Survivors find it hard to forget

The dusty colony near Ahmedabads garbage dump at Pirana is where 183 riot-affected families from Naroda Patiya and Gulberg massacre have been re-located

The dusty colony near Ahmedabads garbage dump at Pirana is where 183 riot-affected families from Naroda Patiya and Gulberg massacre have been re-located. They call it Citizen Nagar. On Monday,most of the residents went to Gulberg Society to attend a programme to mark the 10th anniversary of the 2002 riots.

In House No. 24,Javed Saiyed,whose mother Noorbano Saiyed is a witness in the Naroda Patiya case,is among the few who skipped the function. But his mother went. I also wanted to go to Gulberg but could not as I am down with fever, says Saiyed,25. His family of eight three younger brothers,parents,wife and a two-year-old son live in the two-room-kitchen house.

Luckily,we all survived but that was a day I would not like to remember, says Saiyed who drives a dairy delivery van and an auto-rickshaw for a living.

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He says he frequently visits his Hindu friends in Kubernagar and Naroda. Many people have confessed they were instigated and misled by politicians, he says.

A decade after the incident,Javeds younger brother,Iqbal,18,is still struggling to move on. How can I forget children being killed,woman being molested and the dead bodies in Teesra Kuan? he says. Iqbal and younger brother Sabbir are drivers while Wasim,the youngest,is a casual labourer. Their father is also a truck driver.

A few yards away from Saiyeds house,15-year-old Salman sits in his shop. He has no memories of the day. Family members told him that rioters broke his head. I know nothing about it and nobody at my home talks of it anymore, he says.

In the same lane lives Hamida Pathan who runs a school for dropouts. We all survived but my husbands scrap business was ruined, says Pathan.

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There is a CISF outpost in the area to provide security to 28 witnesses in the Naroda Patiya case.

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