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Title: India – Gujarat – Bajrang Dal – Muslim Refugee Review Tribunal AUSTRALIA RRT RESEARCH RESPONSE Research Response Number: IND31910 Country: India Date: 14 June 2007 Keywords: India – Gujarat – Bajrang Dal – Muslims This response was prepared by the Country Research Section of the Refugee Review Tribunal (RRT) after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the RRT within time constraints. This response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. Questions 1. Please provide information about the Hindu-Muslim riots in Gujarat. Are these problems on- going in 2007? 2. Please provide information about the Shiv Sena and Bajrang Dal groups in Gujarat. Are these groups present in other states? What states do not have Hindu extremists? Are Muslims more protected in some states in India? 3. Please provide information about the Godhra train incident (2002). 4. How would a Muslim butcher prepare meat (and particularly chicken) in such a way to satisfy Islamic religious requirements? RESPONSE 1. Please provide information about the Hindu-Muslim riots in Gujarat. Are these problems on-going in 2007? 3. Please provide information about the Godhra train incident (2002). The Indian state of Gujarat has a history of communal violence between Hindus and Muslims. According to a report by Christophe Jaffrelot, between 1970 and 2002, Gujarat experienced four hundred and forty three Hindu – Muslim riots. The report highlighted that: The riot in Ahmedabad in 1969, which left 630 dead, remained the most serious riot. In 1990, L.K. Advani’s (leader of the Bhartiya Janata Party) Rath Yatra (religious procession) sparked riots that left about 220 dead in the state. In 1992, the demolition of the Babri Masjid [in Ayodhya Uttar Pradesh] also set off a wave of violence that killed 325 people, mostly Muslims (Jaffrelot, J. 2003, ‘Communal Riots in Gujarat: The State at Risk?’, Heidelberg Papers in South Asian and Comparative Politics, Working paper No. 17, July http://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/volltexte/2003/4127/pdf/hpsacp17.pdf – Accessed 8 November 2006 – Attachment 1; also see RRT Country Research 2006, Research Response IND31126, 19 December – Attachment 2; RRT Country Research 2006, Research Response IND30931, 16 November – Attachment 3). On 27 February 2002, the Sabramati Express carrying volunteers of the Sangh Parivar – a Hindu nationalist community comprising of the militant Rashtriya Swansewak Sangh (RSS), militant Hindu youths Bajrang Dal (BD), World Hindu Council Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), Hindu Student’s Association Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and the Hindu enlightenment movement Hindu Jagaran Manch (HJM) – from Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh were allegedly attacked by Muslims at the Godhra train station, where fifty seven Hindus were burnt to death (‘Scores killed in India train attack’ 2002, BBC News website, 27 February http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/1843591.stm – Accessed 8 November 2006 – Attachment 4). Immediately, the Sangh Parivar called on the Hindus in Gujarat to avenge the attack at Godhra. Mira Kamdar writing in the World Policy Journal describes in detail the communal violence unleashed by Hindus militants in Gujarat. Truckloads of Hindus, mostly young men— many sporting headbands in saffron, the Hindu sacred colour — headed for Muslim neighbourhoods. They were armed not only with homemade gasoline bombs, trishurs (the trident-shaped weapon associated with the god Shiva), and knives but also, in some cases, with printouts from government computer databases listing the names and addresses of Muslims and Muslim-owned businesses. For about 24 hours, there was calm. And then, almost simultaneously, in different localities, in both urban and rural areas across Gujarat, a systematic wave of terror against the Muslim population began. Truckloads of Hindus, mostly young men— many sporting headbands in saffron, the Hindu sacred colour—headed for Muslim neighbourhoods. They were armed not only with homemade gasoline bombs, trishurs (the trident-shaped weapon associated with the god Shiva), and knives but also, in some cases, with printouts from government computer databases listing the names and addresses of Muslims and Muslim-owned businesses. Some of the young Hindus even had cell phones—the better to keep in touch with their handlers—and bottles of water. They embarked on a rampage of looting, arson, rape, torture, and murder that left thousands dead and many more thousands homeless. Muslim homes and businesses were looted, and then the buildings and often the dismembered bodies of the former occupants were set on fire. Neighbouring Hindu homes and businesses were spared. In many localities, the police, when they didn’t simply turn a blind eye to the attacks, were seen helping the attackers identify their targets. With few exceptions, no protection was offered to those terrified Muslims who, in desperation, begged the police for help. According to Human Rights Watch, the general response of the police was: “We have no orders to save you.” The savagery of the attacks— which routinely included dismemberment, gang rape, beheadings, dousing bodies with petrol and burning them so as to render them unrecognizable, liquidating entire families, including women, children, babies, and fetuses ripped from the womb— was all the more shocking for their well-organized and premeditated execution. It was evident that state and local authorities not only did nothing to stop the violence but were actually complicit in orchestrating the attacks (Kamdar, M 2002, ‘The Struggle for India’s Soul’, World Policy Journal website, vol. XIX, no. 3 http://www.worldpolicy.org/journal/articles/wpj02-3/kamdar.html – Accessed 8 November 2006 – Attachment 5). The Telegraph of 4 March 2002 provided testimonies from Muslims who stated that “the police simply stood by, or in some cases even encouraged the rioters as they went on the rampage, burning entire families to death in their own homes”. The report highlighted the following eye witness accounts of the violence: “The police actively supported the rioters, almost as if they were accompanying them,” Sakina Inayat Sajid, who lost six of her family and whose husband is missing, said from her hospital bed. The few policemen she pleaded with for help in Shehajpuri Patia told her to “go and die elsewhere”. But there was no escape. All exit points had been surrounded by mobs armed with swords, iron rods, acid and paraffin. “I do not know how I made it out alive,” said Mehboob Sheikh, a lorry driver, who lost all nine family members, including his two children. The killings ended when the first troops arrived. “But by then it was too late,” said Shabana Abdul Sayeed at the local civil hospital. “There was nothing left to destroy or burn” (Bedi, R. 2002, ‘Soldiers ‘held back to allow Hindus revenge’, Telegraph, 4 March http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/03/04/whind04.xml – Accessed 7 June 2007 – Attachment 6; also see: Harding, L. 2002, ‘Police took part in slaughter’, Guardian Unlimited, 3 March http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4366650,00.html – Accessed 7 June 2007 – Attachment 7). As a result of the violence in Gujarat in 2002, more than two hundred thousand people were displaced from their homes and around two thousand, mainly Muslims, were murdered by Hindu militants in central and eastern Gujarat. According to a report on the Islam Online website, the Muslim victims of the communal violence are still waiting for justice and “it is the lack of justice, secular campaigners believe, that now fuels the growth of systematic communal violence and tension in the subcontinent”. The report notes that: The Human rights workers have warned that because no effective political counterbalance exists to rival the influence of the BJP and other Hindu nationalist organizations, the majority of those responsible for the 2002 riots and those guilty of other acts of communal violence in India will never have to answer for their crimes. It is this lack of justice, secular campaigners believe, that now fuels the growth of systematic communal violence and tension in the subcontinent, since extreme right-wing Hindu groups are largely free to operate with impunity (Sisodia, R. 2007, ‘India’s Gujarat: Five Years in Agony’, Islam Online, 16 May http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?c=Article_C&cid=1178724225641&pagename= Zone-English-Muslim_Affairs%2FMAELayout – Accessed 7 June 2007 – Attachment 8). According to Asghar Ali Engineer, communal tensions between Hindus and Muslims continued in Gujarat between 2002 and 2005. However, he notes that the communal violence in 2004 and 2005 were “also comparatively less violent” compared to what transpired in the state in 2002. Nevertheless, Asghar Ali notes that petty issues often get out of control because “Gujarat is a highly communalised state today in India, thanks to the BJP rule and Narendra Modi’s [the Chief Minister of Gujarat] open hostility towards Muslims”. According to Ali: Gujarat is highly communalised state today in India, thanks to BJP rule and Narendra Modi’s open hostility towards Muslims. Trouble began when people in a marriage procession, accompanied by DJ and high power music system, allegedly beat up an auto-rickshaw driver passing on the same rout when he complained of traffic jam. The driver belonged to the minority community, ran away after being beaten up. Soon thereafter a mob came and pelted in stones. A posse of policemen rushed and lobbed four tear gas shells. About a dozen people including a policeman were injured. Four persons were arrested and police also seized the music system. The rioting in Vadodra was followed by one in Jaunpur village Khetasarai on 4th February. Here it was result of dispute about a cemetery land. In this one woman was killed and 23 persons were injured. Communal tension mounted in the area subsequent to this incident.
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