May 10, 2002	Friday	Safar 26, 1423

BARODRA, May 9: More than 100,000 Muslims displaced by the communal violence in Gujarat are facing a hostile and often brutal reception as they try to return to their homes.

Even as the blood continues to flow in Gujarat state, where nearly 1,000 have been killed in more than two months of communal unrest, some of those who fled for the security of relief camps are doing their best to go back.

But more often than not, the homecomings are being marked by severe beatings and threats to conform to a Hindu way of life or be banished from villages forever.

Mohammadbhai Isakbhai Soni, 48, ventured back last week with some friends to his home village of Panvad, some 80kms form the city of Barodra.

“When we went to check our homes, we were beaten up by local tribals who had been hired by Hindus,” Soni said.

“The village heads say we can only return back if we live in accordance to the conditions set by them,” he added.

Those conditions include withdrawing rape cases filed against Hindus, shaving off their beards, allowing Hindus to travel in their vehicles, applying the Hindu “tilak” mark to their foreheads and vowing not to compete with Hindus’ businesses.

For Soni and his friends, the choice was simple: they went back to the relief camp where they have been living for the past eight weeks.

“We want our village to be a village of (the Hindu god) Krishna,” said Jagdish Chandra Babbar, a Hindu tailor in Panvad.

“These Muslims do not know how to live in brotherhood. Only if they agree to follow our Hindu way of life can they return back.

“Even if the military escorts the Muslims here, we will not let them stay,” Babbar said.

More than 20 Muslim houses were burned down by mobs in Panvad in the first week of March when the Hindu mob was at its ferocious best.

Those Hindus who promote a return to normality and communal harmony find themselves the targets of the extremists.

Kaderbhai Kadri, a Hindu shopkeeper in nearby Tejgarh village, woke one morning to find his shop front daubed with warnings: “Do not buy or sell goods to Muslims. Those who are caught doing so will be beaten.”

Devhart village was one of the few untouched by the initial communal unrest after its head, Lalsinhbhai Rathod, refused to give in to the demands of some villagers to drive the Muslim residents out.

However, Muslim villagers said some of their Hindu neighbours then conspired to kill a cow and raised a hue and cry saying it was the work of Muslims.

“Our house was set on fire,” said 40-year-old Dilawat Amirbhai Makrani.

“Now, they are not letting us go back to our homes. Whenever we try, they chase us away.”

ARMS FOUND: A discovery of stockpiles of weapons, including homemade rocket launchers, stoked fears on Thursday that the violence could be entering a more lethal phase.

“Police were surprised by the amount of weapons seized. This is a worrying development,” Ashok Narayan, Gujarat’s additional chief home secretary, said.

The stockpiles of weapons, discovered on Wednesday in Ahmedabad, included crude bombs, swords, pistols, tin cans filled with glass and nails and acid-filled light bulbs.

“We’ve intensified combing operations for weapons in areas identified as sensitive,” Narayan said.—Reuters