The Hindu : Women attack Gujarat Opposition leader

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jun 19, 2002

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Women attack Gujarat Opposition leader

By Our Special Correspondent

AHMEDABAD June 18. The leader of the Opposition in the Gujarat Assembly, Naresh Raval, was attacked by a group of women on the outskirts of Sardarpura village in Mehsana district on Monday.

Mr. Raval, who returned here today, said the windscreen of his car was smashed by stones thrown by the women who were mostly the family members of the 70-odd people arrested in connection with the burning alive of 28 Muslims in the village during the communal disturbances in the State in the aftermath of the Godhra train carnage. Mr. Raval, who was on a trip to the villages in his Assembly constituency — Vijapur — and his companions escaped unhurt.He claimed that the attack was "politically-motivated'' but admitted that some leaders of his own Congress party might be hand-in-glove with the anti-social elements of the village trying to usurp some 500 bighas of cultivable land owned by the Muslims. He claimed that the women were agitated over the arrest of their male family members and had been "provoked'' by the anti-social elements to put pressure on him to get them released and exonerated from the charges of burning the Muslims alive on March 1.

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