Bhagalpur riots: Face of victims waits for a job and a pension

“Hindu rioters killed my parents and cut my leg, a Muslim soldier married me and deserted me,” she adds.

She says a cousin shares the house and supports her financially. She got compensation in instalments of Rs 2.20 lakh and Rs 7 lakh and divided the second lot among her five siblings. She is upset at a clause that counts widows, widowers and parents, but not daughters, as dependants for a Rs 5,000 pension.

She pleaded with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in 2007 and got a job as a casual worker; it started with Rs 71 per day and went up to Rs 101. Then she was retrenched in 2011 by the then DM. She made another request and says that when she followed it up, she found part of her letter eaten by rats.

She scoffs at the recommendation for a law to return properties to Muslims who had sold them. “First, they should look for real survivors and try to rehabilitate them.”