India: victims of Gujarat pogrom found in mass grave

Nearly four years after the communal violence, the villagers are still seeking to expose what happened. No one has been convicted for any of the killings that took place. The relatives of the dead are accusing the police of hiding evidence and protecting the perpetrators.

The riot in Pandharwada was part of orchestrated communal violence against Muslims across the state in March 2002, following the death of 58 Hindu extremists in a train fire at Godhra in late February. Egged on by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state government, gangs of Hindu fanatics attacked innocent Muslims. Local police stood by as homes and businesses were burnt down and their occupants beaten and killed. At least 2,000 people died in the riots.

In the case of Pandharwada, the Hindu extremist Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) held a series of meetings in the area. A coordinated attack was made by mobs from several nearby villages who descended on Pandharwada to attack the 70 Muslims who lived in the town and loot their businesses and homes. At least 34 people were killed in the violence.

After relatives reported the latest discovery to the media, local government authorities and police made the extraordinary claim that the mass grave was not a cover-up, but a legal burial carried out in accordance with all the proper procedures. Then in an attempt to intimidate those who found the grave, police charged the relatives and a human rights activist with illegally digging up a gravesite.

The claims are absurd. If they had known about the grave, the police did not bother to tell the relatives of the victims. A local villager Gulam Kharadi told the Indian Express that he was skeptical that the dumping of the bodies in an unmarked pit in a wooded area was by the book. “If rituals are followed, you don’t pile up 20 bodies in a pit. Where are the graves?”

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http://wsws.org/articles/2006/jan2006/guja-j24.shtml