The Hindu : `Muslim community traumatised in Godhra'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Apr 29, 2003

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`Muslim community traumatised in Godhra'

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI APRIL 28. After the ordinary citizens, it is the middle class and professionals among Muslims who are now feeling the most insecure and persecuted in Godhra as the re-imposition of POTA and the arrest of an active community leader, Maulana Hasan Umarji -- who had organised relief work after communal riots -- has again unleashed a reign of terror on them, the People's Union for Democratic Rights said here today.

On returning to Delhi after a four-day fact-finding mission beginning April 18, the secretaries of PUDR, Shahana Bhattacharya and Ujjwal Kumar Singh, noted with concern that what they found in Godhra was a "traumatised and silenced Muslim community''.

The most terrified were professional and middle class people belonging to the community who had undertaken relief and rehabilitation work post-riots. Noting that many of them were even petrified to narrate their woes, the PUDR said some of them have been literally on the run and have been unable to sleep in their houses after the re-imposition of POTA.

Noting that POTA has placed absolute powers in the hands of the politically and communally biased State machinery, PUDR lamented that the regime of terror spun by it has even made Muslims in Godhra contemplate relocation outside their home town for fear of being framed by police in some case.

Also, the team said while the economic and social hardships have continued against the Muslims since Godhra incident, the family members of those arrested from the community under POTA have even lost hope of securing a bail for them.

It said the re-invocation of POTA on February 19, 2003, was significant as officials were wary that the accused were getting bail from court. Incidentally, a majority of those released belonged to the upper economic class.

The Modi Government, PUDR said, fearing political scandal due to release of the accused by courts on account of "shoddy police investigations and inept and biased prosecution'' and under pressure from the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Bajrang Dal decided to reimpose POTA.

Noting that the draconian law has been imposed on 124 persons in a single case, PUDR said it was the arrest of Maulana Umarji -- on the alleged confession of Jabir bin Yamin Behra -- which sent shivers among the Muslim community as maulana was officially recognised as the representative of the community in Godhra.

The rights organisation said as Maulana had publicly campaigned against the BJP during the elections in December 2002, his arrest on the count of masterminding the Godhra carnage appeared politically motivated. The arrest also made other Muslim social workers fearful of the State.

Concerned that the detention of the 124 POTA accused in Vadodara and Ahmedabad jail was causing severe financial burden on the families as they now have to travel long distances to meet the accused, PUDR said many of the women of these families have now been forced to work as domestic helps to eke out a living.

Due to come out with an exhaustive report later, PUDR has appealed to the civil society to provide some source of sustenance to these families as scared of the Government many of the Muslims too have now stopped helping them financially and socially.

Calling for instilling confidence building measures, PUDR has also demanded a fair demand of the accused and repeal of POTA which it alleged is being engineered to victimise the Muslims.

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