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Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board
| Muslims butchered and burnt alive in Gujarat |
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| Yasin |
| 02/28/02 at 21:50:04 |
| Gujarat riot toll climbs to 70; Army on stand-by HMEDABAD: About 70 persons were killed, a majority of them in Ahmedabad, in the worst-ever communal violence in Gujarat on Thursday during the state-wide bandh organised by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and backed by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. The systematic killings were quite clearly reprisals for the brutal attack on the Sabarmati Express at Godhra on Wednesday which left 58 dead. The government said Army had been called to Ahmedabad and was expected to be flown in from Delhi on Friday morning. The worst incident took place in the Gulbarg Housing Society in Chamanpura area of Meghaninagar police station in Ahmedabad where a mob entered into a cluster of houses and butchered or burnt alive at least 35 people, including former Congress MP Ahsan Jaffrey. Additional Chief Secretary for Home Ashok Narayan confirmed 18 deaths in Chamanpura but sources said the toll was higher. Police sources said Jaffrey had fired at the mob when it tried to enter the compound of his house but he was ultimately dragged out and burnt alive. Till late evening, the police was not able to gain entry into the heart of the Gulbarg Society because the fires were still raging. Similar incidents of massacres from two housing societies in Saraspur and Shahwadi on the southern outskirts of Ahmedabad where at least 15 persons were reportedly killed. The riots which started early in the morning continued till late in the evening. Information was hard to come by from official sources. Chief Minister Narendra Modi gave a figure of only 20 deaths in the state on Thursday evening which seemed like a gross underestimate, just like the Godhra toll on Wednesday which kept climbing from six in the morning to 58 at night. Almost 27 towns and cities in Gujarat were placed under curfew, some of them hours after the situation went out of hand. There was a steady stream of injured persons coming to Ahmedabad’s hospitals, mostly with stab wounds suffered at the hands of mobs which moved around freely, attacking shops, restaurants, petrol stations and residential areas. At least 150 persons were admitted to various hospitals in the city with injuries. Smoke was billowing out of nearly 70 places in Ahmedabad in the afternoon and many people were believed to be trapped inside apartments which were set on fire. City mayor and Congressman Himmatsinh Patel said Ahmedabad Fire Brigade attended almost 150 calls but in most of the areas, he said, the mobs didn’t allow firemen to douse the flames. “There was a complete law and order breakdown since morning. I have been calling for the Army but no action has been taken,” he complained. There were reports of fierce attacks by mobs in Vadodara, Surat, Rajkot, Surendranagar, Deesa, Palanpur, Khedbrahma, Bharuch, Nadiad, Viramgam, Mandal, Idar, Dholka, Kalol, Bhiloda, Visnagar and many other smaller towns. So widespread was the violence that police in the smaller towns didn’t have the required force or the fire brigade to control the damage and enforce curfew strictly. An official of Ahmedabad, who was worried at the flare-up in Viramgam and Mandal, said: “We can’t do anything. There is no police force out there.” The VHP activists seemed quite emboldened by the backing that they got from the state BJP and did not hesitate to even burn the offices of the Wakf Board and Minority Finance Corporation located in the Old Secretariat in Gandhinagar. Despite the attack on such a high-security area, there was no attempt by the police to contain the damage. Narendra Modi on Thursday said that the Army had been called in and it would take position latest by Friday morning. The troops, he said, were being air lifted from Delhi. To begin with, the Army would conduct a flag march in the disturbed areas of Ahmedabad. Asked about the response to VHP bandh call, Modi said: “Five crore people of Gujarat have been stunned and shocked due to the barbaric act committed by the terrorists in Godhra and obviously peace-loving people have been hurt.” He added, “By and large people have observed restraint as the authorities have been forced to impose curfew only in 27 towns out of 200 towns of the state”. SOURCE:TIMES NEWS NETWORK [ THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2002 ] |
| Re: Muslims butchered and burnt alive in Gujarat |
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| Yasin |
| 02/28/02 at 21:54:21 |
HMEDABAD: Over 25 people were burnt alive at the Gulbarg society in Om Nagar of Chamanpura area under the Meghaninagar police station on Thursday. This one single incident could mean that close to 50 persons have been killed in the violence that has rocked Gujarat during the state-wide bandh on Thursday. The death toll, said senior police officials, could go higher. The additional chief secretary for home Ashok Narayan put the death toll in Chamanpura at 18. The Joint Commissioner of Police M K Tandon also confirmed that 18 bodies had been found. Meanwhile fire tenders which rushed to the spot were turned back by the irate mob which disallowed the Ahmedabad Fire Brigade (AFB) personnel and the district police from rushing to rescue. Among those killed at Gulbard society is Ahsan Jaffrey, a former member of Parliament from Ahmedabad who was allegedly pulled out of his house in Gulbarg society and set on fire. Police officials refused to confirm this but several other persons including five family members of Jaffrey, who were staying in the same locality as Jaffrey, are also believed to have been lynched after a head-on clash. Eye-witnesses from this area told TNN: “Trouble was brewing in the housing colony of Chamanpura since the morning. Communally charged slogan shouting with a huge mob gheraoing the colony had set the mood.” Sources in Congress party said that the former MP after waiting in vain till 12.30 pm for official help to arrive had opened fire on the mob in self-defense , injuring four. Thereafter mayhem ruled the roost as a 2,000-strong mob stormed the Gulbarg colony, vandalised properties and set people afire indiscriminately.’ The mayor Himmatsinh Patel, while appealing to residents to maintain peace, told TNN: “Gulbarg colony housed about 55 tenaments. This site represents the worst case of arson and mindless killing in Ahmedabad since Wednesday.” The situation remained volatile and an inferno raged till 8 pm, till which time the police forces could not gain entry into the colony. Joint Commissioner of Police M.K. Tandon said: “It is difficult to ascertain how many are dead as bodies are apparently strewn all over. The situation is somewhat under control and now we will start drawing up the number of dead and injured once we gain entry into this colony.” ]SOURCE:TIMES NEWS NETWORK [ THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2002 9:41:01 PM ] |
| Re: Muslims butchered and burnt alive in Gujarat |
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| Aneesa_A. |
| 03/01/02 at 04:59:41 |
| [slm] I cannot believe what is happening. It's absolutely horrific. A lot of my relatives are in Gujarat, and to know what they are witnessing is beyond belief. People are being burnt alive in groups, houses accomadating people are are being burnt, old people & children are being burnt. I just can't understand how people can become such animals. Please everyone, make Dua'as for all the Muslims out there, who are hiding in fear of being burnt alive by the Kaafirs, whos families have been killed in the process and those that are struggling to protect their families. May Allah protect them. Ameen. [wlm] |
| Re: Muslims butchered and burnt alive in Gujarat |
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| mujaahid |
| 03/01/02 at 07:15:11 |
| All my relatives are also in Gujrat, in Ahmedabad, and they will fight back hard against [them]. My family on recently came back from thier, and know that the muslims thier are rough, and will handle themselves agianast the [them]. >:( |
| 03/02/02 at 01:52:23 |
| jannah |
| Re: Muslims butchered and burnt alive in |
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