Spare our neighbours, Hindu women tell cops

Their actions have been questioned more than once in the two months since Godhra. But on Thursday, the Ahmedabad police were stopped in thei...

Their actions have been questioned more than once in the two months since Godhra. But on Thursday, the Ahmedabad police were stopped in their tracks by an unusual group: Hindu women of Mochi Aul locality, who stood in front of the cops and turned them away from their Muslim neighbours, telling them they were firing at the wrong group.

After two Muslim youths of the locality in Delhi Darwaja area — a minority-dominated area with seven Hindu families, and a mosque and temple next to each other — received injuries reportedly in police firing, Hindu women stepped forward to stop it. They alleged that the police were targeting their neighbours even though they had been attacked by Muslims from across the road. They said they had lived in peace for decades and wouldn’t let the police destroy it now. Protesting, the cops beat a retreat.

The incident took place in the afternoon, when five crude bombs were hurled towards Mochi Aul. In no time, mobs had gathered on both sides and brickbatting started. The police lobbed teargas shells and opened fire. Residents say two youths in Mochi Aul, which falls in the Dariapur police station area, were injured in the firing.

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But the police deny this. The Dariapur police say they fired only one round, while the Madhavpura police maintain they did not fire at all. Says R.H. Rathod, Senior Police Inspector of Dariapur police station: ‘‘We fired only one round from a .410 Musket and one person was injured on the leg.’’ While Senior Inspector of Madhavpura police station G.C. Rawat was not available for comment, inquiries at the police station reveal the Madhavpura police had resorted to firing. According to the on-duty Police Station Officer (PSO), they had fired two rounds and lobbed 22 teargas shells, ‘‘but within our limits’’. That doesn’t solve the firing mystery as the youths were injured in the Dariapur area.

But the people of the area aren’t bothered about who but why the firing took place. Asks Dabhumasi: ‘‘I have been staying here for almost 60 years and the boys in this locality have always taken care of me as if I am their mother. Nothing has ever happened here. Then why are my children being targeted by the police?’’

Adds Chandrikaben Lodha, carrying her one-year-old child: ‘‘The Madhavpura police were standing across the road and aiming at us. And when we sought to know the reason they were targeting us, they waved their lathis at us. Is it our crime that we stay united?’’

Another resident is more direct. ‘‘The 19-year-old son of Rawat (the Senior Police Inspector, Madhavpura police station) was killed in Mirzapur during the 1998 riots. So he is targeting us. But did we kill his son?’’

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