‘‘I told them, ‘You are like my brothers and uncles, please leave me alone.’ They made me chant slogans. We did everything they ordered us to do, and yet they didn’t spare me, killed my three-year-old daughter Saleha and the others.’’ Bilkis Yakub Rasool, who wears a cloak and rarely speaks, shudders as she recalls how, three days after the Godhra train attack, 14 of her relatives were killed and she was raped and left for dead. The mob included, she says, elders from her village, Randhikpur, in Dahod. ‘‘Before my marriage I used to visit their houses to supply milk. How could I not recognise them?’’ she asks. Bilkis went through several ordeals. First, watching her family being killed. Then, the rape. Finally, when she reached the Limkheda Police Station, ‘‘a senior police officer threatened me not to mention the names I was taking,’’ she says. She was taken to the Civil Hospital and treated for injuries. A relative alleges Bilkis was shifted to a separate ward when Sonia Gandhi visited the hospital on March 5. She was examined 20 days after the complaint. Her husband, Yaqub, says he didn’t know whether Bilkis was alive or dead till March 5 and met her 20 days after the incident. ‘‘Maine use Allah ko saunp diya tha,’’ he says. The couple’s lack of faith in the Gujarat police is justified. Of the 14 dead, only eight could be identified from the photographs the police showed to the couple after a few days. ‘‘We performed the last rites without ever seeing the bodies,’’ Yakub says. The couple used to live with Yaqub’s uncle in Randhikpur. The uncle got a compensation of Rs 7,000 while Yaqub’s family got Rs 10,000 for damage to the house. ‘‘We were not entitled for any government help because the body of Saleha (their daughter) was not found,’’ Yaqub says. As of now, Bilkis is ‘‘often lost in thought, she eats less and worries a lot. She never expresses her feelings,’’ says her new neighbour. She and her husband spend a life on the run with their daughter Hajra. They have to hide their identity after receiving threats from the accused. ‘‘Bilkis is often lost in thought. She eats little and worries a lot. She never expresses her feelings,’’ says her newest neighbour. But after a year and a half of living on a prayer, she finally sees some hope. ‘‘We never thought we will get justice, now we think we will.’’
