By Md. Ali, TwoCircles.net,
Ahmadabad: On September 17, some Forest officers and police descended on the village of Nandapeda near Ahwa in the Dangs district in Gujarat. They pulled out the doors and the windows and pulled out the timbers and wood from the roof of the huts of the villagers.
What is the crime of Nandapeda, the only Muslim-dominated village in the Dangs district? The forest department said it was illegal wood and they must recover it.
The Muslims of the village, however, said that the local administration has been pressurizing them to convert to Adivasi religion or else face their ire. They have threatened them that otherwise their lands won’t be regularized and they can be thrown out of their lands.
“The government has been pressurizing the Muslims to convert to the Hindu religion or face eviction from their land” says noted social activist Shabnam Hashmi.
Talking to TwoCircles.net journalist Abdul Hafeez Lakhani said, “It has been since last few months that they were being pressurized by the officials to change their faiths. When some of them went to complain to the police they didn’t file their complaints.”
Most of the villagers are very poor. They are farm labourers.
Because of their horrible experience during the 2002 Gujarat pogrom 125 Muslims of the village fled to Vadodra, the neighbouring district. It was only when some high level officers in Vadodra assured them of their safety that half of them returned to the village.
Against the conversion or eviction order a petition was filed in the Gujarat High Court. It was filed by some Muslims in Vadodra on behalf of the Nandapeda villagers.
In the petition filed they have alleged that on June 13 a senior government officer called a meeting in which they were instructed to convert to the Adivasi religion if at all they want the regularization of their lands otherwise they better evacuate the lands which they have been trying to regularize.
“After this meeting police and forest officers had been harassing them.
Police have been searching old cases registered against any person of the community and asking them to furnish bail papers. The police targeted 33 people against whom some petty crime or a scuffle with the neighbors was registered,” said Shabnam Hashmi.
The families have been living in the village for over 100 years.
Claiming that repeated representation before authorities for regularization of their land has been in vain, petitioners requested the court to restrain the government from pressurizing them to convert from their religion. Justice Jayant Panchal had in July sought explanation in this regard from the secretary in-charge, district collector and the village sarpanch.
After hearing all parties, Justice Anant Dave admitted the case on September 11, 2008 and ordered to maintain status quo on the disputed land.
“On the next day the police captured approximately 80 villagers for transporting cattle into Maharashtra and also apprehended some villagers who were going on motorcycles using the reason of cow slaughter, though there were no cattle in the tempo” said Hashmi.
The villagers gathered. There was a clash between the villagers and the police. People were beaten on both the sides. One policeman was also beaten up. Police then opened fire and a number of villagers got bullet injuries. They were taken to Ahwa civil hospitals. The relatives were not allowed to meet them. Police apprehended eight villagers for beating a policeman and though a local lawyer went for their bail, it was not given.
Next day the police came and in the name of combing operation attacked and ransacked the village. Villagers were beaten up brutally including women and children. All men fled to the jungles. The police not only took away all the goods but before going they poured kerosene into the eatable good so that they could not eat anything too.
VHP proposed a rally on 15th. After a lot of pressure the VHP rally was stopped but they declared a Bandh on 16th.
The VHP has reportedly given a deadline to the collector to get the village vacated.
What happened yesterday to the villagers seems to be a step towards fulfilling the VHP demand.
Lakhani said that it is the Hindutva groups like Bajrang Dal which are at the root of the issue.
The villagers are still fearful. They don’t sleep in the nights as they fear attack from the Hindutva groups, said Lakhani.
“The villagers need urgent help and intervention. I have been personally informing various state politicians and centre about the developments” said Hashmi in a statement also sent to the National Human Rights Commission, National Commission for Minorities, political leaders and media organizations.
Asked about Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s idea of model development, Lakhani said that Modi’s idea of development is an exclusive domain of the majority community.
“Muslims figure nowhere in his model of development. You won’t find even the basic infrastructure and necessities like water, transport, road, electricity in the Muslim areas,” he said.
