The face behind Gujarat’s foetus headline

Sheikh was a paint contractor who earned around Rs 4,000 a month. Until February 28, he had two houses in Naroda Patiya. He had two children: Kausar, in her early thirties, and a younger married son.

Kausar’s was a love marriage. She and her unemployed husband, Shahid Sheikh, stayed with her father. Shahid is said to be alive, but nobody at Shah Alam knows his whereabouts.

Sheikh’s neighbours, who are also at the relief camp, remember Kausar as a quiet person, who ‘‘would speak only when spoken to’’. ‘‘She wasn’t educated, but she had learnt diamond-cutting and polishing. She didn’t work, though,’’ says her father. His son Sharmuddin, his wife and two children lived with Sheikh. ‘‘We were a 12-member joint family. My wife’s sister and her family of four also stayed with us,’’ he says. Only three of the 12 — Sheikh, his son-in-law and his wife’s sister’s son — survived.

A day before the massacre, Sheikh says he took Kausar to a hospital in Kalupur for a medical check-up. ‘‘She was complaining of pain. The doctor said she was likely to deliver in a day or two.’’

On February 28, Sheikh was leaving for work when he heard loud shouts outside. ‘‘We all tried to flee. The mob hit me with sticks and tried to douse me with petrol. I managed to escape and reach a nearby dhaba, where I lost consciousness. When I regained consciousness after 28 hours, I went back to see only ruins. Some policemen escorted me to a nearby chawl, from where I was brought to the relief camp.’’ Reshmabano Nadibbhai Sayed, one of Sheikh’s neighbours, says, ‘‘Ever since chacha heard about the gory killing, he has turned insane with grief.’’ Reshmabano says she witnessed Kausar’s killing. ‘‘As Kausar was being dragged out of her home, she kept screaming, pleading with the mob to take away her money, her valuables, but spare her and her unborn child. But they pulled out the baby and threw it into the fire along with Kausar’s body. When her mother tried to intervene, she was burnt as well. When an old man hears all this, won’t he be affected?’’

Sheikh says he will never return to Naroda Patiya.‘‘I will go back to Bangalore, where my mother-in-law lives. My life is over, but I want to see the murderers of my daughter brought to book before I die,’’ he says.