By TCN News,
Morton Grove, Illinois: Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC), an advocacy group dedicated to safeguarding India’s pluralist and tolerant ethos, is observing the 10th anniversary of the Gujarat pogrom of 2002, by renewing its call for justice and reparation for the victims. IAMC has called upon its chapters across the US to observe candle-light vigils as a mark of solidarity with the victims and survivors.
At the Gulberg Society in Chamanpura area of Ahmedabad, 69 people were burnt alive, on February 28, 2002 including former Congress Member of India’s Parliament Ehsan Jafri in apparent retaliation for the burning of the S-6 coach of the Sabarmati Express in which 58 people were killed. The Gulberg Society massacre was the start of a pogrom in which over 2000 people were massacred, hundreds of women were raped and thousands more were forced to flee their homes. Human rights and news organizations as well as whistleblowers have presented evidence of the state government’s complicity.
Representatives of 45 organizations, including Dr. Hyder Khan, a member of the Board of Trustees of IAMC, gathered at the Gulberg Society on 27th February and resolved to continue the struggle for justice. “The viciousness and barbarism that marked the Gujarat pogrom of 2002 including the burning alive of hundreds of people, and brutal sexual violence against women, make the Gujarat riots among the worst sectarian massacres in Asia since the partition of India in 1947,” Dr. Khan said. “People of conscience cannot allow this carnage to be forgotten while the perpetrators are still roaming free,” Dr Khan added.
ANHAD organized a programme commemorating the “decade of resilience” by the Gujarat victims under the title “Dasktak”.
IAMC has supported Justice Hosbet Suresh’s statement at the Gulberg Memorial in which he questioned the administration’s actions while horrific crimes against humanity were being committed. “One of the components of justice is proper reparation for all the victims of the 2002 carnage. “Sadhbhavna” without truth and justice is only a farce and has no meaning,” Justice Suresh said.
Despite strictures against Mr. Narendra Modi by the Gujarat High Court and the Special Investigation Team’s findings of inaction by the State Government in the face of the carnage, the wheels of justice have yet to turn in favor of the victims. IAMC has therefore called upon the Supreme Court to take suo motu action on the faltering judicial process with respect to the Gujarat massacres.
IAMC has noted with satisfaction that Team Anna member and Supreme Court lawyer Prashant Bhushan castigated Narendra Modi for communalizing the state of Gujarat through his propaganda campaigns. Mr. Bhushan was speaking after a documentary film “After the Storm” directed by noted human rights activist Shubradeep Chakravorty, to mark 10 years from the start of the Gujarat pogrom in 2002.
The documentary depicts the tragic victimization of seven Muslim men who were falsely implicated in terror incidents and continued to face discrimination and hardship long after they were acquitted.