Administration has assured full security, permission to build mosque, police action against perpetrators and adequate compensation.
By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter,
Atali (Ballabgarg, Haryana): A week after they were driven out of fear, the 500-odd villagers from riot-hit Atali, Ballabgarh in the Faridabad district have finally returned to their homes on Wednesday evening, after assurances from the administration of fulfilling all of their four main demands.
On May 25 Hindus, mainly dominant Jats of the Atali village, attacked Muslim homes, around 12 kms from Ballabgarh Tehsil, forcing about 500 men, women and children from 150-odd families to run for their lives and take refuge at the Ballabgarh Police Station. The villagers lived under tent for 10 days in the scorching heat.
One of the 20 Muslims’ houses burnt and damaged during the May 25 communal riot in Atali village.
That day, a mob of around 2000 people from the majority community had attacked the Muslim minority just when they were about to start Asar prayers. Around 20 people were injured and 20 homes, shops, vehicles and other properties belonging to Muslims were completely torched while several others were looted.
Muslims, who fled from the village, demanded security but besides security, also wanted their four main demands fulfilled before they could return to the village: allowing them re-building mosque at the same site, arresting the prime accused involved in the assault, suspension of the SHO Babulal, whom they accuse of letting rioters unleash violence, and adequate compensation to those injured as well as for the damage to the properties and other belongings.
On Thursday afternoon, Naseem Alvi, a graduate from the University of Delhi, and a resident of Atali village told TCN over phone that they came back to the village after the administration assured them of security, police actions, compensation and have also permitted them to build the mosque.
Although negotiations – mediated by local MLA Tek Chand Sharma – between two parties had begun within days of the riot, it had yielded little result even on Sunday when Union Minister of state for Social Justice and Empowerment Krishna Pal Singh Gurjar, who hails from Haryana, went to Ballabgarh to meet representatives from both sides. Sources told TCN that on Wednesday, Home Minister Rajnath Singh had intervened as continued stand-off was becoming an embarrassment for the government.
The mosque site at Atali village that has become the bone of contention.
Eleven FIRs against 20 people, including three women, have been registered but so far there has been no arrest. Cases have been registered under sections 147, 148, 149 (rioting), 153B (assertions prejudicial to national integration), 452 (house trespass after preparation of assault), 427, 435, 436 (mischief by fire), 295 (defiling place of worship), 295A (outraging religious feelings), 307 (attempt to murder), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 506 IPC (criminal intimidation) and under sections of the Arms Act.
Police have assured actions against perpetrators, but they said that the matter is sensitive and their priority is to restore normalcy first.
Earlier there was anger among the community villagers as during the negotiations, some Jats had put the condition that they will let the mosque be built at the site only if Muslim villagers agreed to withdraw all cases. According to them, Hindus from the village wanted to put preconditions such as they will not use loud-speakers in the mosque or call Imam from outside and not let the Tablighi Jamat camp over there.
Alvi told TCN that under police security, the boundary walls of the mosque that was broken on May 25 has been rebuilt and the construction would continue now. He said that the administration has also assured us to arrest the culprits soon, but added that there is no clarity yet on the amount of compensation they would get.
The situation is under control now, but it will take years for those whose houses have been broken to rebuild their homes, their lives, he added.
The village mosque site has become a flash-point in the village, which is getting highly polarized. Although a Waqf property, many villagers claim that it is a Panchayat land where Muslims are trying to build a mosque, despite the fact that a small tin-shed mosque has been there for five decades now.
Related:
Atali Muslims refuse to go back to their homes until their demands are met
Atali villagers claim May 25 incident a ‘warning’ to Muslims