E) RAEN BASERA

(March 15, 2002)
Events:
At Rain Basera, Machchipith, under Karelibag Police Station, several women were assaulted by the police during "combing operations." Four policemen entered the basti at around 3:00 pm on March 15, 2002. They indiscriminately beat and threatened women and children, beat and arrested men, and damaged property. At least 4 men were beaten badly, and 11 arrested.

Role/Experience of Women:
All during this time, policemen let loose the coarsest abuse, with explicit sexual and religious connotations. In particular · Sabiraben Ahmedbhai Shaikh, aged 45, was beaten so badly that her left arm was swollen and bruised
· Faridabanu Bachchubhai Shaikh, aged 30, Hajirabibi Gulamhusain Dhobi, aged 32, and Hamidabibi Ahmedkhan Pathan were kicked on the legs. Hajirabibi was also kicked on the chest and Faridabanu in the pubic region.
· Mehrunnissa, aged 18, was threatened with a sword (apparently confiscated), the point of the sword touching her abdomen. Sultana Razzakbhai, aged 18, was threatened with a rifle which was pointed and rested on her chest.


F) AALISHAAN APARTMENTS
(March 17, 2002)
Aalishan Apartment is a middle class area located near Sardar Estate cross-roads, Ajawa Road.

Events:
The jhopadis at the corner of the Char Rasta were vacated by paying off the occupants. One Muslim godown was set in flames by pouring in inflammable chemicals. A mob of at least 100 persons set fire to the jhoppad patti. The police apparently came to investigate. The women went out to see what was happening. The police threw 2 tear gas shells as well as did laathi charge on the women. Mahmuda’s son Imtiaz Shaikh was sitting in his Tata Sumo and listening to music. They pulled him out of his vehicle, beat him up badly, forcibly placed a sword in his hands and took a photo of him.

Role/Experience of Women:
When the women resisted this action of the police, they beat the women up. Among the women beaten was a pregnant woman named Zahra. Mahmuda requested a police officer (she could not name him) to save her son from being beaten in the jail. That night he was beaten more severely.

Women faxed a complaint to the Commissioner of Police regarding police atrocities and requested the Commissioner to help them get medical
check-up on 17th March but no action has been taken till today i.e.1st April, 2002.

Mahmuda and others described how their sons and husbands have been confined to their homes from the Feb 27. Although the shops on Waghodia Road are open, and Hindu men were present, they said that no Muslim man felt safe enough to step out. No one has been able to go out to work, they said. Their laaris (selling Chinese food) are lying idle in their front yard.

G) ROSHAN NAGAR, (TULSIWADI/HATHIKHANA)
(MARCH 18, 2002)
Events:
On March 18, at 8.30 pm, the police conducted “combing operations” in the area after the jalli of Tulsiwadi Mandir was broken. A total of 58 men from this community were arrested. during the combing operations. Amongst them was a mentally challenged son of Husha Bano Mansuri. (chhokre ko kutte ki tarah maara and he is behaan.)

Role/Experiences of Women:
The women were abused verbally and physically. Several of them had haematomas and large bruises. They were extremely upset that their young
children, aged between 16 and 18 years were rounded up and taken to jail by the police. The police were doing their so-called combing operations. They took away the rods of a baby’s jhoola saying that these are weapons. They said things like ‘ tumhaare yaar ayenge, who tumhe zinda maarenge,’ and ‘we like to beat you Muslim women a lot. We can also do ganda kaam’, and ‘go away to Pakistan’.

The women were extremely upset saying that the police were supposed to do their hifaasat, and instead they had sorely abused them, as well as destroyed their sense of dignity. All the women stated how their boys and men were the breadwinners. With them away, the families had not eaten for 4 days. The women repeatedly pleaded: “Give back our children. That is all we want. We will not eat until our boys and men are released”.


Amongst those who were hurt by the police were

A pregnant woman with two bullets who had to be admitted into SSG Hospital.

Rubina, a 6 year-old-girl. Her hand was injured, swollen heavily.

Mumtaz Bano had a black eye that she couldn’t open for three days.

A 9- month old baby whose eyes were affected because of the tear gas shell that burst at the feet of a women who was holding her baby.
Testimony of Raeesa Shaikh:
We had finished all our work and were reading the namaaz. A big tola came. They were wearing masks and helmets. We could not recognise them. Police also came at the same time. The Tulsiwadi Mandir was broken—the jaali was taken away. They came blaming us for the incident. They pulled me out of the house, rolled me around outside in the mud, beating me all the while. We have brought up our sons with such care, taught them never to harm anyone, to be peace-loving. Now they have taken away these young ones. If they turn into aantankwadis (as a result of this experience in the jail) we’ll be left with nothing.

Raeesa was asked whether they had lodged a police compliant with the Commissioner of Police about the atrocities committed on them. Her angry response was, ‘What is the point of complaining to him when his men did all this to us? We need to complain to the Chief Minister or the Prime Minister.’ Raeesa led a group of 5 women and girls from her basti to give their testimony to the NHRC.


H) BAWAMANPURA

(March 25, Day of Moharram, 7.30 pm)
Events:
This is a very poor area. People here are vegetable vendors and other daily wage earners. They have not been able to get out at all for one month.

From Bhoiwada and Bahuchawad stoning started. People started running in panic. Police arrived from the police chowky in front. They did not go to Bhoiwada, they came to the Muslim area. They came looking for the men whom they thought that the women were protecting. They barged into houses, looked under the beds, pulled out the women, beat them with their laathis and dandas. They gave vulgar gaalis. Out of the 6 policemen, 4 were drunk.

Around 20-25 women were badly injured. Among them were 3 pregnant women, 2 widows and several older women. Most of the injuries were in the lower part of the body – waist and below. A few women showed us large bruises in the groin area.

Accounts:
i) Rehana Pathan (30 years old): Her husband who was 35 years old died 12 days ago, (She thinks he died because of tension of the riots), 5 daughters and 1 son. Because her husband had recently died, she was in iddat (purdah). The police men went into her purdah area, pulled her out and beat her. Her 3 year-old daughter Arbas was hit by the police.

Testimonies:
i) Zahida – (17 years old): “On March 28, I was at home. Went to throw out water after washing vessels. One man came with a talwar, two came to attack. I do not know their names but can recognise them. My brother came out behind me accidentally/incidentally and shouted to me to move. Fortunately I received only a nick, otherwise my neck would have been off.”


ii) Salma: “Two days ago I went to fill water with two other women at 5.30 am. At aazaan time, they threw stones at us, threatened us with weapons, took off their pants. The police point is just saamne, 50 steps away. Police does not tell them to go back in to their area. They come into our ilaaka. Police pick up our men and take them away. We do not get saath of police.” “Our children cannot play outside our own houses. Police comes and says ‘go inside, its curfew.”

iii)Kaushal Bano Mansuri (Pregnant, 9 months): “I was putting my child to sleep at 9 pm on March 23. Suddenly I found lots of policemen in my house. They did not find our men at home and started giving us gaalis. Put 2 dandas on me, one on my hand, the other on my stomach, and then saw I was pregnant and hit me in the thigh. They were all saying Kanani, Kanani. They were his staff. Only today I have started moving around. I went to the hospital. I went into the dargah and hid there. I told them I was pet se. They still said that we have to hit her. My saas also said that I am pregnant. They said `we have to kill it before it happens.”


iv) Noorjaan Bibi – (50 years old): “I was there with my daughter and daughter-in-law. They asked, ‘where are the mard?’ They hit my 35 year old pregnant daughter. She is in the 7th month. I told her to move aside. He says ‘no, we have to hit her’. Then they hit my second daughter and daughter-in-law. One of them was a good man. He told them ‘leave her, let her speak to us – go to the vehicle and tell them where the men are and we will leave you.”


v) Satya Bano Syed – (60 years old): “I left the door open because I’d been told that if they find the doors closed, they think you are hiding men and they barge in. Even with my door open, they came in. I’d had a caesarian years ago. They hit my stomach so hard that ‘my stitches almost opened up” (crying at lot).

I) QURESHI JAMAAT KHAANA CAMP

Some Accounts:
i) Rashida from Indira Nagar, Railway Colony, Dabhoi Road is a young woman in her early 30s. She recounted how members of 6 families (around 20 persons) escaped from the homes and hid in the forest for 2 days without food and water. Only after 2 days could they summon up enough courage to get out from the forest in search of shelter.

ii) Bano Bibi Amirbhai of No. 70 Jhanda Chowk, Kisanwadi, Mumtaz Bibi, Rafika Bibi Nizambhai of No. 75, Banu Bibi of No. 76, Mumtaz of No. 64, Gubhan Bibi of No. 625, Tahira Bibi of No. 73, Noorbanu Iqbal of Hussaini Chowk No. 99, all narrated how they came from Kisanwadi. They said that Ramdas Pillai and Lakshmiben, his wife, helped the Muslims in Kisanwadi, gave them protection. They described how 500 odd persons took shelter in Lakshmiben’s house for over 20 hours while the mobs swarmed the area. The women/girls described with pain and disbelief how their homes have been destroyed and looted. The mobs visited their homes repeatedly until the damage was total.

Two young girls at the camp were brides/brides-to-be. All their dowry (vessels, clothes, jewelry) has been destroyed and looted. One of the girls will be getting married from the camp this week. The bridegroom’s family lives in Pani Gate.

The Kisanwadi women stated in no uncertain terms that they can never think of going back to live in their homes at Kisanwadi. They are utterly fearful of consequences. They think they will be subjected to sexual violence, if they go back. One young woman stated how she wakes up at night with nightmares of how she escaped.

iii) Nagmabi, from Muhammed Talao, Shastri Nagar, is a widow with four small children, looked like they were all under 6 years. They youngest is one and has TB. (We saw his medical papers with diagnosis). She is the only person from this area in this camp. She had taken her tiny child to SSG Hospital for treatment. Ghulambhai who dispenses medicines at the Hospital, arranged for her to be stowed away in an ambulance with her children and transported to Jamnalal Hospital at Pani Gate. She found her way to this shelter from Jamnalal Hospital.

Concerns Expressed:
The women recognized and identified most of the people who attacked them at home. Vishnu Prajapati, Kishor Marathi, Santosh Hajam, Jogi, Chandrakant, Uma, Dhamma, Rahul, Karia, Jayanti, Pappu, Subhash, Natu are some of the names mentioned by them. Banobibi, of Kisanwadi, said ‘Chandu Plumber had made a list of all the Muslim houses a few months ago. Ramesh Stickerwala also looted our houses.’ ‘Vishnu Prajapati called up his friends from all over and told them Godhra had 30 hindu deaths, we have to do 60 deaths. ‘ These were boys who grew up in front of us.’

The women were concerned about their future. They could not see beyond the camp. ‘How long will we stay here?’ ‘How long will they feed us?’ They want us to help them to be rehabilitated together in a separate Muslim locality. ‘Ek jathe mein mar jave’ is more acceptable than going back to Kisanwadi!

The women could not stop talking. Initially I was a bit hesitant as an outsider to be instrumental in having them relieve their memories. But they stated that they felt good to talk. They were all very insistent that we go and visit their houses – many of them made us write down their addresses. They said ‘Go inside and see everything’. It is as if we are their only link with their maternal past and their homes. Another notable thing was that many, many women shook our hands as we left as if desperate for physical contact.

J) TANDALJA CAMP

The people who had taken shelter in the camp run by the Chistia Masjid Committee had come from more than 60 places of Baroda city as well as
surrounding villages like, Bajwa, Gotri, Bhayali gaon, Jawaharnagar, Payal Society, Makarpura, Maneja, G.I.D.C. Road, Indira Nagar, Behind Makarpura Depot, Danteswar (Anupam Nagar), Ghaghrotia, Kapurai Chowkdi, Tarsali, Panvad, Sanjay Nagar, etc. The number of people who have taken shelter in this camp runs up to thousands. The people here are offered meals twice in a day. They are given shelter in a large new apartment that is under construction in this area. Some of the people have now gone to stay in their relatives’ houses after relative peace in the area.

Accounts:
i) Meherunissa Fakir Mohammad of Panvad: Some 7 families consisting of 40 people have come from Panvad and Kawant. We talked to Meherunissa Fakir Mohammad who said, “ we fled the place taking almost nothing but the clothes that we had worn. On 11-3-02 they burnt Panvad. They had phoned Kawant the same day and had threatened that they would come there next day on 12-3-02. We had gone to seek police help but the police officer said that they were short of staff. There are about 200 houses in both Panvad and Kawant. Some Hindus in the area had paid around Rs.1000 to 1200 to the Adivasis to get our houses burnt. A mob consisting of around 4000 Adivasis had come. Initially they pelted stones but later on they started shooting with arrows that burnt because they had ends soaked in kerosene and cloth. We then went and
asked the police for protection for taking us to a safe place. They gave us a jeep (M 7-8) that had about 5/6 policemen. We our selves arranged 5/6 jeeps and followed the police van. When we reached Bodeli there was curfew in the area. Some Hindus refused to shelter us in Bodeli citing the curfew as an excuse but their reluctance was perhaps more due to the fact that they didn’t want to shelter Muslims coming from outside. The D.D.O. asked us to make our own arrangements and leave the place in 2 hours. We finally landed up in Tandelja Camp. Here they give us meals in the daytime and in the evening. But, how long this will continue? Now we don’t want to go back to the same place.

ii) Salma Begum Mehboob Ali of Vadsar Road: We also talked to Salma Begum Mehboob Ali who stays near the railway crossing at Vadsar Road. Near the crossing there were 7 Muslim houses out of which 6 have been looted and 1 has been burnt. The earlier day some people had come and they were sticking Hanuman photos on the walls of the Hindu houses. When Salma Begum asked them why they were sticking these photos they said she wouldn’t understand. The day all this happened the people hid them selves in the cemetery. A mob came in the night and burnt down all the shops and the laaries. The next day they came and looted the houses. There was no help from the police. Rather they were helping the mob. The police were asking why they were burning Muslim property and not the Muslims. The local people know who burnt and looted the shops and houses and they give rewards to such people. They recognize Manoj, Yogesh, and Maradi. Bajrang Dal is behind all this mob fury. Now we don’t want to go back to the same place.

iii) Mehmudaben Sikandarbhai & Faridaben Yakubbhai of Gotri Village: We met Mehmudaben Sikanderbhai and Faridaben Yakubbhai from Gotri village. They stayed in Khodiyar Nagar behind Ambika Nagar. During the conversation they said that the mob looted the houses before setting them on fire. The mob had also pelted stones. A Hindu woman had saved her. She had also come with nothing but the sari she had worn. The mob had people from Sevasi and Astodia. They were asking us to leave everything and go away from that place. We do not intend to go back to the place. Since we are here in the camp we feel safe but even here we mostly stay awake in the night.

iv) Sairabanu of Anupamnagar, Danteshwar: When we talked to Sairabanu who had come from Anupam Nagar in Danteswar she told us that there were about 16 Muslim houses all in a row in that street. All were slum houses. There were 3 marriages in Sairabanu’s family for which she had made arrangements. All the three dowries were inside the house. The mob came and looted all the houses. Every household has suffered a loss of around Rs. 20,000. She doesn’t want to go back to the place. She also said how in Avdhut Nagar in Makarpura some Hindus called people to take their belongings back but when people went there they were attacked. 3 people got burnt and 19 others were injured. Some people knew Jayaben Thakkar so they went to the Police and took her name to lodge an F.I.R. with the Makarpura Police Station. Police has
taken down certain things but has not come back to us. The people in the mob had tied handkerchiefs round their faces and therefore unrecognizable. They were chanting Har Har Mahadev. Some Hindus who came to help us were scolded by the mob people and were warned. They went to the police line for safety but they were cornered by a group of young boys. There were around 60 of them. They had surrounded us from all sides. When the police came, they were asked not to fire because the mob had also some boys from the police line. Finally we were allowed to leave the place on the request of Abdul Chacha, a resident of the police lines.

Concern Over Children:
All the women in this camp felt that they are safe as long as this camp continues but they were worried about their future. Although most of them
were concerned about their settlement and rehabilitation, one thing that preoccupied them immediately was the education of their children. There are about 250 to 300 children in this camp. Since these children have been out of schools, the women felt that it would be better if some one comes here to teach these children.

II) PERSISTENT THEMES

Fear of future, in terms of death, dislocation and destruction of remaining property.

Concern for children’s well-being & education.

Concern for relatives and friends, particularly earning members who have been arrested and others who are missing.

Uncertainty about livelihood; especially about life after relief-camps.

Loss of faith in the neigbourhood community and local leadership.

Outrage at insults to Quran and demolition/damage to various Masjids/Dargahs.

Anger and bewilderment at the role played by the state machinery, especially the police.

Reiteration of loyalty to Gujarat and India with emphasis on their family/community’s contribution.

Humiliation and sense of violation, personal as well as collective, at the explicit religio-sexual overtones of the mob and police behaviour.
III) DEMANDS

Women have moved into leadership positions in the course of the “riots.” For example, on March 17 in Bahaar Colony, women collectively gheraoed the police when they went around arbitrarily abusing and arresting men folk. Women, like Sajida of Bawamanpura, showed great courage and resilience in the face of a daunting situation. Further, since curfew was often lifted for women alone, many women managed important work outside the home in addition to their household chores. Irrespective of the tension between the two communities, some women of both communities took grave risks to save lives. Many women helped out in terms of everyday necessities.

Overall, the women demand:

Ensure a swift return to normalcy in the state.

Ensure security of life and livelihood.

Negotiate between adivasis, Hindus and Muslims.

Ensure justice.

Remove biased police and state personnel, including the CM.

The Compensation and Relief package announced by the Government of Gujarat hardly reflects the concerns of the women. While the monetary and material compensation and rehabilitation announced by the government is important (though extremely inadequate), it does not address women’s daily livelihood concerns nor the issues of how betrayal of trust and sense of extreme insecurity can be compensated. The issues of social rehabilitation are totally ignored by the state and national governments till now. And social rehabilitation is what is foremost in women’s minds right now.

(Contributors: Preeti Patel, Pratima Prajapati, Sunita Parmar, Geeta Rathwa, Raksha Prajapati, Shobha Shah ( all from SHISHU MILAP) Sherbano, Rita Chowkshi, Mubin Kadri, Trupti Shah ( all from SAHIYAR), Bela Waghela, Mamta, Bhavna, Shanti, Nimisha Desai (all from OLAKH), Ranjana, Lakshmi (both from SAHELI), Chayanika, Apoorva, ( Forum Against Oppression of Women), Hasina, (Awaz-e Niswan) Maya Valecha (ICS), Reetika Khera, Jehanara Rangrez, Bina Srinivasan, Nandini Manjrekar, Deeptha Achar, Renu Khanna)