receive more regular  rations. 
source: Amnesty International, "India: The state must ensure redress for the victims." 

While larger camps housing Muslims have virtually no official support, the Kankaria camp for Hindu 
victims, for example, is run by a deputy collector (local government official). 
Source : Bose, "Ethnic Cleansing in Ahmedabad." In addition, the VHP has announced plans to reimburse the 
medical expenses of members of the majority community injured in the violence, and provide financial aid to those rendered homeless. "VHP to compensate violence-affected members of majority community," rediff.com, April 2, 
2002. http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/apr/02train1.htm (accessed April 10, 2002). 

Authorities have also reportedly stopped relief trucks sent by Muslim charities to the camps, citing alleged reports that the trucks might be smuggling arms. 
source: "Muslim refugees face new horrors in camps," South China Morning Post. 

The disparate provision of relief and rehabilitation for Muslim and Hindu victims of violence was similar to the Gujarat government's treatment of victims along communal and caste lines following the January 26, 2001 earthquake in the state. 
click for more... 

Threats of Forcible Return of Displaced Persons ,  
In blatant violation of the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement (Principle 15(d)) a local civil supplies minister in Ahmedabad, Bharat Barot, threatened to close down three camps and forcibly return camp residents to places where their security could not be guaranteed. The minister argued that the predominantly Muslim camps were breeding grounds for terrorism. An organizer at the Dariyakhan Ghummat camp told Human Rights Watch: 
click for more... 
 
 

Medical Care and Psychological and Social Services 
According to Principle 19 of the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, "all wounded and sick internally displaced persons shall receive to the fullest extent possible and with the least possible delay, the medical care and attention they require without distinction on any grounds other than medical ones. When necessary, internally displaced persons shall have access to psychological and social services." Principle 19 (2) adds that, "special attention should be paid to the health needs of women, including access to female health care providers and  services... as well as appropriate counseling for victims of sexual and other abuses." It continues in Principle 19 (3): 
 "special attention should also be given to the prevention of contagious diseases." click for more... 
 

Rehabilitation(general)  
Efforts should be made to involve  
                  HUDCO, HFDC and international financial and other agencies and programmes in 
                  this process. 

                  The role of NGOs should be encouraged and be an intrinsic part of the overall effort to 
                  restore normalcy, as was the case in the coordinated effort after the earthquake.The 
                  Gujarat Disaster Management Authority, which was also deeply engaged in the 
                  post-earthquake measures, should be requested to assist in the present 
                  circumstances as well. 

                  assist destitute women and orphans, and those subjected to rape.The Women and Child 
                  Development Department, Government of India and concerned international 
                  agencies/programmes should be requested to help.Particular care will need to be taken to 
                  mobilize psychiatric and counselling services to help the traumatized victims.Special efforts 
                  will need to be  made to identify and depute competent personnel for this purpose. 

            (vi)The media should be requested to cooperate fully in this endeavour, including radio, 
                  which is often under-utilized in such circumstances. click for more... 

NATIONAL COMMISSIONS :  
The preliminary comments also note with concern that police in Gujarat were constrained in performing their duty to quell communal violence. The NHRC takes notice of reports that organized mobs "armed with cell phones and address" sometimes singled out persons and property for destruction "within view of police stations and personnel." 
Source: Ibid., para. vii. 
Commenting on this issue during his investigation, the NHRC's Chairman stated, "police officials 
should not ask permission to perform their duty under the law. They must act." 
Source: "NHRC Whiplash for Gujarat Government," Hindustan Times, March 25, 2002. 
click for more... 

National Commission for Minorities (NCM)  
Police operations in Gujarat have come under close scrutiny by the commission...for more..details  
 

Federal government sources speculated that they were "pre-meditated," or the work of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). 
Source: "Needle of Suspicion Points Towards ISI in Godhra Incident," Press Trust of India, March 1, 2002;  
  
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. 
Source: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. 

Professor Keshavram Kashiram Shastri, ninety-six-year-old chairman of the Gujarat unit of the VHP denied the charge that the VHP prepared lists in advance of Muslim shops to loot. To the contrary, he said "the list of shops owned by Muslims in Ahmedabad was prepared on the morning of February 28 itself." 
Source:OVERVIEW OF THE ATTACKS AGAINST MUSLIMS  Human Rights Watch Report April 2002, Vol. 14, No. 3(C) 

A senior police officer told rediff.com, a leading Internet news site on India, on conditions of anonymity that, "[The attackers] hardly failed to lay hands on their targets, thanks to documents like the voters' list.... The mission was accomplished with clinical precision." 
Source:Nirendra Dev, "Gujarat riot victims allege `communal cleansing'," rediff.com, March 12, 2002, http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/mar/12train1.htm (accessed April 10, 2002). 
click for more... 

RECOMMENDATIONS  
To the State Government of Gujarat:    
The chief justice of the High Court of Gujarat establish courts expressly to try the cases investigated  by the CBI.  

Ensure  that  these investigations address the conduct of state officials, including police and Bharatiya Janata Party  leaders, who incited,  took part in, or were complicit in the attacks. The investigations should also focus on:  
                  · Instances in which government documents noting the religious affiliation of persons were given to  
                     groups responsible for inciting violence or conducting abuses.  
                  · Malfeasance in investigating and arresting leaders involved in attacks.  
                  · Excessive use of police force, including executions of Muslims.  
                  · The arbitrary detention and filing of false charges against Muslims.  

 Take decisive steps to ensure that police use deadly force only as a last resort to protect life. Police agents 
           should act in accordance with international standards on use of force. The U.N. Basic Principles on the Use 
           of Force or Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials emphasize that the use of force and firearms should be 
           in consonance with respect for human rights and that deadly force should not be used against persons unless 
           "strictly unavoidable in  order to protect life." click for more... 
 

To the Government of India:  
Repeal the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA), which stands in violation of international due process norms. 
           The  Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance (POTO), that preceded POTA, has been discriminatorily applied 
           against  Muslims in the state of Gujarat and elsewhere. 

        · Implement recommendations on police reform made by the National Police Commission in 1980. 
        · End impunity for past campaigns of violence against minorities. That is, prosecute and punish those found 
           responsible for serious offenses during the anti-Sikh violence in Delhi in 1984 and the post-Ayodhya 
           violence of  December 1992 and January 1993. The recommendations of the Srikrishna Commission on the 
           post-Ayodhya  violence in Bombay should be implemented without delay. Police responsible for excessive 
           use of force should be  prosecuted; those who having the power and duty to stop the violence but did not 
           intervene should be punished  accordingly. 
 · United Nations human rights bodies and experts should be invited and encouraged to visit India: 
                  · The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. 
                  · The special rapporteur on torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. 
                  · The special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary executions. 
                  · The special rapporteur on violence against women. 
                  · The special rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and 
                     related intolerance. click for more... 

The Role of the Media :  
short Titles from print-media Headlines : for Godhra Incident:  click for more...  

On April 5, 2002, the People's Union for Civil Liberties and Shanti Abhiyan, both nongovernmental organizations, issued a comprehensive analysis of the role of the media during the violence in Gujarat. Among the papers analyzed is the Vadodara edition of Sandesh, a Gujarati newspaper. The report concludes that the major effort of Sandesh for the period under review "has been to feed on the prevalent anti-Muslim prejudices of its Hindu readership and provoke it further by sensationalizing, twisting, mangling and distorting news or what passes for it." 
Source: People's Union Civil Liberties-Vadodara, Shanti Abhiyan, "The Role of Newspapers During the Gujarat 
        Carnage: February 28 - March 24," April 5, 2002, http://www.pucl.org (accessed April 13, 2002). 

Sandesh published especially inflammatory headlines, pictures, and stories the day after the Godhra attack. For example, a front page report on February 28, 2002, read: "AVENGE BLOOD WITH BLOOD."135 Another headline during the first week of March, when Gujarati Muslims were returning from their pilgrimage (Haj) to Mecca, stated: "HINDUS BEWARE: HAJ PILIGRIMS RETURN WITH A DEADLY CONSPIRACY."136 In fact, most Muslims returning from Haj were so terrified of being attacked that they  sought and received escorts home by army officials.(Ibid) 
 

Attacks on the Media  OVERVIEW OF THE ATTACKS AGAINST MUSLIMS  
While the national Indian press has played an important role in exposing the violence and official neglect or misconduct, sectors of the local press have been accused of inciting the violence.  

The national media has also come under verbal and physical attack for its coverage of the Gujarat violence. Gujarat Chief Minister Modi has accused the media of exaggerating the extent of violence, and for provoking the violence by naming the religion of the victims. 
Source: Rupak Sanyal, "Police beat up journalists as Hindu activists disrupt aid meeting," Associated Press, April  8, 2002. 

Modi also objected to All India Radio (AIR) coverage of the Godhra attack, specifically reports that mentioned that the trouble in Godhra began after kar sevaks (Hindu activists) refused to pay for the tea they consumed from Muslim tea vendors. Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Sushma Swaraj "gave a dressing down to the top brass of AIR," reportedly at Modi's behest, though no action was taken against anyone 
Josy Joseph, "AIR staff reprimanded for Godhra report," rediff.com, March 1, 
        2002, http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/mar/01train7.htm (accessed April 15, 2002). 

Many also fear retaliatory attacks by Muslims communities-promoted in some areas by false reports in the local language media -or fear of being mistaken for Muslim by Hindu mobs. 
Source:See People's Union Civil Liberties, "The Role of Newspapers During the Gujarat Carnage." Click for more... 

on Hate:  
A Campaign of Hate 

History of Hate Campaign in Gujarat: 
The rise of the BJP in Gujarat has paralleled and even been attributed to the increasing activity of the broader 
coalition of Hindu nationalist groups in the state. A campaign of hate against the state's minority Christian and 
Muslim communities began years before the 2002 attacks. A 1999 Human Rights Watch report documented the 
August 1998 distribution of fliers by RSS and Hindu Jagran Manch (HJM)-an offshoot of the sangh parivar 
consisting of people who belong to the Bajrang Dal-in Dangs district in southeastern Gujarat, site of a ten-day 
spate of violent and premeditated attacks on Christian communities and institutions between December 25, 1998, 
and January 3, 1999. 

The fliers proclaimed, "India is a country of Hindus.... Our religion of Rama and Krishna is pious. To convert [or]      leave it is a sin." Another flier by the VHP in Bardoli, Gujarat, warned, "Caution Hindus! Beware of inhuman    deeds of Muslims.... Muslims are destroying Hindu Community by slaughter houses, slaughtering cows and making   Hindu girls elope. Crime, drugs, terrorism are Muslim's empire." 
Source: In towns outside of Dangs, members of the Muslim community also came under attack. In several districts,   inter-religious marriages between Muslim men and Hindu women were being depicted as incidents of "the   abduction of girls." The government of Gujarat has also announced that it would "probe into all such marriages,   that too, only when the bridegrooms are Muslim." "Attacks on Religious Minorities in South Gujarat," A Report by   the Combined Fact Finding Team of CPDR and APCLC, October 1998, p. 7. 

Citizens' Commission on persecution of Christians in Gujarat, Violence in Gujarat: test case for a larger 
     fundamentalist agenda (National Alliance of Women, 1999), p. 45. In early September 1999, on the eve of 
     national parliamentary elections in Gujarat, the VHP distributed inflammatory pamphlets in the slum areas of 
     Ahmedabad. Among the many attacks on minorities contained in the pamphlets was the charge that Muslim men   were trapping Hindu girls into marriage. The pamphlets also said that the populations of Christians and Muslims in   the country since independence have increased at a far greater rate than the population of Hindus, and that voters  should think twice before handing the country back to a Christian foreigner-namely Italian-born Congress Party  president Sonia Gandhi. "VHP unleashes pamphlet attack on Sonia, minorities," Times of India , September 3,  1999. Click for more... 
  

Economic Boycotts and Hate Propaganda 
     A pamphlet calling for the economic boycott of Muslims has resurfaced in the state since the March 2002 attacks.  The pamphlet was issued in the name of the VHP's office in Raanip locality though its origins have yet to be  traced. 

    The pamphlet-the text of which is included in the appendix to this report-refers to Muslims as "anti-national  elements" who molest Hindus' sisters and daughters and who use money earned from Hindus to buy arms. It calls  on its readers to institute a complete boycott of goods and services proffered by Muslims, adding that Muslims  should not be hired in Hindu establishments and should not be allowed to rent property. It also cautions Hindus to  be "alert to ensure that [Hindus'] sisters-daughters do not fall into the `love-trap' of Muslim boys" and calls on  Hindus to vote, but "only for him who will protect the Hindu nation." 

    A report issued by the Vadodara branch of the People's Union for Civil Liberties and Shanti 
    Abhiyan also noted that pamphlets calling for an economic boycott against Muslims were being distributed in and  around the city of Vadodara, Gujarat 

source: "Pamphlet calling for boycott of Muslims causing concern in Ahmedabad," rediff.com, March 12, 
     2002, http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/mar/12train4.htm (accessed April 10, 2002).   

The spread of hate propaganda in Gujarat is not unlike the propaganda against Tutsis in the years preceding the 
     genocide in Rwanda where through the written press and radio, extremists taught that the Hutu and Tutsi were  different peoples. Simplifying and distorting history, the propagandists insisted that the Tutsi were foreign 
     conquerors who had ruthlessly dominated the majority Hutu. The propaganda also warned Hutu men to beware of  Tutsi women, not unlike propaganda in Gujarat that warns Hindus to protect their daughters from Muslim men.   The targeted use of sexual violence against Tutsi women during the genocide was fueled by the propagation of  both ethnic and gender stereotypes. See Human Rights Watch, "Shattered Lives: Sexual Violence during the  Rwandan Genocide and its Aftermath," A Human Rights Watch report, September 
     1996, http://www.hrw.org/reports/1996/Rwanda.htm (accessed April 15, 2002). 

The report also cited a confidential letter from the RSS calling for the boycott of all minority secular programs. 
     People's Union for Civil Liberties, "An Interim Report to the National Human Rights Commission."  Click fore more... 

and see also: for pamplet on economic boycott of Muslims 
APPENDIX B: PAMPHLET CALLING FOR ECONOMIC BOYCOTT OF MUSLIMS 
(translated from Gujarati, from the NGO SAHMAT's report) click here... 
 
 

A note on history lessons in the social studies textbooks of the Gujarat text book board,classes 5-7 
Class 5 has 33 chapters. In Class 5 under the so-called Vedic Yug, legend and mythology is often conflated with history. The 
     Class 5 textbook in fact starts with the Story of Apala, then goes on to Maitreyi and Yagnavalkya and then Nachiketa. Under 
     the head of “The Age of Epics” the textbook continues with Ram-Bharat Milan (Chapter 4); Shri Rama: The Example of a True 
     Kshatriya (Chapter 5); Vikarna; Karna and Kunti; Shri Krishna and Arjun: the teachings of the Gita, and Krishna-Sudama 
     (Chapter 9). Thus nine out of 35 chapters, with the History section having 19 chapters in all, are devoted to a period that can 
     hardly be called History.click for more... 
 
 
 
 
  

This is a report on the ways in which children and the young have been affected by the carnage unleashed in  Gujarat since February 27th 2002. It also addresses the systematic build up to the genocide, as well as the possible long term outcome of the cumulative impact . An autonomous citizens' team of three women from Calcutta carried out this assessment from May 3rd to May 11th 2002,  across both urban and rural areas of Gujarat.  click for more...  

Saddam Hussain: 8 yrs., from Ranadikpur village, Panchmahals district. 
He saw the brutal rape of his mother. His neighbour Bilkees³ and her sister were also there with Amina. They managed to run away, only to be gang raped 3 days later by another tola. He saw his mother raped successively by 3-4 men, then he saw them chop off her head and hack her body with sickle and talwars (swords).....After the tola left Saddam found only dead bodies around him He started to run in a frenzy....  click for more...  

Juned Salim Sheikh: 7 yrs. resident of Anjanwa village, Panchmahals district. 
Juned's grandfather Abdul Rahim Ahmed, grandmother Amina, their daughter Rabia Bano, Rabia's husband Mohammed, and their 22 yr. old son Farooq, in the Satpul camp, Godhra city. Farooq is a helper in the construction of buildings. At other times he works in the field. According to him there were many outsiders amongst the attackers. He had lodged a F.I.R. with Santrampur Police Station. May 6^th - 7^th , 2002. 

Source: The Next Generation: In the Wake of the Genocide-A Report on the Impact of the Gujarat Pogrom on Children and the YoungJuly 2002 -by an independent team of citizens and also see this same chapter for more testimonies 
click for more...  

HOW THE YOUNG PERCEIVE THE POLITICAL PARTIES, POLICE, GOVERNMENT AND THE GUJARATI SAMACHAR. 

Zeenat, 13, from Naroda Road, Ahmedabad. May 5th, 2002 

Zeenat was helping the volunteers with the younger children in the camp when we met her. She welcomed us in fluent English, and describing the interaction of the younger children when they first arrived, she said: 

"All their games were war games. Thy would shoot, fight, kill, throw bombs at each other and team up saying, "You're Hindu, we're Muslims, you're the Bajrang Dal/VHP, we are Muslims. You wear saffron, I'll wear green…….that is what they had seen and heard. They now refer to Hindus as the Bajrang Dal or the VHP. Now we have got them out of those games into more peaceful activities." 

and more testimonies from this same chapter... 

Source: The Next Generation: In the Wake of the Genocide-A Report on the Impact of the Gujarat Pogrom on Children and the YoungJuly 2002 -by an independent team of citizens click for more...  

The Crackdown on Education 
This team's investigations revealed that there has been a systematic crackdown on the education of minority children and youth at all levels, in both private and government schools, in Gujarat. This is a process that was initiated months prior to the carnage and peaked in the period starting February 28^th. In addition to the more obvious economic, physical and psychological devastation that the largest minority community has been subject to, the denial of education to its children has been the surest way of crippling its chances of its recovery in the future. 

-FORCED WITHDRAWAL OF CHILDREN FROM PRIVATE SCHOOLS: ISSUE OF BASIC SAFETY 

-DECREASING STRENGTH OF SCHOOLS IN MINORITY AREAS; 
STEADY PHASING OUT OF CLASSES 5-7 IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS; 
LABS DESTROYED, COMPUTERS LOOTED IN BOYS HIGH SCHOOL; 
DRESS CODES IN COLLEGE - STUDENTS COMPELLED TO LEAVE 

-LACK OF PROVISIONS FOR EXAMINATIONS; 
SUPREME COURT CASE FOR SUPPLEMENTARY EXAMS FOR STD. X & XII 

-GIRLS' EDUCATION AND THE IMPACT OF WIDESPREAD SEXUAL ABUSE AND BURNING OF WOMEN 

-LARGE SCALE DISPLACEMENTS OF POPULATIONS; FEAR OF RETURNING; THE PROBLEM OF REHABILITATION AND EDUCATION 

-RESPONSE OF A PROMINENT EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION 

-THE GOVERNMENT'S RESPONSE 
 

Source: The Next Generation: In the Wake of the Genocide-A Report on the Impact of the Gujarat Pogrom on Children and the YoungJuly 2002 -by an independent team of citizens click for more... 
 
 

Hygiene related problems: 
Pregnant and lactating women:.... click for more... 

Survivors of sexual assault  
There was a pattern in the sexual violence inflicted on the women. Accounts narrated by volunteers as well as women inmates of the camps indicate that women were beaten up, stripped naked, gang- raped, stabbed with iron rods, swords or sticks, and then burnt alive. The assailants cut open the abdomens of pregnant women and killed the foetuses. There were cases reported of mutilation and disfigurement – cutting off breasts, carving “Om” on foreheads, chopping of limbs, thrusting cricket bails / sticks or swords into women's vaginas. In some areas the abusers themselves stripped to further humiliate women. 
Apart from the enormous pain, discomfort and psychological trauma resulting from the brutal assaults, sexual abuse can also result in Reproductive Tract Infections (RTIs), sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) including HIV and pregnancy. As the state has effectively denied that sexual assaults had even occurred, no measures had been taken for detection and further action. A strategy needs to be urgently worked out to assess the actual prevalence of RTIs/ STDs/ HIV and pregnancy. This will need the collaboration of different social action groups. Camp volunteers are overwhelmed by the overall task of running  
the camps, and cannot take any pro-active role in this matter. click for more... 
 
 Development and organisation of relief camps, and the living conditions 
...the camps themselves are transient, and repeated uprooting and resettling adds to the feeling of insecurity. In one rural camp, the team learned that the entire Muslim population of two villages fled across the border to Rajasthan to escape the mobs. While three people had been killed in the violence itself, one small child was crushed to death accidentally during their escape. This group stayed in two different locations in Rajasthan for nearly 10 days before returning to their village and setting up a camp there. 

None of the camps visited by the team was set up at the initiative of the government. 
 However, the government has provided minimal or no security. Its attitude seems quite clear: victims' sustenance, and even safety, is the responsibility of the Muslim community itself. 
Even though the camps are recognised by the State, basic amenities have come from the local community. 
click for more... 

Rehabilitation 
Long-term rehabilitation needs 
Given the massive scale of physical and psychological injury inflicted upon the victims of violence, there is an urgent need to plan and implement rehabilitation measures. Some issues which emerged in this regard are outlined below. 
Physiotherapy, disability prevention and prostheses: 
Counselling, psychological and social support: 
Justice: 

Victims' psychological trauma is aggravated by their feeling that injustice has being perpetrated on a massive scale. click for more... 
 
Provision of medical services to the survivors by public hospitals 
Hospitals have an indispensable role in providing medical care to those with more serious or special health problems. In this regard, the team gathered information primarily in Amdavad city, focussing attention on the role of public hospitals. It obtained various kinds of information through discussions with camp inmates who had accessed hospital services, interviews of staff and patients in hospitals, and discussions with doctors working in various hospitals. 
The sanctity of hospitals as humanitarian spaces, where everyone should be able to receive treatment without fear, has been violated. 

Religion-wise segregation of hospitals 

It is apparent that while the hospitals have largely been non-discriminatory, they have been unable to mobilise support to protect their non-partisan and humanitarian role. 

Mobs creating terror and Muslim patients being unable to access hospitals 

Threat of violence to patients within hospitals  Click for more... 
 
 

     * There is compelling evidence of sexual violence against women. These crimes against 
     women have been grossly underreported and the exact extent of these crimes - in rural 
     and urban areas - demands further investigation. Among the women surviving in relief 
     camps, are many who have suffered the most bestial forms of sexual violence - 
     including rape, gang rape, mass rape, stripping, insertion of objects into their body, 
     stripping, molestations. A majority of rape victims have been burnt alive. 
 

     * There is evidence of State and Police complicity in perpetuating crimes against 
     women. No effort was made to protect women. No Mahila Police was deployed. 
     State and Police complicity in these crimes is continuing, as women survivors continue 
     to be denied the right to file FIRs. There is no existing institutional mechanism in Gujarat 
     through which women can seek justice. 
 

     * The impact on women has been physical, economic and psychological. On all three 
     fronts there is no evidence of State efforts to help them. 
 

     * The state of the relief camps, as mothers struggle to keep their children alive in the 
     most appalling physical conditions, is indicative of the continued abdication of the 
     State?s responsibilities. 
 

     * Rural women have been affected by communal violence on this scale for the first 
     time. There is a need for further investigation into the role played by particular 
     castes/communities in rural Gujarat in unleashing violence. 
 

     * There is evidence that the current carnage was preceded by an escalation of tension 
     and build-up by the VHP and the Bajrang Dal. 
 

     * There is an alarming trend towards ghettoisation of the Muslim community in rural 
     areas for the first time. 
 

     * Sections of the Gujarati vernacular press played a dangerous and criminal role in 
     promoting the violence, particularly in provoking sexual violence against women. 
 

FROM AMONG THOSE ABDUCTED FROM SABARMATI EXPRESS TWO DEAD  BODIES OF HINDU GIRLS FOUND NEAR KALOL IN MUTILATED STATE    
 
 

HOW HAS THE GUJARAT MASSACRE AFFECTED MONORITY WOMEN?  
Section I: Sexual Violence Against Women 
Section II : WOMEN'S EXPERIENCES OF THE STATE 
Section III: In the Wake of Violence 
Section IV: Violations of International Instruments 
Section V: Conclusions and Recommendations 
click for more... 

 CORROBORATING TESTIMONY FOR MASS RAPE IN NARODA PATIA, AHMEDABAD click here... 
 

Testimonies -  of  Sexual Violence 
WITNESSING MASS RAPE (INCLUDING MINOR GIRLS) : 
Kulsum Bibi, Shah e Alam Camp, March 27, 2002 
NARODA PATIA, AHMEDABAD, FEBRUARY 28, 2002[3][3] 

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

Abdul Usman, Testimony recorded by Citizens Initiative 
 

SULTANI, A RAPE survivor, SPEAKS 
Sultani, Kalol Camp, Panchmahals District, March 30, 2002, Additional facts about the case: 
VILLAGE ERAL, KALOL TALUKA, PANCHMAHALS DISTRICT, FEBRUARY 28th, 2002[4][4] 

 A MOTHER'S ACCOUNT OF HER DAUGHTER'S RAPE 
VILLAGE ERAL, KALOL TALUKA , PANCHMAHALS DISTRICT. MARCH 3,   2002[5][5] 
Medina Mustafa Ismail Sheikh, Kalol camp, Panchmahals district, March 30, 2002  Additional facts about the case: 

GANG RAPE OF 25 YEAR OLD ZARINA: A HUSBAND'S ACCOUNT 
  HUSSAIN NAGAR, NARODA PATIA, AHMEDABAD. FEBRUARY 28, 2002 
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 
       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 
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 Mehmooda, Millat Nagar 

  MASS RAPE AND MURDER 
 NARODA PATIA. FEBRUARY 28, 2002[6][6] 
 Jannat Sheikh, testimony to Citizens Initiative. 

BILKEES: ACCOUNT OF A RAPE Survivor 
RANDHIKPUR VILLAGE, DISTRICT DAHOD[7][7]. MARCH 3, 2002 
 Testimony to AIDWA and Anandi ,Additional facts about the case: 
 

 Fear and Muslim Women  

     The impact of fear on Muslim women can already be seen. With the entire community 
     under threat, women in particular are paying the price - with their freedom and mobility. 
     Mothers fear for the safety of daughters. Husbands fear for wives. And the first 
     response to fear is the imposition of restrictions. As Muslim communities ghettoise, 
     there is danger of further ghettoization of women within the home. With entire families 
     forced to migrate, the education of girls is suffering. Clearly when lives are in danger, 
     this is not a priority 

Economic-Destitution  
Testimonies of the Women ... 
Creation of Female Headed Households and Destitution of Single Women click for more.. 

VHP AND BAJRANG DAL: WOMEN'S EXPERIENCES  
 Jayanti Ravi, Collector Panchmahals 
     confirmed that in October - November 2001, (near the time of Navratri), there had 
     been tension in the area. Around that time several activities like Ramdhun and trishul 
     distribution programme had been organized. Women activists have been directly 
     threatened by these organizations. click for more... 

Sahiyar Stree Sangathan, Vadodara  

     Activists from the Sangathan told the fact-finding team about the pattern of 
     indoctrination by the Sangh Parivar. Whenever they find that an area is relatively 
     peaceful, they begin organizing meetings to instigate the residents. They make a practice 
     of sending bangles wrapped in red cloth to areas, which have remained peaceful 
     despite having some Muslim homes. The message is clear; shaming them for their 
     ?femininity?, implying that they are gutless for allowing Muslim houses to remain intact. 
     (Many other people we spoke with also referred to this practice of sending bangles). In 
     areas like Bhavnagar and Surendranagar, for example, bangles were placed in a 
     prominent central place. Neighbourhood meetings are then organised with the 
     insistence that representatives from all nearby colonies should attend. The message 
     given is that they should ?do something? in terms of destroying Muslims, ?even if you 
     get arrested we will take care of you? click for more... 

Recommendations pertaining to women  
     1. The issue of sexual violence is grossly under reported, especially in rural areas. 
     Testimonies from all the affected areas need to be recorded on an urgent basis to 
     understand the nature and extent of crimes committed against women. This task must 
     be done immediately as many of the victims may soon start leaving the camps. 
     2. FIRs need to be lodged immediately. A special task force, comprised of people 
     from outside Gujarat, to be set up immediately for taking cognizance of the context in 
     which sexual violence has taken place and commence the task of filing FIRs. It should 
     first examine the status of the existing FIRs. The task force should consist of people 
     with legal expertise, women police personnel, women?s rights activists, and women 
     leaders from the Muslim community and be headed by a senior woman IAS officer. A 
     time limit should be set within which justice will be dispensed for cases of sexual 
     violence. 
     3. For cases of rape, medical examinations should not be treated as the basic evidence. 
     Given the testimonies that many women were fleeing for several days and did not have 
     access to medical facilities, medical examinations should not be asked for at all. 
     4. The extraordinary circumstances under which crimes against women have been 
     committed, and the evidence that the State machinery was not accessible to victims in 
     terms of seeking justice, there is a need to make the ?normal?, technical requirements 
     of a legal process contingent upon these factors. In cases where women are unable to 
     lodge FIRs, their testimonies alone should be treated as the basis for further legal 
     action. 
     5. Counselling to be provided immediately, even before registering the cases so that the 
     women are able to give essential information, which they have difficulty speaking about. 
     People with expertise in trauma counselling need to be identified and assigned to this 
     task. 
     6. Women?s rights activists to be enabled to work freely among the survivors and 
     police protection to be provided to them. Their harassers to be charged and brought to 
     book. 
     7. It is imperative that the appalling sanitary conditions be improved and better health 
     care be provided in the camps. Adequate facilities to address the health needs of 
     pregnant women and the trauma of all the camp residents, particularly women, must be 
     provided. 
     8. A comprehensive rehabilitation policy for rape victims and for their families (where 
     the women are dead) needs to be announced urgently. 
     9. Given the Government?s negligence and the negligence of the National Commission 
     for Women to make itself available (until the writing of this report), the UN Special 
     Rapporteur on Violence Against Women should be called in for investigation and 
     assessment. 
     10. Immediate assessment of the number of female-headed households and a 
     rehabilitation package for livelihoods to be prepared by a panel of experts drawn from 
     appropriate disciplines, with adequate support from the Government. Special 
     provisions to be made for orphans and children of widows. 
     11. In all the relief work, rehabilitation should be treated as a separate issue and not be 
     confused with relief and immediate cash compensation. 
     12. Evaluate the Government?s proposal to setup Peace Committees. In a situation 
     where the Government lies discredited and implicated in the violence it is hardly likely 
     that they would be in a position to undertake confidence-building measures. click for  more... 
 

Police operations in Gujarat have come under close scrutiny by the commission...for more..details 
 

ROLE OF THE POLICE  
Several accounts speak of policemen actively aiding, abetting, and in some cases leading the mobs. Video footage seen by the 
fact-finding team showed slogan's 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. A pattern that was often repeated was that the Police would open fire at the Muslims rather than at the mob, which was  attacking them. click here  

Recommendations pertaining to Police 
1. A task force to be set up to investigate police excesses against women and to take immediate action against the officers 
concerned. 

2. All police personnel named in the FIRs to be immediately tried and arrested. 

3. Urgent probe into the police firing where deaths have resulted and the accused be brought to book. 

4. An end to ‘combing’ operations, which are exclusive to Muslim areas and are being used to pick up Muslim youth; complete transparency in manner, methods, and charges against those arrested. Given the real fear of prejudical action by the Police, a Judicial commission to examine all cases where Muslims have been picked up during combing operations after Feb 28th, 2002. A system of accountability to be established for those who have ‘disappeared’ after being picked up by Police. 

5. Where there are testimonies of Police refusing to register FIRs, immediate action to be taken against the concerned officers. 
Absense of the Police to discharge its duties at a time of crisis to be treated as criminal culpability and attract punishment 
matching that charge, rather than merely attracting internal disciplinary action. 
 

VISITING THE CAMPS 
There are over a 100,000 refugees in Gujarat today, among them many women and children. The fact-finding team visited 7 
relief camps in both urban and rural areas. The Shah-e-Alam Camp is located in the Shah Alam Dargah.Women, men, children of all ages are scattered across the floor of the Dargah.The Vadali Camp is no more than a large open maidan with a cloth shamiana strung overhead.At night over 600 women, and nearly 600 children crowdinto the premises of the cinema to sleep. The men sleep outside. The toilets are inadequate and the entire compound is slowlybecoming a large latrine. They have been living like this for over a month. The only politician to visit is a local Congress leader -he came once. We are the first women visitors.. click for more... 
 

 Rural Relief Camps: Muslims should look after other Muslims 

     The process of ghettoisation has begun with the rural relief camps. Camps have sprung 
     up wherever people ran to safety, and they invariably ran towards Muslim dominated 
     areas. The idea of "safety in numbers" was never so acutely experienced. In each case, 
     it has been local Muslim community leaders who have provided shelter, made 
     arrangements to feed and house hundreds and thousands of people. In some cases 
     food rations are being supplied by the Government. But hardly any Government 
     officials or elected representatives have visited. The message is clear: Muslims are not 
     the responsibility of the State. Muslims should look after other Muslims. 

       The Vadali Relief Camp (Sabarkantha District), for example, is being run by the 
     Muslim Paanch Jamaat. 

Kinship networks have been instrumental in operationalising many rural relief camps. 
     Take the Ramayan Relief Camp (Sabarkantha District), for example. Ramayan (along 
     with its twin village Mahabharat) is a Muslim majority gram panchayat, with a Muslim 
     Sarpanch - Sattar Bhai Jamal Bhai. 

 Long Journey to Safety 

     In order to reach the sanctuary of these Muslim majority areas in rural Gujarat, people 
     have been forced to take refuge in jungles, forests, and fields for days on end, as they 
     inch their way gradually towards safety. In Halol camp (Panchmahals) for example, one 
     woman had come to the camp only on the day the fact-finding team visited, after hiding 
     in fields for 24 days. click for more... 
 
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.... 
source: Survior's Speak click for more... 
 

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. 

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." 

 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. Click for more... 

Women's experience in the State - Role of police  
 

     Ø Several accounts speak of policemen actively aiding, abetting, and in some cases 
     leading the mobs. Video footage seen by the fact-finding team showed slogan?s 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. 
 

     Ø A pattern that was often repeated was that the Police would open fire at the Muslims 
     rather than at the mob, which was attacking them. 
 

     Ø In other cases, the police turned a deaf ear to cries of help, or simply told women, in 
     so many words, that they did not have ?orders from above? to help them. Women and 
     children were repeatedly turned away from Police chowkis and stations and told to 
     fend for themselves. 
 

     Ø At best, the Police would take a crowd of frightened Muslims and dump them in 
     safer Muslim majority areas. The message was clear - ?Protecting Muslims is not our 
     responsibility; Other Muslims can look after them?. Muslims were no longer citizens of 
     the state. 
 

     Ø In no instance did the fact-finding team hear of Mahila Police being deployed in 
     areas where women were being brutalized. 
 

     Ø In a vast majority of the cases, FIRs have not been lodged. Several accounts say 
     that the Police simply refuse to lodge the FIR, saying, ?you don?t have enough 
     evidence, there is no case?. 
 

     Ø Victims of sexual violence do not even have the confidence to approach the Police, 
     let alone walk the long path to evidence gathering, and getting justice. In the words of 
     one Muslim woman, "Yeh to Hinduon ki Police hai" (`This is a Hindu Police?). 
 

     Ø Muslim women surviving in relief camps across the state are not the only ones who 
     dread the Police. Outside the camps, in several Muslim dominated areas in 
     Ahmedabad, they live in forced imprisonment and constant terror of another kind. 
     Curfew has been imposed in these areas, including Millat Nagar, visited by the 
     fact-finding team. Under the guise of ?combing operations? the Police are picking up 
     young Muslim boys at random. Mothers live in constant fear. 
 

     Ø In order to protect their men, women are being forced to venture out of their homes 
     for daily chores, and encountering the Police. The fact-finding team heard specific 
     accounts of continuing police atrocities - of women being severely beaten or killed in 
     Police firing. 
 

     However, even in its worst moment, there remained in Gujarat isolated pockets of calm 
     where the police and the administration stood firm, giving the lie to the theory that the 
     post-Godhra carnage was an unstoppable case of spontaneous communal combustion. 
     For example, no casualties have been reported from Panchmahals District since March 
     5th, including in Godhra town where the spiral of violence first started and which has a 
     long history of communal tension. The fact-finding team believes that this is in large part 
     due to the sincere efforts of the District Collector Jayanti Ravi in ensuring that law and 
     order is maintained. 
 

WOMEN'S TESTIMONIES OF THE ROLE OF the STATE 
Shabnam, Resident of Vatva, Ahmedabad 
Saira Bano, Resident of Khed Brahma town, Sabarkantha. 
Kulsum Bibi and Jannat Bibi, Residents of Jawan Nagar, Naroda Patia, Ahmedabad. 
Saira Bano, Resident Navapura, Vatva, Ahmedabad         
Saira Bano, Resident Hussain Nagar, Naroda Patia, Ahmedabad 
Nagori Bibi, Resident Khed Brahma near State Transport bus stand, Sabarkantha  District. Shamshad Bibi, Resident Khed Brahma (near dargah), Sabarkantha. 
Farzana: Resident of Vatva, Ahmedabad (Story narrated by her sister-in-law Naim) 
Naseem and Ameena, Residents of Bahar Colony (an upper middle class colony) Vadodora 
Testimonies of Continuing Fear, Ajwa Road, Vadodara 
Testimonies of women whose young sons have been picked up in combing operations, Millat Nagar, Ahmedabad. 
 

 A COMMON MAN'S IMPRESSION 

 A MEETING WITH POLICE SUB-INSPECTOR PATIL,  INCHARGE OF KALOL POLICE STATION,  KALOL TALUKA, PANCHMAHALS DISTRICT, MARCH 30, 2002 
        When told that many victims claim they are being refused the right to lodge FIRs, he 
     hotly denied this, and said, proudly that Kalol Station had lodged 13 FIRs. We asked 
     for details of these FIRs. Closer examination revealed that only 6 FIRs had been 
     lodged by victims. 7 FIRs had been lodged by the State with Patil himself as the 
     complainant. The State FIRs were an eyewash - since the accused in each FIR was 
     simply written as ?tola? (mob). Obviously not a single arrest has been made in these 
     State FIRs. We examined the other 6 FIRs: 
 

     1. Complainant: Medina Bibi, Eral. Out of the 39 named as accused, only 13 have 
     been arrested 
     2. Complainant: Arvind Bhai Parmar. Out of 5 Muslims accused, all have been 
     arrested. 
     3. Complainant: Ilyas. No arrests 
     4. Complainant: Ahmed Haji Mohammed: Out of 10 named as accused, none have 
     been arrested. 
     5. Complainant: Shiraz Abdul: 4 arrests 
     6. Musa Bhai Sheikh: Out of 2 accused, none have been arrested. Click for more... 
 
 
 

"Arre ye Narendra Modi ne hi sab kuch kiya. Hamara zindagi barbaad kiya." (That 
     Narendra Modi, he did all this. He is the one who has ruined our lives) This is how the 
     Muslim women of Gujarat see their Chief Minister - as the man who has ruined their 
     lives forever. "Sarkar" (Government)? "What sarkar, they ask?" In the words of 
     countless women who have been devastated by the continuing violence, the State of 
     Gujarat had simply disappeared when they needed it most. The State - including 
     elected representatives, the political executive, the administration, and the police - 
     abdicated its responsibility to protect all its citizens. 

MAYA KODNANI, BJP MLA 
    The fact-finding team met Maya Kodnani, the BJP MLA from Naroda Patia, one of 
     the worst affected areas in Ahmedabad. She has also been named in an FIR as having 
     participated in the Naroda Patia carnage on February 28th, 2002. 

NATHIBEHN: MAHILA SARPANCH 
     Another case of State participation in the violence was provided by Laxmipura Village 
     in Khed Brahma Taluka of Sabarkantha District. The fact-finding team visited this 
     village because it had a Mahila Sarpanch, Nathibehn, whose husband and son have 
     been identified as leading the mobs who torched Muslim homes on the evening of 
     February 27th, 2002. . 

KESHUBHAI PATEL, SARPANCH 
      While there are examples of elected representatives actively participating or condoning 
     violence against Muslims, blaming it on an "unstoppable flood of Hindu anger", the 
     fact-finding team also found evidence that where State actors chose to protect 
     Muslims, they managed to do so successfully. 

WOMEN'S EXPERIENCES OF THE STATE  A. POLITICAL COMPLICITY 

The first press release issued from Gandhinagar on February 27 quoted the Minister of State for Home Affairs, Gordhanbhai Zadaphia as stating that “as per preliminary report, six people were killed, 38 injured and out of them 18 were discharged from the local hospital after necessary treatment. He said that the number of deaths could be on the higher side also”. 
 click for more....  
 

"The Fuse is lit' 
Sheela Bhatt posted an interview with K.K.Shastri, the 96-year old President of the Gujarat unit of the VHP, on the rediff.com portal. This makes chilling reading. According to Mr Shastri, the list of Muslim-owned shops was prepared on the morning of February 28. It was done as “we were terribly angry (over Godhra). Lust and anger are blind”. “Hindutva was attacked. This is…. a tremendous outburst that will be difficult to roll back”. Further, “we can´t condemn it because they are our boys”. Shastri added, “The VHP has formed a panel of 50 lawyers to help release the arrested people accused of rioting and looting. None of these lawyers will charge any fees because they believe in the RSS ideology”.  click for more...  

Sandesh: Something  happened 
English papers carried baseless stories that Godhra was not pre-planned and that karsewak misbehaviour at the railway station provoked the Muslims. When it was said that the Times of India ran its story on the basis of an on-the-record briefing by the IGP Railway Police (See Annexure 11, P 19), this was dismissed as “bullshitting”. 

 The Gujarat Samachar has a circulation of around 8.10 lakhs and Sandesh about 7.05 lakhs. But because of its pro-Hindu stand, Sandesh´s circulation had increased by 150,000 copies since the riots began. 

Mr Patel showed us a letter dated March 18 sent to him officially as owner and chief executive of Sandesh by the Chief Minister. In this, Mr Narendra Modi, personally expressed his high appreciation for the newspaper´s restrained coverage of the recent events in the best traditions of journalism. Mr Modi told us later that similar letters had gone out under his signature to a number of Gujarati language papers. Gujarat Samachar and 14 others were sent such letters according to a hurried listing by the Information Department. The text of the original letter in Gujarati and its English translation is at Annexure 4 click for more...  

"other Gujarati papers "'  

There are a large number of Gujarati papers, 32 large and small vernacular publications in Ahmedabad alone. Fulchab, in Rajkot, was characteristically the first to take out a peace rally immediately after Godhra. click for more...  
 
"Meeting with Narendra Modi " 
We told Mr Modi of our mission and asked for his assessment of the media´s role in the ongoing crisis in Gujarat. He was coy; it was too early for him to say anything about the media as CM, he said. But if Narendra Modi were asked that question, that would be a long story. Coaxed to say something more, he said the media, especially TV, was very powerful. None in the media had appealed for peace. Yes, maybe editorials had appeared, but ordinary people did not read editorials. He himself had gone on the air and repeatedly called for peace. (In his address over Doordarshan on February 28, Mr Modi referred to Godhra and went to state: “Gujarat shall not tolerate any such incident. The culprits will get full punishment for their sins. Not only this, we will set an example that nobody, not even in his dreams thinks of committing a heinous crime like this”. In a separate Doordarshan soundbyte he is reported as stating: “If raising issues relating to justice or injustice adds fuel to the fire, we will have to observe restraint and invoke peace”.Ambiguous words these. Annexure 4AA).  click for more... 
 
 As Gujarat erupted on February 27, there were those who blamed the print and electronic media for aggravating tensions and inflaming passions by their graphic or sensational coverage. While some thought it fit to shoot the messenger, there were voices from the media alleging impediments, threats and attacks to thwart their independent and objective functioning. click for more...  
 
Overview: 
The Editor of Sandesh was to tell us that “Something happened”. What ? 

In the first week of April, some 120,000 victims of both communities were still to be found taking pitiable refuge in makeshift relief camps run by NGOs with some official assistance. What remains is a miasma of fear, hatred, insecurity, guilt and grim foreboding. Gujarat and India have suffered a grievous moral and material loss from which it will take much time and effort to recover. A whole community was targeted for the alleged sins of its co-religionists at Godhra long prior to that event and far beyond Gujarat. 

Gujarat was the first large scale “television and cable riot” covered in real time. This poses delicate issues and difficult choices that merit discussion. Finally, the role of digital communications, the mobile phone, SMS (smart mail service), email, web sites, autonomous computer generated handbills and posters, and the digital camera, was pervasive, insidious and oftentimes dubious, being prone to misuse. This “new media” has introduced an altogether new dimension of global and person-to-person communication that must be carefully assessed. Censorship is not the answer; sobriety, training, professionalism and codes of conduct are necessary   click for more...  
  

Freedom and Responsibility 
The Indian media is privileged to enjoy a wide measure of freedom By this very token, it must exercise this freedom with responsibility in matters relating to public order, decency and morality, defamation and incitement to an offence. It is incumbent on the media to strive for objectivity, fairness and balance, to avoid sensationalism or anything that is liable to inflame passions, especially during periods of stress and tension. It is also obligated to make corrections and afford injured parties the right of reply. In situations of communal strife, the Indian tradition has been to avoid naming the communities involved so as not to exacerbate tensions. 

Despite the speed with which electronic news moves, rumour travels faster, like greased lightning. There are many voices, big and little, formal as well as personal carrying it here, there and everywhere. So truth and authenticated information are in constant competition with disinformation. To use the terminology of nuclear warfare, the legitimate media must therefore enjoy first-strike capability. click for  here...  

The Godhra episode 

The Sabarmati Express, running some hours behind schedule, was torched in Godhra just before 8 a.m. on February 27. Local reporters soon reached the spot and filed the news. Aaj Tak was probably the first news channel to flash the breaking news. Zee TV´s local cameraman in Godhra rushed his footage to Ahmedabad. This was aired soon after 2 p.m...Others, including Doordarshan, followed, deputing camera crew from Ahmedabad, Baroda and Delhi. An anonymous email message was widely circulated attributing what purported to be an eyewitness account obtained by two local correspondents, Anil and Neelam Soni, whose designations and telephone numbers were given. This spoke of an altercation at the station between karsevaks, who alighted from the train for tea and snacks, and local hawkers of the minority community. (See Annexure 1). 

The first press release issued from Gandhinagar on February 27 quoted the Minister of State for Home Affairs, Gordhanbhai Zadaphia as stating that “as per preliminary report, six people were killed, 38 injured and out of them 18 were discharged from the local hospital after necessary treatment. He said that the number of deaths could be on the higher side also”.  click for more...  

Criticism of the “Secular Media”  
The vocabulary of discourse, like much else in Gujarat, has come to reflect the deep emotions and divisions aroused by events in the State. Thus, the term “secular media”, is used pejoratively to describe those papers and channels which are only critical of violence against the minority community. 

Sections of the media have been criticised for directly or indirectly linking the Godhra incident to Ayodhya. click for more...  

The Other Side of the Fence 
A number of civic and human rights groups and NGOs in Ahmedabad and Vadodara have been monitoring the media and shared their perceptions and findings with the Guild Team. Among these, the People´s Union for Civil Liberties and Shanti Abhiyan in Vadodara and a number of other community groups in Gujarat have meticulously tracked media trends in Gujarat. click for more...  

TV and Radio 

There is little doubt that some of the television coverage unmasked the State Government. It hit back by banning Star on March 2 for several hours. In an interview to “Outlook” (March 18, 2002), Mr Narendra Modi was asked why he had sought to muzzle the press. His response was that “There was no ban on the media. I blacked out just one channel because of the provocative reporting methods used. Traditionally the print media has used its own methods of self-censorship, taking care not to mention the names of communities while reporting riots. If every half an hour names of communities are going to be mentioned, without any substantiation or any attribution, it inflames the situation instead of allaying it. It is not difficult to see what impact it will have. 
 

TV and Radio networks  
-Zee TV 
-Star TV  
Local Electronic/Cable Networks  
The licenses of two operators were suspended on March 17 after they showed live footage of rioting in the sensitive Macchipith area on March 15, when the VHP celebrated news of the performance of shilinyas at Ayodhya. This same live footage was repeated the following day. The licenses were restored after 48 hours. FIRs were, however, registered against News Plus and the VNM Channel respectively and the operators released on bail 
Cable 
Pamphlets and Handbills  
PUCL/Shanti Abhiyan has summarised the content of several other pamphlets (See Annexure 12, P 30-31). The most damaging of these is an alleged secret RSS circular listing ways of killing or debilitating minorities. The economic boycott theme figures again and was found to be circulating by chain distribution in Sadhari, Pali district, Rajasthan. The Express, March 24 (Delhi edition) reports the police seizure of a pamphlet urging Hindus to create a “jagrut Hindu rashtra”, allegedly circulated by the Bajrang Dal president, Hastimal, who is said to have been arrested. The theme: “Don´t purchase anything from Muslim shops, don´t travel in their vehicles or visit their garages; don´t watch films which feature Muslim stars. In this way we can break their financial backbone”. The same news item says that the police seized a pamphlet in tribal-dominated Banswara, exhorting Hindus to hang a saffron flag outside their homes to help identification during Moharram.  

In Ahmedabad we were told of the seizure a booklet titled “In Defence of Hindus” purporting to be a “riot manual” from Nagpur containing a list of do-it-yourself brutalities.  
Digital media  

Film too has come to play a role in Gujarat. An NGO, Concerned Citizen´s Initiative, has 22 hours of video footage on Gujarat compiled from various sources. An edited version of this has been screened in Delhi and is available with Sahmat. Such scenes captured by amateur filmmakers can offer candid and revealing information, unobtrusively obtained. (See Annexure 21).  
Rumours  
Attacks on the Media   click for more...  

Media Codes and Ethics  
The media has long been subject to formal and informal media codes. Foremost among these are constitutional and statutory 
injunctions. Article 19(2) permits imposition of reasonable restrictions on freedom of speech and expression in relation to “the 
security of the state, friendly relations with foreign states, public order, decency or morality, or in relation to contempt of court, 
defamation or incitement to an offence”.  click for more... 

RECOMMENDATIONS 
What now?  

Competition for ratings and circulation can sometimes be negative media drivers with trivia, with titillation and sensation crowding out more studied reportage and analysis. The need for political and economic reform in India has been amply debated, even if action on the ground has been disappointing; but can the same be said of social reform and analysis of deeper societal changes?  

Gujarat has suffered a terrible tragedy. India too. The dead are gone; ravaged homes and work places will be restored even if rehabilitation takes time. What next ? Can one dare accept the partitioning of minds into “we” and “they” and the growing ghettoisation of Gujarat´s cities within fortified “borders” following every one of its periodic bloody riots? With Government and governance losing relevance, are fearful communities (Hindus included) now left with no option than to enthrone new and more ruthless Godfathers?  

How is it that Gujarat´s famed entrepreneurship has spawned upwardly mobile classes so devoid of anything other than gross consumerist values that they turn to loot and acquiesce in arson to “create” real estate? This despite vocalised recognition of the economic interdependence of the two major communities. Where are the liberal voices? The Gandhians have been marginalised. The trade unions have been emasculated with the decline of the textile industry and new cohorts of white collar workers on the take. Religious leaders have been largely silent or afraid, though religiosity is rampant and evident in city skylines. The intellectual and cultural community is isolated. The adivasis are being stirred up by interested groups. Where is the political leadership? This is a portrait of a depraved and intolerant society that has displaced Gandhi and Sardar Patel´s Gujarat. Yet there are many striving to restore lost values. All is not lost.  

The media will and must continue to turn the searchlight on Gujarat. But there is that underlying story waiting to be probed and told -if Gujarat and India are not to burn again. click for more.... 
 

Textbooks and warped mindsets  
Class 12 students sitting for their Board examinations in Gujarat on April 22, 2002 were put to a grammar test. The English paper asked them to remove the word “if” and rewrite the sentence, “If you don´t like people, kill them”. 

There have even been reports of betting over the riots. Bookies have been placing bets on who would start riots and where and whether the Gujarat riots would spread to Rajasthan. There has been betting on the death toll. (Times of India, April 10). So now we have rioting as a blood sport    click for more... 
 
 

Three Hubli lorries getting burnt in Gujarat and the drivers found missing report appeared from  Hubli which gave Karnataka dimension to the Gujarat Clashes. It also got the Karnataka angle in the sense that several stories  depicted the pathetic conditions of the people who had migrated to Gujarat from north Karnataka districts in search of jobs, but lost their relatives and properties in the clashes.Kannadiga's plight in Naroda Patiya area which was also called as "Chota  Karnataka ' gave touching account of the victims who suffered in the carnage. However, Prajavani editorials came under fire in the VHP protest rally held in Bangalore on March 3 to condemn Godhra incident. In that meeting even  "Prajavani" copies were burnt protesting against its  editorial stand .. Period 28 February -16 March 2002. click for more...  

Vijay Karnataka Newspaper 
The announcement of BJP to celebrate anti terrorist  day on March 9 got page1 treatment. 
The report, a  press statement made by Jana Krishnamurthy said that  the BJP leaders would convince people on what kind of  negative consequences would occur due to the people  who co operate with anti-India activities of ISI. He also  defended Modi Government telling that he is managing  a very difficult situation which no other Government would have managed. 

VK carried a report along with Modi' s picture stating  "Modi: avarige 'hero', ivarige 'villain'. (Modi, hero to them, villain to these). The report said even though  public opinion and opposition parties view Modi as  "Khalnayak', the ruling party is not worried. It quoted  some political leaders saying that thanks to Modi, that  BJP was now able to unite all dalit, tribals and Middle  class Hindus. Period 28 February -16 March 2002. click for more...  

Kannada Prabha 
It wrote an editorial in strong language condemning the incident on the next day. It criticized VHP s actions which did not heed PM s advice to wait  for Court Judgement on Ayodhya. The editorial said this gave an ample hint to note what would happen in future if it went against Vajpayee' advise. 

KP also published photograph of woman crying before her father - in- law's body. "Kannada Prabha" well  displayed the picture of a man (the caption did not mention his religion) with folded hands pleading for his life, which grabbed national attention . Period 28 February -16 March 2002. click for more...  
 

UDAYAVANI  Newspaper 
published some vivid pictures of burning  shops, buildings, burnt vehicles to bring home the  magnitude of clashes. On March 8, on the occasion of  International Women's day it published a picture of a woman with her kids in Ahmedabad relief camp whose  husband's whereabouts are not known after the carnage.. The caption rightly noted the new type of  problems women being subjected to at times of  communal clashes. Period 28 February -16 March 2002. click for more...  

Samyukta Karnataka Newspaper 
The main heading said "violence erupted against Ramsevaks killings, 80 dead,  700 arrested, Curfew all over'. The picture of burning trucks was also used. On the same day, the editorial said as innocent Ramsevaks were burnt alive, there is  every possibility of communal feeling getting flared  up... So it asked VHP leaders to heed to the advice of PM to halt Ram Mandir Agitation. At the end it even advised citing, Lord Rama himself was the incarnation of tolerance. 

The  Bangarapet clash in the state was covered under the heading "Godhra fire spreads to Bangarapet'. 
Period 28 February -16 March 2002. click for more...