Akola bleeds as Holi splash gets Gujarat colour

It was a small incident, and residents insist it has happened before. But when this Holi, the first coming after Godhra, a splash of colour ...

It was a small incident, and residents insist it has happened before. But when this Holi, the first coming after Godhra, a splash of colour fell on a mosque here, it set off a chain of events that left six dead and several injured. A curfew was imposed on the town and annual examinations in schools, which were to be held today, have been postponed.

A communally sensitive city whose one-fourth population is Muslim, Akola had kept its peace since 1992, when after Babri Masjid demolition, nine people had died within a week. That fragile quiet was broken on Saturday. Eyewitnesses say that while some people were playing Holi in front of a mosque in the middle of a Hindu area, some colour fell on its wall, apparently by accident. A riot started, and soon spread to far-off localities. But of the six people who died, only one — a woman, Durga Gaikwad — was a riot victim. Four others, all Muslims, fell to police bullets. Two people have been held for the colour-throwing incident.

Minister of State for Home Manikrao Thakre and Guardian Minister Satish Chaturvedi visited Akola yesterday and announced a magisterial inquiry and the transfer of IGP Pankaj Gupta. Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and his deputy Chhagan Bhujbal will visit the area tomorrow. The Muslim community has blamed the police for taking ‘‘precipitate action’’, but Thakre didn’t give reasons for the decision to shift the IGP to Pune.

Story continues below this ad

As usual, there is more than one theory on how the riot spread. Hindus living near the Turab Ali mosque admit colour fell on the front wall of the mosque but say it wasn’t intentional nor a first. ‘‘The mosque is right here in the middle and the colour stains were caused by children playing near it. Holi is, after all, a no-holds-barred festival in which many buildings get splattered with colours,’’ says Vijay Gaikwad, who lives in front of the mosque. Adds Chandrakant Neware: ‘‘This is not the first time that colour may have fallen on the mosque. We have been holding Devi festival for many decades right here in front of the mosque and have thrown gulal at each other numerous times, but there was never any trouble.’’

The Hindus, in fact, blame the moulana at the mosque, who they claim angrily gestured at them and later returned with a sizeable mob, and Corporator Kazi Nazimuddin from the adjoining Muslim-dominated locality. ‘‘They threatened that they won’t tolerate (such incidents) anymore and would take it to the logical end,’’ Gaikwad claims.

The Hindus say tension started between the communities after the arrival of the current moulana about four years ago. ‘‘The earlier moulana never complained,’’ they say. Repeated attempts to contact Kazi Nazimuddin failed.

As proof, Hindus point out that the nine Muslim families living in their locality were not touched. Abdul Hussain, a worker at a shoe shop who has been living in the locality for 35 years, nods in agreement: ‘‘We have been living peacefully with our Hindu brothers all through.’’ Shabbir Hussain shows his coloured palms, asking: ‘‘I have myself been selling Holi colours. Why should there be any bad blood?’’

Story continues below this ad

The Muslims themselves blame the police more than the Hindus. Families of firing victims say they fired at innocent children who were returning home for lunch and weren’t involved in any rioting incident.

Allu Pehalwan, a Congress corporator from the locality, parries the question when told about the claims of the Hindus of the locality. Instead, he says: ‘‘Had the police been there on time, the trouble could have been averted.’’ Mohammad Mustafa Mohammad Yusuf, a Congress minority cell leader, also blames the police, saying ‘‘they could have fired at hands or legs’’ instead of causing so many deaths. Yusuf adds police ignored the ‘‘warning bell’’ when three incidents occurred in succession last month. ‘‘A mosque door was burnt and then a durgah. The police have lost deterrent value,’’ he adds.

Congress’s Azhar Hussain, a former state minister, blames frequent transfers of officials and the city’s division along caste and communal lines — as seen in the recent fractured mandates — for the violence. ‘‘No top official stays here for more than a year or two, and vested interests take advantage.’’

SP Deven Bharti, however, justifies police firing. ‘‘The mob was trying to set fire to a house of 10. We did what we did to avert another Gujarat,’’ he says.