Final Countdown

Yet, still, they hope. The discovery, on December 27, of a mass grave on the banks of the Panam river in neighbouring Pandarvada village is reason enough. It has so far yielded eight skulls and bones of victims of a massacre in Pandarvada, near Lunawada town. Acting on a petition filed by activist Teesta Setalvad, the Gujarat High Court has ordered DNA tests on the remains. Tests will lead to positive IDs, some families will have graves to pray before.

So, the 50-odd Kidiyad families8212;the largest group of victims of the 2002 riots who still do not have any evidence of what happened to their 8216;missing8217; relatives8212;continue to hope.

Nightmare Square
8216;8216;ALL these years, they have stifled their emotions. Common sense told them there would be no evidence of the bodies after the trucks burnt for two days, so they refrained from searching for the remains. But after Pandarvada, all those restrained emotions have come to the surface again,8217;8217; says Salim Sindhi, sarpanch of Kidiyad. 8216;8216;Now they want to go back to the spot, just in case8230;8217;8217;

Not that they haven8217;t been back, repeatedly over the past four years, to the stretch between Limbadia chowkdy and Badesara-Sampadia. It was there, four years ago, that rampaging mobs waylaid the two Tata mini-trucks in which more than 100 people were trying to flee from Kidiyad in Malpur taluka in Sabarkantha district to neighbouring Panchmahals.

One vehicle GJ-9-C 6439, carrying 84 people, was attacked near Limbadia Chowkdy, while the other truck GJ-17-T-9283, with 38 people, was ambushed near Badesara-Sampadia. Of the 84 people in the first truck, 688212;including 34 children8212;were killed, while in the second, six died.

8216;8216;There were mobs all along the road, throwing stones and bottles at us as we sped along the highway,8217;8217; remembers Zakir, who was driving the second mini-truck. 8216;8216;Trees had been felled to create road blocks but I managed to drive through. But when we reached the Badesara-Sampadia chowkdy, I found a huge tree trunk lying across the road. As soon as I stopped, the truck was surrounded by a mob.

8216;8216;I was carrying my three-month-old son and I jumped out with him, thinking others would follow. But in the melee that followed, my son8217;s head banged against something and he did not survive the ordeal. Behind me, the mob was baying for blood. The few of us who escaped saw others being stabbed. Later, we came to know that of the 38 packed into the truck, six were killed and the truck set on fire.8217;8217;

People in the first mini-truck weren8217;t that lucky. Only 16 of the 84 managed to escape. 8216;8216;The truck was carrying 34 children, the others were mostly women. They could not escape,8217;8217; says Sindhi, who was travelling in Zakir8217;s vehicle. 8216;8216;Those who did manage to get away fled into the nearby ravines or sought shelter in a mosque in Karanta. We came to know in the evening that those who were killed were dumped in the trucks and set on fire.8217;8217;

The police later found 12 bodies in the bushes and ditches around the sites of the carnage: It is presumed the victims had tried to hide, were spotted and killed. They were later identified by relatives and buried.

Police officials who investigated the case in the past say the trucks8212;and all the bodies they contained8212;burnt for three days with the help of diesel or kerosene. 8216;8216;The heat was so intense, even some metallic parts melted. So there is no question of a body or bones being found. They even dispersed the ashes,8217;8217; says former Panchmahals Superintendent of Police SP Raju Bharghav. 8216;8216;We sent the ashes we retrieved to the Forensic Science Lab for DNA testing but they reported they could not conduct any tests on that.8217;8217; And that was the end of the story.

Fear Factor
UNTIL now. Under the cover of darkness, with whatever implements they can muster, the survivors of Kidiyad are seeking forgotten graves so that they can bury the past.

More frequently than ever before, they set forth from their homes in Modasa, near Himmatnagar8212;NGOs built the colony for the riot survivors after they abandoned Kidiyad8212;to Limbadia chowkdi and Badesara-Sampadia to dig anywhere bodies could have been dumped in 2002.

8216;8216;There is no rational explanation for this. It is almost four years now and chances are they won8217;t find anything but there is a lot of pent-up emotion. These people have spent the last four years not knowing what happened to their relatives. Many feel guilty that they left the women and children behind to die while they themselves escaped,8217;8217; says Sindhi.

Since it is a sensitive issue and involves the authorities, not many are willing to admit they are going digging in and around the two sites. 8216;8216;Policewale ghoomte hain. Pakde jayenge uska dar hai,8217;8217; says Bhikumiya, who runs a bread-omlette stall in Modasa. 8216;8216;But when we got a chance last week we did go there,8217;8217; he says.

Like Bhikumiya, many others have made the trips on autorickshaws or motorcycles. The landscape along the highway has changed over the last four years. Fields are lush with crops, there is dense vegetation all around, but the survivors stubbornly say they have a fair idea where the bodies may be buried. So they look in ditches, ravines and sandy pits.

8216;8216;Why should we believe that all of them were burnt to ashes in the trucks? Isn8217;t it possible they may have been buried there somewhere in the fields? When it could have happened in Pandarvada, it could have happened here too,8217;8217; says Ferozmiya, who lost his wife and son.

The fear factor has been heightened after the police filed a case against activists Teesta Setalvad and Raees Khan. They were charged with instigating Muslim sentiments and digging up, without authorisation, the mass grave where bodies of 28 Pandarvada Muslims killed during the 2002 post-Godhra riots were buried by the administration.

Though it8217;s not enough to discourage the Kidiyad survivors altogether, it doesn8217;t dispell the fact that they don8217;t know what they are looking for.

Photos 038; Memories
AT an intellectual level, says Sindhi, Kidiyad8217;s survivors know there is no rationale for their suggestion that they look for the spot where their relatives may be buried.

But try voicing the scepticism in the Modasa colony, and the only response is an incredulous stare. The reports of the DNA tests to be carried out on the bones of the Pandarvada victims is their biggest defence, and perhaps the only one they need.

Their most prized possessions today are albums and half-burnt photographs of family members who are no more, retrieved from their destroyed homes in Kidiyad. These8212;and their memories8212;are the only indicators that the 61 8216;missing8217; lived.

8216;8216;There, on the left, that8217;s my wife Saiyeedabanu,8217;8217; says Bhikumiya. 8216;8216;Do you think we can find out anything about her now?8217;8217;

Ayubmiya, too, brings out a photograph from a locked trunk. 8216;8216;My wife and son,8217;8217; he says, holding the photo in both hands, fighting back tears.

Within minutes, others have crowded around with photos and albums. In group photos they point to a daughter or a son or a relative who is 8216;missing8217;. Almost all of them ask the same question: Do you think anything could be found?

Most of the 8216;missing8217;8212;at least among the few who were ever photographed, and those whose photographs survived the flames8212;are women and young children. There8217;s bright-eyed nine-year-old Ayub Mohammed Hanif, nicknamed 8216;Pinto8217;, smiling out of a photo. And then the innocent, olde worlde studio portrait of Ruksana Zahoor Sayed, 22. And then there are the photo ID cards issued by the Election Commission to Lalumiya Sindhi and Abedabibi Sindhi. They are the only visual proof of their existence.

Those not lucky enough to have been able to retrieve photos or albums have to borrow photographs clicked at family gatherings or weddings, where everyone squeezed together in one frame to 8216;smile please8217; for a look at their loved ones.

8216;8216;They live in photos for us. That is why they are so important. We could not even give them a proper burial,8217;8217; says 60-year-old Aminabibi Sindhi, the eldest lady in the colony. 8216;8216;Marne ka gham to hai, usse zyada to yeh gham hai ki ham unko theek se dafna nahi sake We are pained by their death, but more upset because we could not give them a decent burial.8217;8217;

8216;8216;And that is the reason for this desperate, logic-defying search: We want to give them a proper burial,8217;8217; says Ayubmiya Sindhi, who wants some evidence of his wife and son Ishan.

A New Beginning?
IN Kidiyad, the 50-odd Muslim families were into agriculture and various kinds of business and lived alongside 100-odd Hindu families. 8216;8216;But after the riots we only went there once to retrieve whatever we could from the ruins of our houses,8217;8217; says Rafiqmiya, who used to trade in buffaloes bought from Haryana.

8216;8216;Although there was apparent harmony between the communities, the affluence of some of the Muslim families in the village had become a source of resentment. During the riots, some of them turned against us. In fact, it was some Hindu families who offered us shelter until we could find the trucks to flee,8217;8217; says Aminabibi.

The survivors are also outraged that 12 of the 27 accused who were named in the FIR registered at Khanpur police station and subsequently arrested were let off by the court on October 11, 2002. The case was reopened after the Gujarat High Court admitted a state government plea to reopen the case on August 29, 2004, which has appeased the survivors somewhat.

8216;8216;All that is fine, but will we ever know what happened to our families?8217;8217; asks Ayubmiya, refusing to let go of the subject closest to his heart. 8216;8216;If they can at least tell us where they buried or dispersed the ashes taken from the trucks8230;8217;8217;

Today, the surviving families live in a cluster of houses built for them by NGOs in Modasa town. Most of the men, who once used to do business or farming, now work as masons or carpenters for daily wages. Some of them have launched snack stalls or small businesses.

8216;8216;We have either sold off our land in Kidiyad or have given it on lease to Hindu neighbours who are still our friends. They share the profits with us and we have no problems. We go there sometimes but conditions appear to be hostile still so we return before nightfall,8217;8217; says Zakirmiya.

While other riot victims have put behind the tragedy of the 2002 riots and started life afresh, for the Kidiyad survivors, the mystery of the missing 61 continues to haunt them. The Pandarvada case, they hope, could mark the beginning of the end.

Pandarvada tries to keep the faith

ABHISHEK KAPOOR

PANDARVADA: THE Pandarvada remains may not belong to Pandarvada. Only after the Forensic Science Laboratory in Hyderabad matches blood samples of those who survived the massacre on February 28, 2002, with DNA samples retrieved from the mass grave8212;uncovered on December 278212;will identity be established.

In the meantime, the survivors swing between hope and despair. On the one hand, of course, is the overriding desire to give their relatives a decent burial. On the other side lie the many indignities that come with taking on the authorities.

Over three days this past week, the Central Bureau of Investigation exhumed 20 bodies from the grave in a forest ravine area near Lunavada, and collected blood samples from their possible relatives. The action took away some of the sting delivered by the police FIR filed on December 28, charging 12 people with digging up the grave without the requisite permissions.

In between, the survivors have seen all the accused get acquitted in the lower courts, faced threats to withdraw cases, forced to sign affidavits praising government relief efforts and even had their sarpanch demand a cut from the compensation money.

BUT the survivors are kicked about at least one thing: The way in which they prised out the information about the location of the grave.

8216;8216;We managed to get hold of a municipality sweeper, who had been involved in the disposal of the bodies. We encouraged him to drink, and once he began talking, got him to tell us where the bodies were buried,8217;8217; says Gulam Kharadi, who now finds his name in the December 28 FIR.

It was one step closer to determining the whereabouts of the Pandarvada residents who died on February 28, 20028212;a day after a frenzied mob set the S-6 coach of Sabarmati Express on fire8212;after a Hindu mob attacked the 50-odd minority households in the village, some 50 km from Godhra. The eight accused were acquitted by a Godhra court on October 29, 2002.

Administration officials claim the unclaimed bodies of the victims were interred in the mass grave over March 2-3. And that is where they lay till the relatives themselves dug up the site. Officials are silent when asked why the administration itself did not inform relatives of the grave all these years.

THE administration also says that in October 2002, some riot survivors turned up to claim the bodies. All the 28 bodies were exhumed and eight were identified. These were handed over to relatives. The remaining 20 were buried again at the same site. For the record, compensations of Rs 90,000 and a Rs 60,000 bond were distributed among the next of those killed.

In October 2004, the Supreme Court ordered a re-investigation of the case; the probe is still on. Many of the accused, including the village sarpanch, were re-arrested and are out on bail since then.

In January 2005, Akilabibi Yasin Saiyad, Amina Habib Saiyad and Saleha Jabir Kharadi petitioned for a transfer of the case outside Gujarat, alongwith similar petitions for eight other cases, including the Kidiyad massacre.

But this is the closest they have come to burying their dead.