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After sectarian violence, Indian Muslims try to rebuild lives

Families return home following attack by Hindus
After sectarian violence, Indian Muslims try to rebuild lives

A damaged home in Atali village (Photo by Ritu Sharma) 

Published: June 05, 2015 09:16 AM GMT
Updated: June 04, 2015 10:17 PM GMT

As he collected items from his burnt house earlier this week, Nazim Ali wondered what he had done wrong to invite the wrath of his fellow villagers.

His magnificent two-story home in Atali village in North India’s Haryana state was reduced to ashes by Hindu men during communal violence that broke out on May 25 over the construction of a mosque in the village.

“We were having prayers at a house opposite the under-construction mosque when some 2,500 Hindu fundamentalists attacked Muslim families in the village. We could have faced them or saved our and our families’ lives. We chose the latter,” Ali said.

Tensions over the mosque construction have been simmering since 2009 when the Muslim community won a case in the Supreme Court to build a permanent place of worship on land given them by the Hindu community decades ago.

“The Hindu community had given the land to the Muslims verbally. Now the younger generation of Hindus wanted the land back so the Muslims had to go to the court to settle the dispute,” Vishnu Dayal, assistant commissioner of police on duty in the riot-hit area, told ucanews.com.

Though the court ruled in favor of the Muslim community as they had been using the area for worship for years, they faced objections from locals over building a permanent mosque. When they broke ground on May 22, it was under police protection.

The village has a population of about 10,000 people, including 1,200 Muslim families. The rest are Hindus from a higher caste.

Nazim and Sabir Ali at their damaged house in Atali village (Photo by Ritu Sharma)

 

According to the victims, the rioters arrived carrying axes, swords, gas cylinders and gasoline cans and first attacked the mosque, damaging its boundary wall.

They claimed that apart from their neighbors, the rioters included people from surrounding villages and also members of the Hindu fundamentalist group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

“The attackers started pelting us with stones. It was raining stones. We were looking for shelter to hide, and in that chaos they started throwing cylinders inside the houses and exploding them,” said Sabir Ali, Nazim's brother.

“The women of my house had to hide in the toilet and the children were locked in cupboards,” he said, adding that the extremists sprayed the gasoline and set his house on fire, intending to kill those trapped inside.

“We have been betrayed by our own fellow villagers. They allowed outsiders to come, otherwise nobody would have dared enter the village which was once called a model village with so much communal harmony,” he added.

Some 15 people were injured in the violence, including one who was badly burned and two others who sustained severe cuts.

As the Muslim families made their way to the Ballabgarh police station, some 18km from the village, looters moved in, leaving them with nothing except the clothes on their backs.

They returned to their empty and damaged homes on June 3 after spending nine days at the police station for their own protection.

“They even took my buffalo. The gold jewelry that I had made for my daughter’s wedding was also taken. The rioters took good enough time to look for valuables around the house and destroy the rest,” said Javed Khan, who is an auto rickshaw driver.

Khan said that they were given safety assurances by the district administration and elders in the Hindu community, which persuaded them to return to their homes.

“Since the administration and fellow villagers were assuring our safety, we had to come back. We don’t have a choice. Our homes and livelihoods are here. Where can we go?”

Javed Khan shows empty jewelry boxes (Photo by Ritu Sharma)

 

Nearly two weeks after the attack, no one has been arrested. Police insist that an investigation is ongoing.

“The culprits have absconded. As soon as we find them, they will be behind bars. Three criminal investigation teams are working to trace the guilty,” assistant commissioner Dayal said.

He said adequate security is being provided to the Muslim families with 650 police personnel, including 80 female officers, deployed in the village. Barricades and small pockets of police can be seen posted in various locations in the village.

Meanwhile, an eerie silence prevails on the streets — broken only by the sound of Muslim families trying to gather their belongings from damaged houses.

As for the Hindu community, they are tight-lipped about the incident and keep themselves inside their homes.

“I was not in the village when the violence happened. I do not know anything about it. But this should not have happened. We used to live in so much peace and celebrated all our festivals together,” said Kripa Ram, an elderly Hindu.

A few others willing to speak thought a bit a differently.

“We do not have any problem with the mosque itself. It was the loudspeaker they were using while praying that we objected to. It disturbs us,” said Bhim Kaur.

The elderly Hindu woman said the Muslims were given adequate land outside the village and there was no reason for them to build the mosque where they had. “They can do whatever they want there on that land but not inside the village,” she added.

Construction of the mosque has again started under police security.

“We have built the boundary wall again and have been assured of our safety but let’s see how things go,” Ali said.

He said the victims have moved back to their homes and that no one from the Hindu community had come to speak to them.

“They are adopting a very indifferent attitude as if nothing has happened. Nobody has come to ask whether we need anything,” he said.

The district administration has made arrangements to provide basic necessities for the victims.

“We are providing them food and other necessary items required for survival,” Jagdish Chander, district magistrate of Faridabad, told ucanews.com.

He expressed hope that the situation in the village would soon stabilize.

“People are slowly getting back on track and we hope that peace prevails in the area in future,” he said.

 

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