Vadavali Riots in Gujarat - A Fact Finding Report - Alt News
Pratik Sinha
31st March 2017 / 8:00 pm / Last updated: 19th July 2017
A team of human rights activists and social activists from various organisations based out of Ahmedabad such as Jan Sangharsh Manch, HRLN, Jan Vikas, Action Aid, Aman Biradri etc visited the Vadavali village to take stock of the situation post the blitzkrieg riots that happened on 25th March. Here’s their fact-finding report.
Vadavali village is situated in Patan district of North Guajrat. Out of the 4 MLA seats from this district 3 seats belong to BJP and 1 to Congress. Vadavali village comprises of nearly 350 Muslim, 700 Patel, 60 Darbar, 150 Thakore, 150 Dalit, 50 Rawal, 50 Prajapati, 30 Rabari, 40 Devi pujak families. This village is part of the Gujarat Government Samras Gram Panchayat Model. The Samras Model was welcomed by this village and especially by Ibrahimbhai Lal Belim who was shot at in the recent rioting incident. In the 2002 Gujarat genocide this village was not affected, in fact the villagers did not participate in the genocide and had also rescued some injured people during the 2002 riots and hence became a bright example of communal harmony.
The village school in Vadavali was one of the centre’s for the Class 10 board exams and children from neighbouring villages were also taking their exams in this centre. On 25/3/2017 post the exams, a scuffle between a Muslim boy from Takodi village and a Thakore boy from Sunsar village broke out. The Muslim residents of the village Vadavali intervened in the scuffle and asked both the children to go back to their respective homes. A while later 15-20 people from Sunsar village arrived at Vadavli village and started thrashing the Muslim boy from Takodi village, the elders from the village intervened and tried to resolve the issue amicably.
The Panchayat elections of Vadavali village are due, in order to declare the village as part of the Samras Model, a gram sabha was organised where all the leaders of various communities came together at the Shiv Temple, and with unanimous consensus Rashidaben Sultanbhai Kuresh was declared the Sarpanc(Village head). Just as the gramsabha was ongoing, huge mobs of nearly 7-5 thousand people who belonged to the Thakore community from Dharipur, Rampur, Merwada approached Vadavali village. The mob attacked the villagers, nearly 142 house of the Muslim community were damaged, 100 houses were burned down, 42 houses were damaged and looted. Ibrahim Lal Khan Belim was killed during the violence and nearly 15-20 people were injured. 2 FIRs were registered in this incident; one of the FIR was filed against the Muslim community and the other against the Thakore community. 14 persons from the Muslim community and 31 persons from the Thakore community were implicated in the FIRs that were filed. Indian Penal Code sections such as Section 120 B which is a section attributed to criminal conspiracy has been included in the FIR. 13 people have been arrested and FIR against the Muslim community was falsely filed as a strategy to create pressure and fear among the community. The FIR is an integral part to prove the communal violence against the Muslim community of Vadavali village.
Across Gujarat communally coloured incidents are becoming rampant and also in a very organised manner. This is also dividing the both the communities on the lines of hatred, the communal powers are also moving ahead in an organised manner, the incident at Vadavali is one such example.
Advocate Samshad Khan Pathan, Jan Sangharsh Manch
Advocate Govind Parmar, Human Rights Law Network
Hozefa Ujjain, Jan Vikas, Gujarat
Kherunisa Pathan, Parvaz Organization, Gujarat
Dashrat Bhai Thakor, Action Aid
Usman Bhai Sheikh, Aman Biradri
Asim Shaikh, Jan Sangharsh Manch
Makrani Mir Khan, Aantarik Vistapit Committee
and other social workers
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