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‘Muslims facing social boycott’

JAIPUR: Muslim groups in Rajasthan have expressed concern over continuing fear and insecurity in Kapasan tehsil of Chittaurgarh district where communal elements attacked some localities after Id-ul-Zuha this past month accusing Muslims of slaughtering a missing cow.

Houses, shops, fields, standing crops, tube-wells and vehicles belonging to Muslims in half-a-dozen villages were torched in the violence on December 23 and 24. Muslims who fled their houses have since returned to face social boycott and open threats to their lives, with the police refusing to register their complaints naming specific accused.

A four-member fact-finding team of Rajasthan Muslim Forum which visited the violence-hit villages over the weekend said it found the Muslim families living in their damaged houses in a state of terror and still waiting for any kind of relief from the State Government.

In contrast, the next of kin of a rioter killed in the police firing were promptly given an assistance of Rs.1 lakh by the Government and Rs.4 lakh by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.

Police opened fire on the violent crowd on December 23 when the mob caught hold of two policemen on being prevented from storming into the Muslim-dominated Sindhion Ka Kheda hamlet.

The large-scale violence took place during a bandh called by Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal after the cow’s remains were reportedly found in a field belonging to a Muslim man. However, the Sarpanch of Usnar village, Maghulal Jat – in whose well the carcass the spotted – was given a clean chit.

Jamat-e-Islami Hind State president Mohammed Salim, who led the team, said here on Monday that the violence had a distinct pattern of Muslims being “selectively targeted”: “Villagers told us that the groups of rioters roaming on motorcycles were carrying with them petrol cans and lists of Muslims’ houses and shops,” he said.

According to the fact-finding team, the pattern of violence also suggests that communal elements had deliberately spread rumours of cow slaughter to provoke the majority community against Muslims and attack their fields and business establishments to destroy them economically.

None of the persons who masterminded the attacks has been arrested, even though eight Muslim “suspects” were held on charges of keeping illegal weapons. According to the fact-finding team, when the victims tried to lodge complaints identifying the accused, the police flatly refused to register the first information reports.

The fact-finding team came across an identical pattern of Muslims being targeted everywhere. With the tube-wells and sprinkler systems at Muslims’ fields extensively damaged, the standing rabi crops across hundreds of bighas of land are on the verge of destruction.

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