Dozens of activists detained, while staging march against Modi’s fast

By Special Correspondent, TwoCircles.net,

Ahmedabad: On the second of Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s “sadbhavna mission” fast, police detained as many as 60 social and human rights activities including noted danseuse Mallika Sarabhai, senior Gujarat high court advocate Mukul Sinha, representing the victims of 2002 riots in various courts and Noorjahan Deewan from ANHAD Gujarat. Mallika is the daughter of founder of India’s space programme Dr. Vikram Sarabhai.

The activists had gathered in front of the Noorani Masjid to organize a march up to the Naroda Patia, where more than 103 Muslims, mostly migrants from Karnataka, were brutally killed during 2002 riots. One of them was pregnant Kausarbano, whose womb was slit open and the fetus was roasted on the tip of a `trishul’ by the rioters, with police remaining a mute spectator.

Before the activists could start their march, policemen in strength reached the mosque around 3.30 p.m. with several vehicles and forcibly pushed them inside them and drove them to Ahmedabad police headquarters. They were detained at the place till the filing of the report and not released.

One of the activists Bharatsinh Jhala said that police did not give any reason for detaining them. Jhala said that activists wanted to take out the march to expose Modi’s “lies and farce” who had been repeatedly saying for the last two days that all the communities, including Muslims in the state, had been living peacefully and were progressing.

“Is it ‘Sadbhavna’ that victims of 2002 riots had not got justice even after 10 years?”asked Jhala.

Sarabhai had, in the morning, alleged that Modi had attempted to use government funds to “bribe” her lawyers, with a view to derail the proceedings of a PIL filed by her in the Supreme Court on the post-Godhra 2002 riots case.

Quoting a newspaper report of 2002, she alleged that Modi had called the then State Intelligence Bureau chief R B Sreekumar and his junior Sanjiv Bhatt and asked them to pay her lawyers Rs. 10 lakh from intelligence department’s secret funds to derail the proceedings of her PIL in the supreme court.

Meanwhile, state Congress president Arjun Modhwadia, who was sitting on a three-day `satyagrah’ fast with his party colleague Shankersinh Vaghela to counter Modi’s fast, demanded registration of a criminal case based on Mallika’s statements and investigation by an independent agency into it.