Gujarat government leaves Muslims to rot in relief camps

More than three months after they were targeted following the burning of the Sabarmati Express in Godhra, thousands of Muslims in Gujarat continue to remain in relief camps because they have nowhere to go or fear for their lives if they return to their homes.

"They (mobs) have destroyed everything. How do officials expect us to come and stay here?" Salim Ismail, a rickshaw driver, said as he surveyed his ransacked two-room house in a mixed neighbourhood.

"They have not only looted our belongings but taken away the doors and windows and damaged the roofs as well," he said.

Many of the 110,000 people who sought refuge in relief camps during the riots have returned to their homes, but officials say at least 30,000 Muslims are still packed into ramshackle tents.

Some Muslims say they have chosen to stay on in relief camps because they have been warned by Hindu neighbours not to return.

Muslims, who have dared to return home, say they have been shocked by the graffiti on the walls of their houses and mosques, warning them of further attacks.

"You are banned from coming here again," read the graffiti outside a mosque on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, which bore the brunt of the mob's frenzy.

Muslims bore the brunt in the riots, which started late in February after a mob torched a bogey of the Sabarmati Express, killing 59 people. Among them were some 'kar sevaks' (religious volunteers) returning from Ayodhya.

Officials said nearly 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, died in the reprisal killings and riots that followed, although human rights groups put the toll at more than 2,500.

Thousands of Muslims in relief camps, who live with just a long piece of cloth tied to bamboo poles to protect them from the sun and rains, say their houses have been reduced to rubble or burnt down.

"The government's rehabilitation efforts are half-hearted. Those in camps are being pressurised to return home even if they don't have one," E Ahmed, general secretary of the Indian Union Muslim League, said.

Many Muslims in relief camps say compensation for the loss of lives or homes is not enough to return.

"All I have received is Rs 6,250. What can I do with this amount? It's not even sufficient to run my family of six for a month," said Asif Aslam Khan, who fled to a camp during the violence in early March.

Relief workers say many of those whose kin were killed in the mayhem are finding it difficult to produce documents required to claim compensation.

"How could someone produce proof, when people were burnt beyond recognition?" asks Munir Sheikh, a coordinator at a camp.

Government officials, however, insisted that adequate compensation was being provided to people affected by the religious bloodletting.

"Compensation is being given on the basis of proper surveys. We have been very liberal in cases where the claimants did not have adequate proof," S K Pandya, the state's director for relief operations, said.

Pandya also denied that the government was closing down camps and forcing people to return to their homes.

Muslims also fear further violence during an annual Hindu procession in Ahmedabad on July 12 that has sparked clashes between the two communities in the past.

The procession route passes through a Muslim-majority area in Ahmedabad's old quarter and fearing trouble, police officials have asked the government to ban the procession.

"I am scared since everyone is talking about possible trouble during the procession. It should not be allowed to go ahead," said Kudrat Bano, who lives in a camp with three children after her husband was killed and house torched in the riots.