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Mass grave found in Gujarat
03-01-2006
Ahmedabad:
A case was filed on Monday against 11 persons, including a field officer of an NGO which is working for the riot-affected victims, on charges of illegally digging up the mass grave near Lunavda in Panchmahal district of Gujarat, police sources said.
Relatives of victims of the 2002 violence against Muslims in Gujarat claimed to have exhumed skeletal remains from a mass grave in Panchamahal district of those believed to have been killed in the riots.
The sanitary inspector of the Lunawada municipality on Monday filed complaints with the police against NGO activist Raees Khan Pathan and 10 others for ‘illegally' digging up the graves near Panam river on December 27.
Riaz Khan, Field Coordinator for Teesta's NGO, who hails from the village concerned, said the relatives had dug the spot and found numerous skeletons and clothes which they suspect may have belonged to their relatives who were killed during the violence in 2000.
He said they had informed the local police about the 'findings'. Setalvad said her writ petition in the high court last Wednesday would seek reinvestigation of the case which should be handed over to Central Bureau of Investigation.
Pathan told HT that the riverbank was not a notified graveyard and thus the digging was not ‘illegal’. He said the FIR was aimed at derailing the process of DNA testing.
State DGP A.K. Bhargava said it was illegal to dig up graves without permission.
London based advocacy group, Council of Indian Muslims — UK (CIM) has deplored the filing of cases against Muslims, who discovered a mass grave in Gujarat, as outrageous and travesty with justice. “This is what the minorities, specially Muslims, can expect under the fascist Chief Minister like Narendra Modi.” CIM’s chairman, Munaf Zeena, said in a statement issued today.
“Punishing the victims for discovering the proof of the crimes of the fascist regime and its supporters and accusing them of destroying evidence is unprecedented in legal history. The Central Government must immediately intervene and cases against the innocent people must be immediately withdrawn while an inquiry must be conducted by the CBI.” Zeena demanded.
“The way Gujarat Government has reacted to the discovery of mass grave in Pandharwada and Lunavada creates doubts that there are other mass graves that the perpetrators of crimes against humanity are scared of being uncovered.”
Earlier, reacting to the digging out of skeletal remains from a mass grave, chairperson of the All India Congress Committee's media department Ambika Soni accused Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi of "always attempting" to run the state instilling "fear and social tension" among people.
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