Almost all charged under terror law in Gujarat are Muslims: paper
NEW DELHI, Sept 15: All but one of 240 people charged under an anti-terror law in the western Indian state of Gujarat are Muslims, a report said on Monday.
Of the 240 people booked under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA), which carries the death penalty, 239 are Muslims while one is a Sikh, the Times of India said.
The Muslims have been booked for three alleged attacks on the Hindu community before the state exploded into an orgy of bloodletting that left dead 2,000 people, mostly Muslim.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which rules Gujarat and heads India’s federal coalition, has been accused by rights groups of turning a blind, or even sympathetic, eye to the massacre that raged for months.
The other two incidents for which the accused have been booked under POTA involve an attack on Gujarat’s Akshardham Temple in which 28 people were killed and the murder of a high-profile former Hindu minister, the Times said.
The report comes after India’s supreme court on Friday slammed the Gujarat government, saying it had no faith the administration would bring to justice Hindu fanatics responsible for the killing of Muslims.
A three-judge bench, led by Chief Justice V.N. Khare, said Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi should quit if he could not prosecute the guilty.
The court was hearing appeals from India’s National Human Rights Commission and 17-year-old Zaheera Sheikh to reopen the trial of 21 people acquitted of murder for the deaths of 12 people killed when they torched a bakery in Gujarat during the riots.
Twenty-one Hindu men were acquitted in July by a local court after Zaheera Sheikh and 72 other witnesses retracted their testimony.
The teenager later said she lied in court because of threats to her life.
The supreme court told the Gujarat government to extend protection to the girl, who fled the state and is still seeking justice for her father and his 11 Muslim workers who were burned to death in the bakery.
Muslims seek police protection: For Muslims brave enough to depose in cases related to last year’s sectarian riots in Gujarat, police protection has remained a distant hope despite court orders.
Instead of providing the 1,000-odd Muslims round-the-clock security, only a few hours protection is given by policemen who often pester their reluctant hosts for food, snacks and beverages, witnesses said.
“It seems that the police just does not care about the supreme court order. They come only for a few hours and ask us to call if we need them,” said Alam Khan Anwar Khan Pathan, a witness in a case in which 40 people were killed.
Anwar Pathan and his wife saw seven members of their family being killed by a Hindu mob during the incident, but fear for their own lives kept him from deposing before a court which heard the case on Aug 28 and 29.
“My wife asked me not to go before the judges as that could have got us into trouble. But if I am provided adequate security, I may depose on the next hearing date on Oct 13,” said Mr Pathan.
Another witness, 65-year-old Fakir Mohammad Sayyed, complained about the policemen providing protection.
“Four members of my family have been given police protection, but it is a big joke. The police come at whatever time that suits them. They ask us to prepare food for them and serve tea and snacks,” he said.
One of the witnesses, Firoze Gulzar Mohammed, who complained about the police behaviour, quickly ran into a bureaucratic wall.
“When I protested against their whimsical timings, they told me ‘don’t teach us the law’ and when I tried to complain at the police station, they asked me to go to the headquarters where I was told that they were not responsible for this matter,” said Gulzar Mohammad.—AFP
