Author: Sanjay Pandey
Publication: The Times of India
Date: May 25, 2002
The riots in Ahmedabad really had
the victims on the run. Families fled their homes and took refuge in relief
camps, where they are staying till today. Many even left Gujarat, especially
those who were migrants from other states. But the fact which many don't
know is that a large group of Muslims of Ahmedabad have even left the country.
The Bangladeshi press reported the
arrival of nearly 200 Muslims from Ahmedabad on May 5 except that the reports
described them as Indian Muslims and not Bangladeshis. The group, all residents
of the slums near Chandola lake in Ahmedabad, reached Calcutta by train
and then found their way across the Bangladesh border from Hakimpur dodging
both the Border Security Force and the Bangladesh Rifles. Most of them
are now staying in the Bangladesh districts of Kalia and Kalaroa.
Sources in the police here said
that this group could be just one of the many groups of Bangladeshis from
Ahmedabad to have fled the riot-torn city and landed up in their own country,
2000 kms away, such was the fear of the marauding mobs.
There are still thousands of Bengali
Muslim migrants currently living in Ahmedabad mainly living on encroached
land on the periphery of Chandola lake and Malek Saban stadium in Danilimbda
and Bapunagar area respectively Police officials say that it is difficult
to distinguish between migrants from West Bengal and Bangladesh because
all of them say they belong to Calcutta.
Interestingly, six months back the
Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) demanded immediate deportation of these illegal
Bangladeshi Muslims immigrants from the city after Hindus were targeted
by fundamentalists in Bangladesh before the general elections.
"The parishad was always of the
view that every infiltrator in the country be identified and thrown out,"
says Kaushik Mehta, joint general secretary, VHP (Gujarat).
Meanwhile, at Chandola Lake, several
empty burnt dwellings can be spotted on eastern fringes of the lake once
inhabited by these migrants. Hindu residents of the Chandola area however
allege that the Bangladeshis were not victims but perpetrators of violence.
"They came in large numbers and attacked my house. They looted everything
and put it on fire," says Vidyaben Chunara, a resident of Nilgiri Na Chapra
on the fringes of Chandola lake.
Locals allege that when communal
frenzy was at its crescendo in the wake of post-Godhra massacre, Bangladeshis
outnumbered them and burnt around 200 houses. "They are still hiding in
Shah-e-Alam, Millatnagar and Juhapura areas," adds Chunara. The residents
also said that these Bangladeshi migrants were involved in Illegal activities
like brewing hooch and begging. This is however contradicted by press reports
in Bangladesh which describe the refugees as vegetable sellers.
Though Ahmedabad has around 40,000
Bengali Muslims from West Bengal in gold jewellery workshops since mid-seventies,
recent increase in Bangladeshi migrants raised concern among Sangh Parivar
outfits. "They are not able to speak Bangla and follow a different kind
of lifestyle, unlike Bengali Muslims," says Santu Ibrahim Israfil, a gold
jewellery craftsman hailing from Hooghly district. There are about 5000
gold workshops in Seth Ni Pole in the Walled City in Ratanpole area owned
by Bengali Muslims catering to jewellers in Ahmedabad. "We have no idea
about them. They keep large families and are mostly into begging and vegetable
vending," says Dinbandhu Mandal, another gold artisan from Midnapur.
