Innocent victims of Gujarat remembered

To remember the innocent lives lost in February/ March 2002 in Gujarat India, a public meeting was organised at Indian Muslim Federation Hall in London on Saturday, 1 March 2003. it was very well by all denominations of people including a large number of Hindu ,Sikh and Muslims

The meeting resolved that one year on those responsible for Gujarat Genocide has not been brought to justice and the pogrom of Muslims is going on.

The meeting urged the following:

To British Government:

1. To put diplomatic pressure on Government of India to stop the massacre of innocent Muslims and other minorities in India.

2. To immediately withdraw the charity status of the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS), of Sewa International which fundraises using the HSS’s charity registration number, and of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad(VHP)UK and its branches in UK as Channel 4 News and other sources had proved that the money collected in the charity were sent to India to further the agenda of fascism in the name of Hindutva.

To Indian Government:

1. To implement the recommendations of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) of India issued in April 2002 and other reports given by NGOs.

2. To bring the culprits to justice who were involved in organising and carrying out the Gujarat genocide.

3. To compensate and rehabilitate all the victims adequately in line with other cases of compensation given in the past.

4. To ensure that tragedies like Gujarat genocide will never happen again.

Background

Following an attack on a train in Godhra, Gujarat, on 27 February 2002 in which 59 Hindus were killed, violence of unprecedented brutality targeting the Muslim community spread in the state and continued in the next three months, leaving more than 2000 Muslims killed, more than 200,000 homeless, hundreds of Muslim women raped and children tortured. The State government, administration and police took insufficient action to protect civilians mostly Muslims and in many cases may have colluded with the attackers and actively participated in the violence.

In many cases of post Godhra violence, police have recorded complaints in a highly defective manner, witnesses’ statements as well as corroborative evidence have not been thoroughly collected and responsibilities of eminent suspects have not been investigated by police.

Double standards applied during the investigations are evident from the fact that in post Godhra massacres of Muslims a large number of arrested persons suspected of crimes as serious as murder have been bailed out and roam free, the charge of conspiracy has rarely been considered and the property of absconders has not been attached. In the Godhra case, on the contrary, most of the accused are kept in detention, the charge of conspiracy has been clearly made out and the property of the absconders has been attached. The draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act—containing insufficient safeguards or the rights of the accused—is being applied to the suspects in the Godhra case.

For Further information, please contact:

Indian Muslim Federation (UK)

Trinity Close, London E11 4RP

Tel: 0044 20 8558 6399

Fax: 0044 20 8539 4192

Email: info@indianmuslimuk.org.uk