Prahlad Raju said the VHP and Bajrang Dal activists passed through Meghaninagar
in large numbers early that day. They were out to enforce the bandh
called by the VHP. He said he joined the groups at about 8:30am.
He said many activists were carrying tridents in their belts. Mangilal
Jain added that many in the mob also had sticks and carted litres of
petrol in their cars. According to Madan Chawal, some in the mob were
also carrying firearms. Chawal said that soon after the VHP activists
arrived, someone set a shop owned by a Muslim on fire. At this point,
Chawal, who ran a grocery here, also joined the mob.
WHO
LED THE MOB?
Chawal, Jain and Raju said that two VHP leaders — Atul Vaid and
Bharat Teli — and a local Congress leader Megh Singh were leading
the mob.
HOW
EHSAN JAFRI WAS KILLED
Soon, the mob gheraoed Gulbarg society. While there were 30 to 35 Muslim
families residing in the society, poor Muslims from adjoining slums
had also taken shelter within the compound. Since the gates of the society
were closed and the boundary walls enclosing the society were high,
a few in the mob blasted the wall from the front and the rear.
Chawal said, “The mob took cylinders from other houses. The cylinders
were placed along the wall and set afire… resulting in an explosion
that damaged the almost two-feet thick wall.” He said some from
the mob scaled the almost 20-foot wall by rope. Alarmed at the mob ambushing
the complex, Jafri began to make frantic calls to police officers and
political leaders. When nothing seemed to work, the accused told TEHELKA,
Jafri opened fire on the mob and injured a few people. Then he offered
the mob money pleading for them to spare him and the other Muslims in
Gulbarg. At this, the mob told him to come down to them with the money.
Jain said that as soon as he stepped out, Jafri dropped the money on
the ground and tried to rush back. But the mob pounced on him. Chawal
recalled the killing: “Paanch-chheh jan pakad liye the, phir
usko jaise pakad ke khada rakha phir logon mein se kisi ne talwar maari…
haath kaate… haath kaat ke phir pair kaate… phir na sab
kaat dala… phir tukde kar ke phir lakda jo lagaye thhe, lakde
uspe rakh ke phir jala daala… zinda jala daala… (Five
or six people held him, then someone struck him with a sword…
chopped off his hand, then his legs… then everything else…
after cutting him to pieces, they put him on the wood they’d piled
and set it on fire… burnt him alive…)”
After killing Jafri, the mob dragged out other Muslims and slaughtered
them and set them on fire. At around 4.30 in the evening, the police
finally dispersed the mob and the survivors were rescued.
THE
COMPLICIT POLICE
According to the three accused, the police not only gave them a free
hand, but also exhorted the rioters to kill Muslims. Mangilal Jain said
that the police inspector in-charge of Meghaninagar police station,
KG Erda told the rioters that they had three to four hours to carry
out killings. TEHELKA found that the police inspector had given this
time since extra forces were expected to be in Ahmedabad that evening.
Jain said some in the police kept away, indicating to the rioters that
they were to do whatever they wished in those few hours. This further
fuelled the mob’s frenzy all over Ahmedabad and led to the deaths
of many more Muslims.
Raju also told TEHELKA that police personnel deployed in the area not
only stood back but signalled to the rioters to go for the kill. Erda
arrived to “rescue” the survivors after the massacre was
almost over. At this point, relates Chawal, the rioters approached Erda
and told him he was not doing the right thing as the survivors could
testify against them. So Erda came up with a heinous plan — as
the van carrying the survivors drew away from Gulbarg, the rioters were
to pelt stones at it so the constable on the vehicle could claim to
have been scared off. He would flee and the mob could then torch it.
But the plan could not be executed because of the timely intervention
of a Muslim inspector called Pathan, Chawal said.
