Camp in Godhra: Ayub, 31. 4 kids, wife. One month now in camp. 70 houses, all burnt. Lot of VHP people in the village. Bandh was on. At 11 am that morning, started beating Muslims, burning shops/houses. Ayub and some other men took the women, stayed in jungle for three days, no water etc.
In Keshavpur, rapes, killings of 14 people of Ayub's family. Army rescued them from jungle, brought them here [to this camp]. 1 girl and her father have come -- he is 20+ years old, married, his 2 year-old child was killed. Three people were killed on road from Limkheda to Baria to Antala. One person here, Siraj Nana Patel, he was assaulted, watched his 10th standard son killed.
Only the Army helped them.
"What is the villagers' fault in what happened in Godhra?" asks Salambhai, [standing near Ayub].
Fatma Fakir Mohammed, 45. Randikpur village, 14 Rs ticket from here, about 50 km. 9 am -- men had gone for work. People came and burned everything. [She] ran without chappals, hills all around, everyone ran to top of hills. 3 days there. No food/water.
Siraj. 3 men were burned alive. Tied plants [wood] on them and set on fire. 25-30 people raped each girl.
Chhapparwad village -- "people from there came to attack us. Mahendra, his car number is 2853. I recognized him, saw these people in my business of animals." [says Yakub Adam Khan, 18].
[He continues] "We can't go back because they have destroyed our houses, razed them, paved over, become maidan. Don't know when we'll return."
1 comment:
By the end of this all I feel is ...'lucky'...I am a girl...and have not been killed before birth or right on birth...I am a muslim and have not been assaulted or set on fire alive...So many things are similar between me and them....yet they face the music for something they are not even responsible...what is happenning to the world?? Where is everybody going afterall?? What do we get out of all this?? Why do we need to indulge in such inhumane acts and kill and torture other people??
It just leaves me feeling depressed,sad and casts me down with pain to see, hear and read such reality!! It is not a loss to a nation. a state, but to the whole human race!! Shame on you!!
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