Thursday, Apr 04, 2002
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By Manas Dasgupta
A house set ablaze by rampaging mobs at Abhasana, a village near Ahmedabad, on Wednesday. — AP
Some of the walled city areas in Ahmedabad were again brought under an indefinite curfew after the city witnessed pitched battles between the two groups in Gomtipur where two persons were killed and nine injured in police firing. One person was killed in the police firing in Umreth in central Gujarat. Besides the mob attack, the police went berserk, beating up people in Gomtipur and Vejalpur, severely injuring at least 80 persons. The continued disturbances figured in the Assembly and the House was adjourned sine die after it completed the remaining business of the current budget session in the absence of the Opposition members who were suspended earlier for disrupting the proceedings. With the gruesome incidents of burning people alive recurring on the eve of the Prime Minister's visit, six members of a minority family in Abasana village under the Detroj police station in Ahmedabad district were killed when some miscreants set their houses afire late on Tuesday night when the entire village was fast asleep. While five persons died on the spot, one died of injuries in hospital. It was the first time after the three days of mayhem from February 28 in the aftermath of the Godhra carnage that an incident of burning people alive had occurred. The local sarpanch, however, claimed that the miscreants had ransacked houses belonging to the minorities and killed the people before setting fire to the houses. He said the assailants, numbering about 20, were outsiders and their identity was not known. They had come armed and equipped with inflammable materials. The Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, while condemning the Abasana attack said that some persons seemed bent on creating disturbances and issued a stern warning against disrupting peace. In Umreth, one person was killed and two were injured when police fired 16 rounds to disperse unruly mobs setting fire to houses and shops for the third consecutive day defying the indefinite curfew. An indefinite curfew was also clamped in Vadali town in Sabarkantha district following arson and group clashes. The Ankleshwar town in Broach district was again brought under an indefinite curfew following clashes. The labour-dominated Gomtipur locality in Ahmedabad witnessed an unprecedented mob fury despite being under curfew. After the pitched battles on Tuesday, the mob regrouped and attacked slums this afternoon and ransacked houses. Policemen, who arrived on the scene, instead of helping the victims, beat them up. Even an 80-year-old woman, Chandbibi, was not spared while a local journalist present on the spot covering the event also received lathi blows. At least 60 persons were treated in hospital for injuries inflicted by police. In contrast in the Vejalpur locality, police raided some Hindu residential areas and beat up the people there. Some of them were paraded under the hot sun or made to walk on their knees. "You people are harassing us by creating disturbances,'' the policemen are reported to have told them. The entire Opposition in the Assembly was suspended for the remaining period of the current budget session after the Congress members created an uproar demanding that they be allowed to move an adjournment motion to discuss the communal riots.
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