Southern States - Kerala   

Marad: focus shifts to rehabilitation

By R. Madhavan Nair

KOZHIKODE OCT. 8. With the Cabinet today endorsing the Marad peace package that had been hammered out during discussions with the principal parties to the dispute, the stage has been set for the return of the of the Muslim families which had left the seaside village fearing retaliatory attacks after the massacre on May 2.

Sources said the authorities were planning to start the rehabilitation process day after tomorrow. However, a final decision was likely to be taken only tomorrow when K.K. Vijayakumar, the Government Secretary in charge of the operation, reached Kozhikode.

Tight security arrangements have already been made at Marad. Policemen and policewomen have been positioned in the sensitive places in the village.

Speaking to The Hindu, the City Police Commissioner, K. T. Vinod Kumar, said the heavy police deployment was a precautionary measure since the force had to be ready to "meet any eventuality'' and since "people are at times unpredictable''.

Such security precautions in the politically and communal sensitive Marad region are quite understandable and inevitable even though the peace formula had been accepted by the main parties to the dispute — the IUML, BJP, Hindu Aikya Vedi and the Marad Araya Samajam.

Tension was running high till recently. Two attempts made under Government sponsorship to resettle the dislodged Muslim families had to be aborted in the face of stiff resistance from the grieving and aggressive Hindu womenfolk of Marad.

Even though the Marad Araya Samajam is party to the settlement formula reached in Thiruvananthapuram, there are small groups in the village, which are still in a state of shock and anger.

Reports said these groups are not happy with the Araya Samajam's decision to allow rehabilitation of Muslim families as part of the peace pact.

"We are trying our best to persuade them to accept the agreement and allow the Muslims to return,'' a spokesman of Marad Araya Samajam said today.

The National Development Front (NDF), which had been insisting on immediate rehabilitation of displaced Muslim families, so far has also made no secret of its displeasure with the terms of the peace package, especially what in its perception is "the heavy compensation'' that the Government would be paying the immediate relatives of the victims of the massacre.

The NDF has condemned the peace package as a "surrender" to Sangh Parivar forces. It has also objected to the Government not paying compensation to the kin of Ashgar, who also died in the incident but had been denied compensation since his name figures on the list of the accused in the case.

The CPI(M) also has condemned the proposal in the peace package to call in the CBI to investigate a portion of the case.

The IUML, BJP and the Araya Samajam, which had prepared the peace package, may be the main parties to the dispute but the dissenting groups enjoy enough support to create hurdles.

In the last two days, the leaders of the Marad Araya Samajam had been trying to explain to the women widowed in the carnage the terms of the peace package and to condition them to get reconciled to the presence of Muslim families in their midst after they are rehabilitated.

The NDF is believed to have supporters in a camp for displaced Muslims in Kappakkal. Which is why doubts whether all the Marad's Muslim families now sheltered in that camp would agree to return to their homes.

All these are clear signals that the rehabilitation exercise continues to be a sensitive issue that has to be handled with utmost caution and care. In spite of the emergence of a peace formula there is no room for complacency and constant vigil against attempts to derail the rehabilitation programme.

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