NEW DELHI/AHMEDABAD, 12 July — Thousands of Muslims have returned to relief camps in the riot-hit western state of Gujarat fearing fresh attacks by Hindu hard-liners during an annual procession today.
“We realized that the number of refugees at our camp had shot up only after we fell short of food some days back, and when we did a head count the number had gone up by almost 2,000,” said Mohsin Quadri, a coordinator of the Shah Aalam camp in Ahmedabad.
More than 4,500 people already live in the camp, one of many set up after India’s worst communal violence in a decade broke out in February. Hindus will march for 14 km in tense Ahmedabad today as part of the “Jaganath Yatra,” an annual Hindu procession.
Leading Muslim leaders have called on the government to forbid the public ceremony in the current climate.
Earlier this month a political procession was called off under pressure from Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, fearing it would shatter Gujarat’s relative calm in recent weeks. An orgy of mob violence broke out in Gujarat on Feb. 27, when a mob believed to be Muslims torched a train carrying Hindu activists in Gujarat, killing 58.
More than 1,000 people — mostly Muslims — have since been killed in mob violence and more than 100,000 made homeless. The relief camps have also been internationally criticized, with Human Rights Watch and other groups saying the shelters lack basic sanitation, food and medical services.
But some Muslims say they would rather return to the camps than face thousands of marching Hindus today.
“We don’t want to risk our lives again,” said Jabin Shaikh, 41, who has taken shelter at the Shah Aalam camp.
“The procession will pass through our area and despite heavy security arrangements anything could happen. We will be safe at the camp with our people,” he said.
Inamul Iraqi, who works at the Dariakhan Khummat relief camp, said most of the people who are returning to the camps “are from communally sensitive areas from where the procession will pass.” Gujarat is the largest state ruled by Vajpayee’s Hindu extremist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Human rights groups have accused the state government of turning a blind or even sympathetic eye to attacks on the Muslim minority.
Many Muslims put little trust in the police, saying they watched on impotently as Hindu extremists attacked them in March.
“After meeting with the city police commissioner, we have appealed to our people to not to go by rumors and check every information that floats that day with the police to alleviate the distrust,” said Gulam Syed Ashrafi, a Muslim leader. “But we cannot force them to stay in their home when they feel safer in the camps,” he said.
Police insist they are taking utmost security measures for the event to go off peacefully. A police official said police will be stationed on rooftops, on main routes and on adjacent roads. Several points have already been sealed off, he said. But he acknowledged: “The security arrangement is fail-proof, but not fool-proof.”
To ensure that the day passes off peacefully, 30,000 policemen have been deployed in Ahmedabad alone.
More than 5,000 policemen and 80 companies of state reserve police and central reserve police force would be deployed along the route of the procession that will pass through some sensitive localities of the city.
Meanwhile, an official of the Minority Commission said yesterday top Hindu and Muslim leaders are due to meet in Delhi on Monday to discuss raging disputes that have recently taken a violent turn.
