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'I sell potato balls to kids... I feel my Mushtaq is one of them'

By Ujjwala Nayudu
Updated Wednesday, 15 February 2012 16:02:32 - IST (UTC +5:30)


In picture: Zannatbibi Sheikh, a fruit vendor in Patiya
Ahmedabad: It is here that a pregnant Kausar Bano was raped. Here it is that Amina Behlim saw a neighbour being raped by 11 men and sheltered her for five years before arranging her wedding, fighting off the community. It is also here that the principal of a small school, who has been teaching children of Patiya for years, saw eight rapes. His hearing is since impaired, but the visions still haunt him.
The three are among the 5,000-odd survivors of two of the worst massacres of the 2002 riots in which 98 people were killed. The survivors are now called the Patiyawalas, a term they acknowledge with pride. Ahmedabad’s celebrated BRTS (Bus Rapid Transit System) now runs outside their homes, and Vibrant Gujarat holds true around them. But inside the narrow lanes of Naroda Patiya, life remains a struggle under the shadow of the violence.
The largely poor Muslim families moved here from Karnataka and the Konkan belt of Maharashtra 40 years ago. Prospects in “textile-rich” Ahmedabad drew them. When the textile mills shut down, they joined neighbouring factories manufacturing tools, auto parts, chemicals etc., as laborers.
After the riots, all those jobs disappeared. The residents of Naroda Patiya claim the “Hindu-dominated factories” threw out all the Muslim workers. “We used to toil earlier too to manage two meals. After the riots, we are toiling much harder, fighting to streamline our small businesses (amid) domination of the majority communities,” said Farooq Qureshi.
Most of the men earn a living pulling carts or driving autos and cabs; others are paan vendors or run tea stalls and local phone booths. Profits are rare and as many say, there is no future. “We have nothing new to sell.”
An old and feeble Zannatbibi Sheikh, a fruit vendor, showed her cash box. “I start from morning and this is all I have earned, Rs 100. This has been the case since 10 years. As businesses failed, women were the worst sufferers — with empty kitchens, several children, no money for school uniforms, books.”
The madrasa in Patiya is closed for most part of the day. The aged Maulana Abdul Rauf Khan comes daily to teach but there are not enough children. “There was a time when 10-12 batches of children used to come to recite the Quran. I loved reading out to them. Now, only 10 children come, that too after a lot of requests. Parents fear that if anything happens tomorrow, the madrasa would be the first to be targeted.”
The custodian of the Noorani Masjid across the road, ‘Pesh Imam’ Abdul Salam Shamshuddin Sheikh, said the fear wasn’t unfounded. Talking about the day of the riots, he said: “The mosque was empty. I had gone to a home for Daur (reading of the Quran). This was the best time for the attackers to start and they began by breaking the minara of the mosque. They busted gas cylinders inside, not a single corner was left.”
While the Masjid has since been restored and bears no mark of the violence, none of the inhabitants can say the same. Amina Behlim, who rescued the riot victim, saw her sons move out of Ahmedabad one by one. She was kicked out of her old colony in Naroda Patiya for sheltering the woman but moved to another area nearby, saying the fact that she had been a security guard at a printing press in Chiloda gave her the strength to carry on.
Behlim explained why she had to help the rape victim, now married and settled in Nashik: “The woman had been staying in Jawaharnagar alone after her parents kicked her out for not ‘adjusting’ with her alcoholic husband. I was hiding on a terrace and saw from a small hole in the parapet — she was raped by 11 men. She ran out of the house naked to save herself.”
It’s the children whom he still teaches who keep Nasir Khan Pathan going. The principal of an ‘Iqra’, he has been teaching maths and science for 20 years. “Almost all children living in Naroda Gam and Patiya come here to study. Children of Patiya want to ensure there is no repetition of 2002 ever in their lives.”
It is children too that give Zannatbibi her strength, even though the widow can barely make ends meet for her own kids. Pointing to the madrasa near where she sells fruits, the mother who lost a young son in the riots said: “The children who come to study there often come to my shop to eat potato balls. I sell them for only Re 1. I feel as if my Mushtaq (her son) has come home hungry.” (Curtsy: IE: 15-02-12)
Case file
Case: Naroda Patiya: Killed: 98; Accused: 61; In Jail: 11; Convicted: Trial on

Tags: Ujjwala Nayudu Vibrant Gujarat, Muslims, riot victims, rape, murder, Masjid

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