NEW DELHI, 20 April — Thousands of Muslims, led by the shahi imam of the Jama Masjid, Syed Ahmad Bukhari, staged a protest yesterday after Friday prayers to demand the arrest of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, charging him with “genocide.”
People gathered on the wide stairs of the red sandstone mosque and even spilled on to the streets and expansive lawns around the mosque, praying for Modi’s ouster and destruction of the “enemies of Islam.”
In an emotional one-hour protest, they shouted slogans against Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and burned an effigy symbolic of the party.
They said sectarian violence in Gujarat was “genocide of Muslims.” Over 900 people have been killed in violence targeting Muslims in Gujarat since February. Modi has been accused of turning a blind eye to the continuing carnage.
“We demand that Modi be sacked immediately. He should be arrested for killing innocent Muslims in Gujarat,” said Dost Muhammad, owner of an eatery near the mosque.
“We want to tell the world that Muslims are not safe in this regime. We want all those responsible for killing innocent people and raping women to be booked. But we have no faith in this government,” said Sarfaraz Ahmad, one of the protesters.
The protesters denounced the Hindu radical groups — Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal allied to Vajpayee’s BJP — holding them responsible for the killings.
Bukhari said that these groups had managed to drown out the voices of secular Hindus.
“Noble and secular Hindus seem to be helpless in protecting our lives, properties and religious places from the goons of the RSS,” said Bukhari.
“An average Indian is not communal and organizations like the VHP, RSS and Bajrang Dal do not represent more than five percent of the Hindus living in this country,” Bukhari said.
Bukhari alleged that the number of dead was around 2,000. “Modi should be arrested and put on trial for the genocide of Muslims in Gujarat,” Bukhari told the gathering. “Like former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, Modi should be tried for crimes against humanity and unleashing brutal violence against Muslims in Gujarat,” he said.
“The military should not be called back from Gujarat till total normalcy returns. The riots in Gujarat were nothing but well organized and pre-planned genocide of Muslims.”
“The prime minister and the home minister (L.K. Advani) are fish of the same pond. They are no different from Modi. Our repeated pleas to save innocent men, women and children of the state fell on the deaf ears of Vajpayee.”
The violence in Gujarat was triggered by supposedly a Muslim attack on a train carrying Hindu activists near Godhra town that left 58 dead.
Bukhari accused Modi and Advani of “justifying the genocide” of Muslims by linking the riots to the train attack.
“What happened in Godhra was condemnable and we strongly denounce it. Whoever did it can neither be a Muslim nor human,” said Bukhari.
