By TCN Special Correspondent,
Ahmedabad: In a dramatic change of tone that may surprise or even shock many but undoubtedly please Narendra Modi and Bharatiya Janata Party, the Gujarat president of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JIH) has said that “Gujarat is the only state in the country where perpetrators of the communal riots have been punished”.
This was stated by Ameer-e-Halqa (President) of the state unit of the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind Dr. Shakeel Ahmed while speaking at an Eid Milan programme organised by the JIH’s Ahmedabad (West) on Sunday evening. He made these comments while responding to queries raised by some speakers saying that Gujarat Muslims had gradually started forgetting the riots and their fight for justice had slowly weakened.
Saying that none of those involved in the 1992 Mumbai riots despite the accused being named in the Srikrishna Report were punished, Dr. Ahmed reminded the speakers that two ministers in Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet had to resign and were, later on, jailed. Though both of them are currently on bail, but one of them – Amit Shah – has been externed from the state for more than a year. Besides, more than two dozen police officials, including several Gujarat-cadre IPS officials are cooling their heels in the jail.
“With such punishments, no one will ever dare to repeat Gujarat anywhere else in the country”, he stressed.
He said that several accused involved in the massacre of Best Bakery case and gangrape of Bilqis Bano had also been imprisoned. But he said that there was hardly any instance in any other state where those involved in communal violence had been imprisoned or punished. Hardly any prominent person involved in the Sikh riots was punished, he said.
He gave credit to the local Muslims and secular/liberal Hindu human rights activists for bringing those guilty of communal riots to justice.
Dr. Ahmed said that it took 18 years for Sikh victims to get Rs. 7 lakh compensation But Gujarati Muslims secured Rs. 7 lakh compensation within six years.
Stating that Muslims had not fogotten the Gujarat riots and would never forget it, he reminded the audience how Maulana Ghulam Muhammed Vastanvi as Rector of Darul Ullom Deoband had to resign under public pressure after he allegedly made statements favouring Modi. But Dr Shakeel seems to have little idea that his own statement highlighting ‘punishment’ of riot accused of Gujarat could end up favoring Modi because the ground reality is that hundreds of people who looted and maimed Muslims are still at large in the very state but the handful of police officers who are daring to expose Modi are being implicated.
“If Gujarat is forgotten, they will repeat it everywhere in India and will make life miserable for us”, pointed out Dr. Ahmed, asserting that “fight for justice in the riots will continue and if we fail to get justice in our life time, we will tell our children to continue the fight till justice is achieved”.
On the occasion of Eid Milan, cycle-rickshaws for transporting goods were also given to four poor people as a part of JIH’s new activity to help people in self-employment. They were Sheikh Mahmood, Kaushik Vanzara, Tausief Diwan and Abdul Rahman, a dalit-convert-Muslim.
story update: Clarification from Dr. Shakeel Ahmed
“With regards to the same, it seems that either the reporter or the editorial staff at twocircles.net has played mischief and have untruthfully represented my words at the said event. What I said at the said event was that, that the civil society of Gujarat has shown tremendous courage and unity among themselves, and through untiring efforts of civil society only, some good results were achieved, despite continuance of power of the people and party who perpetuated and organized Gujarat pogrom. We, the people of civil society have not forgotten, neither given up nor got tired, and the fight for justice will Insha-Allah continue, but members of civil society are facing financial restraints in their efforts of seeking justice for the innocent victims of the Gujarat pogrom.”