21 years after Godhra riots, Zakia Jafri visits Ahmedabad home: ‘She misses it’

A candle light vigil is organised near the Gujarat University in Ahmedabad for the victims of 2002 Gujarat riots. (Express photo by Nirmal Harindran)

It was the anniversary of the massacre when 69 residents of the society, including her husband, were killed by rioters. Neighbours who came to pay homage to their family members met the Jafris. It was also her first visit after the Supreme Court in 2022 dismissed her petition challenging the clean chit given to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, his council of ministers and others for charges of omission and commission in the riots. She had earlier visited the society on February 28, 2012.

“With age, she (Zakia) feels less of pain… I was stitching the other day and she reminisced about how she would keep her box of thread by the window at our home (in Gulberg Society). She is reminded of the sitaphal (custard apple) tree in our backyard sometimes when she sees plants. She remembers Abba (Ahsan) a lot, mostly fond memories… She was afraid of being here (in Ahmedabad) and she agreed after I assured her that I’ll be with her… She misses this house, life there and having her own space,” Nishrin, who is based in the US, told The Indian Express.

Also visiting was Dara Mody, 60, who lit incense sticks in memory of his 10-year-old son Azhar who went missing that fateful day. No remains were found of Ahsan and there has been no trace of Azhar since that day.

However, Nishrin never forgets to remind her mother Zakia of the exceptional achievements her father had in his lifetime, ever since he was a union leader. “Her normal routine life was disrupted and it was never the same since. She used to refer to Gujarat as her sasural (in-laws’ place) because she was originally from Madhya Pradesh and she made an independent life of her own here, all of which was taken away so brutally… and made it a living hell for her,” Nishrin adds.

Zakia Jafri during her visit to the Gulberg Society on Tuesday. (Express photo by Nirmal Harindran)

Nishrin says she was very close to her father and can’t help but remember him in mundane daily activities, something as simple as seeing women drying red chillies on their terraces. The two-storeyed house is abandoned since 2002 with weeds growing amid cracks, broken stairs, cobwebs, rusted grilles, an unused water tank on the terrace and a backyard with overgrown shrubs.

Inside the kitchen, fresh rose petals are strewn. The society is replete with such abandoned houses but for two houses at the entrance where two families live that appear to be newly constructed houses.

Dara Mody, who lost his son Azhar during the riots, at his abandoned residence in the society. (Express photo by Nirmal Harindran)

It was a trip down memory lane for Nishrin, too. Pointing to a first-floor room with a balcony, Nishrin remembers it as her brother’s room. “We used to fight and one day we broke the door… we were so afraid that our father was going to scold us, so we put a bedsheet or a towel over the door. For the longest time my father never noticed it,” Nishrin says.

“I cry less thinking about my dad but more about the fact that he knew what was happening to him. He understood what was happening in those last few hours of his life,” says Nishrin as she breaks down.

Referring to the recent decision of Bilkis Bano’s rape convicts being released early after the SC judgment upholding the SIT’s clean chit to then chief minister Narendra Modi and others, Nishrin hopes that people awaken their conscience.

“There are so many millionaires and billionaires taking up a myriad of causes but how is it that none has taken a stand or highlighted this issue? There are so many of them taking up incredible humanitarian causes but how has this issue never figured as something in their list? I wish people have a conscience, at least for the next generation,” she says.

On February 28, 2002, Gulberg Society, where former Congress MP from Ahmedabad Ahsan Jafri resided, became a refuge for Muslim residents from nearby houses and chawls as violence escalated in the neighbourhood and across Ahmedabad.

It was perceived by the local residents that Ahsan Jafri, on account of his political stature and status would be in a position to provide shelter and protection to such families. However, a mob entered the society and killed 69 persons, with bodies of several missing.

Of the 66 accused, six died during the pendency of the trial, while 24 were convicted by the special trial court in 2016 of whom 11 were sentenced to life for murder (conviction under IPC section 302).

The judgment of the sessions court noted that the proceedings relate to “what has been recognised as one of the most heinous incidents of a communal riot, where no less than 69 victims of a particular community were done to death by a mob of large number of persons”. The convicts’ appeal is pending before the Gujarat HC since 2016.