COVER STORY
Sleep And The Innocent
When night falls, a quiet fear invades the smoky relief camps in Ahmedabad. For the children of the Gujarat riots, the witching hour has begun. In the slow hours till dawn, many huddle close to their mothers, struggling to stay awake. The horrific memories that they try to hold at bay during the day stalk them in their sleep.
For the riot's children, there is a thin dividing line between memories and nightmares. There are visions of parents being dragged out of their homes and cut into pieces, of brothers and sisters thrown into flames. There are memories of women being brutally raped, foetuses ripped from pregnant bellies and of their own spine-chilling escapes from imminent death.
There are some 42,000 children among the over 1 lakh inmates in Gujarat's relief camps today. That's what the discredited state government says anyway. Those working in the field—civil rights groups, ngos—claim that there are at least 30,000 children in Ahmedabad's camps alone. Many of them are orphans. "Children have been worst affected by the carnage. Unlike adults, they may not be able to fully absorb or vocalise what they saw. But the impact is deep," says Father Victor Moses, who is coordinating Citizen's Initiative, a group of 30 ngos working with the state's riot victims.
He is right. First came the mobs—burning, pillaging, murdering and raping in front of the eyes of these hapless children. Then came displacement—after their homes were torched. Suddenly, family, friends and schools are a chimera. Dr R. Srinivasa Murthy, professor of psychiatry at the Bangalore-based National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (nimhans), who visited some of the camps, found the children in a state of shock. "The trauma seen in children who survived the riots in Gujarat is similar to the trauma children suffered after the Bhopal gas tragedy, the Uttarkashi earthquake and the earthquake in the state." So they end up extremely prone to anxiety disorders, acute depression and stress.
Possibly even worse. When the Ahmedabad-based ngo Centre For Development tried to involve the camp children in art classes, they ended up drawing burning houses and dead people. "There is a lot of anger among the children," says Mira Mehta of the centre. "You will see a lot of small, silent children playing around in the camps. They don't look rattled but they are badly affected inside." That's not hard to discover. A three-year-old boy playing in the camp says occasionally: "Abba ko mar diya. Goli, goli! (They killed my father. Bullet, bullet!)"
Counselling will be futile, say psychiatrists, as long as the carnage continues. "There is so much fear and anger among children and we can't even tell them that it is all over. Until it stops, how can they begin healing?" asks Sandhya Surendradas of the ngo Sanchetna's child survival project.
Right now, they are possibly lucky to be just alive. Remember, quite a few children were murdered. Here are some testimonies to a gory end of childhood and innocence:
Javed Hussain, 14Son of a rickshaw-puller father and a tailor mother, Javed lost his family in the Naroda Patiya massacre in Ahmedabad, where 91 people were burnt alive on February 28. The fourth-standard dropout stitched handkerchiefs for a living.
Present Home: Shah Alam relief camp, Ahmedabad
"We had just finished having tea around 9.30 am when we heard a mob outside. They were throwing stones, brandishing swords, dharias and khanjars and chanting 'Jai Shri Ram'. They said they would destroy all Muslims. We tried to run but they had surrounded us. They set fire to houses and started throwing people into the flames. I was standing with my pregnant cousin Qausarbibi, who was to deliver in another two days.They dragged her away, ripped open her stomach with a knife and threw the foetus into the fire. Then they threw my family into the fire, one by one: my father, mother and my 17-year-old sister Sophiya. My aunt's family was also burnt alive.
"Someone hit me with a pipe and I fainted. When I came to, it was night. There were corpses all around me. My pants had been burnt off. I walked to my house and put on some clothes. Then, I walked 10 km in the night to the house of my employer. All along the way, I feared someone would leap out and kill me. He took me to the hospital and then they brought me to this camp.
"I feel like my mind has been destroyed. I can't talk for more than a few minutes. I can't sleep at night. Those scenes keep coming back to me. I think about my mother a lot. She used to say that I was her joy, her support. I want to ask the people who did this: What had my family ever done to you? I don't think all Hindus are bad. I had four or five Hindu friends in my colony and I can't believe that they were involved. It was outsiders who did this.
"I feel scared to leave the camp but sometimes I think I have already lost everything. What can I feel scared of now? When (Prime Minister A.B.) Vajpayeeji had come to visit Gujarat, he spoke to me and asked me about my problems. But I want to know, what has he done to stop the killing? When is it going to end?"
Mohammad Yashim, 8
A survivor of Naroda's Jawan Nagar blaze which claimed his mother and six of his nine siblings on February 28, he escaped with 20 per cent burns by jumping into a water tank.
Present Home: Living with his sister in Surat
"My father was on the roof, watching, and he told us that a mob was approaching. We were sitting on the bed, crying and holding hands. Then, the mob came towards our home. They were screaming, 'Kill them, cut them!' The police was with them. They had swords and were carrying flaming torches.
"We decided to run towards our friends' homes in Gangotri Nagar. We felt that would be safe. They were Hindu and we used to watch TV at their homes. I played with their children. But when we got there, we saw that they were part of the mob. I saw Keshubhai, Bhavani Singh and Guddu Chharra in the crowd. My family was holding hands and running but we got separated. I saw them drag my mother and set her on fire. She was screaming. Everyone was screaming. Then they set me on fire too. I ran and jumped into a water tank. There were three other children in the tank: Babloo and his sister, and Mehboob.
"After the mob left, we hid in the nearest house. We were there for hours. We heard someone latch the door from outside and then people started setting the homes on fire. I thought we would be burnt alive now. I heard my father calling out to me from outside and I screamed. He opened the door and got us out.
"I can't sleep. If I do fall asleep, I wake up screaming. I can't eat. I remember my mother and my brothers and sisters: Hussain, Khajjo, Afreen, Shaheen. I feel scared to close my eyes. What if Keshubhai and Guddu Chharra come and get me? They know that I saw them and they want to hunt me down. When too many people gather together, I start feeling nervous.
"I want to grow up and track them down. I want to go and burn their houses like they burnt our house. I want to cut them with swords the way they cut my family. I want to become stronger and take revenge. I cannot live with Hindus now. I will not feel safe."
Reshma Bano, 11On the night of the Gujarat bandh, her home in Piplej village near Ahmedabad was attacked by mobs. She witnessed the horrific rape of a neighbour.
Present home: Shah Alam relief camp.
"The night before the attack, the police came and picked up most of the men from our village.The 20 to 40 people left were mainly women and children. About 9 that morning, a mob of about 2,000 people in white shorts and T-shirts and orange bandanas arrived in trucks. They had swords and knives and were shouting 'Miya log ko kato (Kill the Muslims)!' They burnt the masjid near our house. I saw police but they did nothing. The village was surrounded but we jumped over a wall and escaped into a thorny field.
"I was looking over the wall when I saw 10 men grabbing my 16-year-old neighbour. She was screaming, 'Save me! Save me!' They ripped her clothes and fell on her. It went on and on. We were all sick with fright, we couldn't go out and stop them. When they finished, she was still alive but they stabbed her in the stomach and threw her in a ditch.
"In the evening, we tried to return but a man came and grabbed my sister, Firdaus. My mother and aunt managed to free her and we ran back into the field. We stayed there all night. Walking through the fields for over a day, we made our way to Rahimnagar to my uncle's house. He got us here with a police escort.
"I am scared mobs will come and attack me the way they attacked our neighbour. The violence has not stopped. I keep to myself. I even feel scared to talk to people inside the camp. What if they are killers in disguise? What if they have come inside the camp to hunt us down? All Hindus are not bad, I know. Our neighbours did not do this. It was people from outside.
"But the police did not help us. When I grow up I want to join the police, so that I can help people."
Yasmeen Sikandar Khan, 12This seventh-class student lost her mother and elder brother in the Gulbarg Society blaze in Chamanpura, which claimed over 40 lives including that of former Congress MP Ehsan Jaffrey.
Present home: Dariyakhan Ghummat relief camp, Ahmedabad.
"We used to live on the second floor of Gulbarg Society, right across Ehsan Jaffrey's house. Just after breakfast on February 28, we heard the mob. They were throwing stones at our building. My mother said we should stay inside, so my parents and six of us locked ourselves in. Then the fire started. The floor tiles got hotter and hotter. Then all of us ran to Jaffreysaab's house where we could be safer. There were at least a hundred people there. We were all crying with fear.
"Then a mob entered the house. They grabbed my brother Salim and struck him on the head with a sword. He cried 'Papa!' and fell to the floor. Then they set fire to the room. I managed to run out and onto the roof with the rest of my brothers and sisters.
"My mother got left behind. We went to my aunt's house on the roof and hid inside her bathroom. After five or six hours when it was over, we were rescued by the police. But the same police had done nothing to stop the mobs. We had to climb over heaps of corpses to get out.
"Sometimes I hear my brother's voice calling me. I was his favourite. I keep seeing the burning building. They never found my mother. She was burnt alive inside, just like the rest. Sometimes even in the middle of my sleep, tears are pouring out of my eyes.
"I can't stay with Hindus after this. Even now, they are not leaving us alone. They have attacked this camp so many times. Nearly every day, a bomb goes off outside or the police fire at the camp. They don't want Muslims to remain in Hindustan."
Sher Khan, 13Son of a tailor, he worked in a plastic factory. He and his four-member family escaped marauding policemen helping a mob attack Akbar Nagar. His best friend was shot dead by the police and he himself narrowly escaped being hurled into the fire by the police.
Present Home: Akbar Nagar home
"The mobs, led by the police, came with guns, swords and knives.They were shouting 'Jai Siya Ram' and wore saffron bands on their heads. I saw police inspector Gadvi from the nearby station. We ran out of the house but the police began firing. I got separated from my family but was running right beside my friend Sagir Khan when the bullet hit him. He fell down. The police picked him up and threw him in the fire that the crowd had lit. Then, three policemen caught me.
"I thought that that was the end for me. I was going to die. There were three of them. One of them tried to hit me with his stick but hit the other policeman by mistake. I managed to escape and started running. They kept firing at me but I managed to duck the bullets. I got to the main road and hid behind a truck. Then, I crossed the road and scaled a wall to reach Aman Chowk, where there was no fighting.
"If the police had protected us, things would never have become so bad. If I see a policeman now, I start running away. They don't want this to end.
"The Hindus say they don't want miyabhais (Muslims) in Hindustan and that we should go away to Pakistan but we will have to live here. Where else can we go? What else do we have? I don't even want revenge. I just want to be left alone.
"I try not to think about what has happened. If I remember, I cry to myself when no one else can see me. I have to be strong for my family."
Mohammad Asif, 14A student of ninth class, he lived in Mahadeoni chaali near the Mahakali river with his six-member family. They survived the mob but their home didn't.
Present home: Dariyakhan Ghummat relief camp
"I was reading namaaz at the Kosadia Masjid at about 2 pm when we were attacked. The armed mob first began throwing petrol bombs. They had been gathering at the Mahakali mandir in our locality. Instead of controlling them, the police started shooting in our direction. The crowd burnt the masjid and also the Quransharif. I ran towards my house but the crowds had already burnt and looted it.
"I feel that the minister Bharat Barot was behind the attack. He had been having meetings in our area every night. He had even been distributing petrol and weapons to the Hindus.
"This camp is not safe either. We are still being attacked and the police come and throw teargas shells inside. I would like to ask them, 'Are we the attackers?'. The other day, one woman in the camp died of shock after a bomb went off near the camp. I want to go back home but the situation outside is still not safe."
Shahid Khan, 14
A sixth-class student, he lived in the Gulbarg Society and witnessed the murder of former Congress MP Ehsan Jaffrey. He survived with his seven-member family.
Present Home: Dariyakhan Ghummat relief camp, Ahmedabad
"I was playing cricket with friends when the police came. They told the Hindu boys to go home. They were warning them that something was going to happen.
"Around 9 am, a mob of 15,000-20,000 people arrived and surrounded our building. They started throwing stones and petrol bombs. Everyone began running helter-skelter when the fire started. I ran up to the roof and hid there. Ehsan Jaffrey was well known and everyone thought they would be safe with him. So many people hid in his house.
"I was peeping from a window at the top when I saw him on the ground floor. He was telling the mob, 'Kill me if you want but let the people go.' Then, the mob told him to say 'Jai Siya Ram' but he didn't say anything. They got angry and put a burning tyre around his neck. They pushed a sword through his stomach. I turned my head. I couldn't watch anymore.
"I keep having nightmares about it. I can't sleep. Sometimes I think I'm sleeping but I wake up crying.
"I hate Hindus.Why did they do this to us? I saw our neighbours in the crowd. I want to kill them if I can. I want to go back there and kill them."
Imran Khan, 11
This Class V student from Mariambibi ki chaali in Ahmedabad's Gomtipur was almost shot by men from the Rapid Action Force (raf) and the police on March 20, when their locality was attacked by Hindu mobs.
Present home: Shah Alam relief camp
"I was having lunch when we were attacked. There was a huge crowd with swords, knives and stones. I ran out of the house with my parents and went to Ishraf Pehelwan's house, where we thought it would be safer. But the blue-uniformed raf men with guns and sticks came inside. They grabbed my father and beat him up. They began hitting my mother too. I also got hit on the foot. I told them, 'Why are you beating us? We didn't do anything.' One raf man held a gun to my chest and told me to shut up. I thought that I was going to die. Then the military arrived and they stopped. By nightfall, we came to this camp.
"In my locality, I had a lot of Hindu friends. We used to play cricket and basketball together. But after these problems started, they began chasing me away and say that they didn't want to play with a mussalman. They are not my friends anymore. I don't want to go back there again."
Jagdish Kumar, 15
He and his father sold vegetables for a living near their Raipur Mill home in Gomtipur, Ahmedabad. He and his family of eight, including five sisters, survived a mob attack.
Present home: Saraspur Municipal School relief camp, Ahmedabad
"On the afternoon of February 28, I was at home. Suddenly, 150-200 people arrived on the street outside. They had black cloths on their faces and were shouting 'Maro kato (Kill them)!' Then the mob began firing at us. They also threw bombs and started a fire. We all started fleeing. We ran and came to the main road. By night the relief camp was set up. I have been there ever since with my family.
Source: http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?215524
