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N
E W S October
26, 2003: Gujarat, India Three activists -Teesta Setalvad, journalist and women's rights activist; Rais Khan Azeezkhan Pathan, social activist; and Suhel Tirmizi, advocate - have been receiving anonymous telephone calls threatening their lives if they continue to work with the witness of the communal violence in Gujarat in February 2002. The three activists are involved in protecting Zahira Sheikh, a prime witness in that Best Bakery case. Fourteen people were killed at the Best Bakery, many of them burned to death, in Vadodara, Gujarat on March 1, 2002. A Gujarat state court acquitted 21 people
accused of the killings after witnesses withdrew statements they had given
to the police identifying the attackers. Key witnesses to the massacre
include the daughter and wife of the bakery owner. Zahira Sheikh, 19,
the daughter of the bakery owner, told India's National Human Rights Commission
(NHRC) that she was forced to change her testimony for fear of her security
and as a result of threats against her family during the trial. Setalvad,
Pathan, and Tirmizi have been providing protection and legal assistance
to Sheikh and her family, including moving them to a secure location outside
of Gujarat. The three activists are being harassed and
intimidated for their efforts to protect witnesses, Human Rights Watch
wrote in a letter
to the Indian government in September. "The Indian government must
demonstrate that it's on the side of justice, not those who organized
this massacre," said Brad Adams, executive director of the Asia Division
of Human Rights Watch. "These three activists are trying to stand
up to a state government that has done little to bring about accountability
for thousands of victims and now they themselves are targets." Even prior to the involvement of these three
individuals in the Best Bakery case, they had received intermittent threats
regarding their active involvement in extending legal aid and rehabilitation
to the victims of the Gujarat carnage. However, after their open involvement
in the Best Bakery case, the threats have intensified and increased considerably.
Teesta Setalvad received threats on her cellular phone in filthy language
that if she continued her work related to the Best Bakery case is not
stopped forth. Raees Khan Azeezkhan Pathan, who lives opposite a high
school, was physically surrounded and threatened by a mob of over 100
persons belonging to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal on the
premises of the Shah-Nanavaty Commission in Ahmedabad on Friday, August
29, 2003, as he was escorting some witnesses in the Gulberg society massacre
to the premises. The communal violence in Gujarat began on
February 27, 2002, over allegations that a Muslim mob in the town of Godhra
had attacked and set fire to two carriages of a train carrying Hindu activists.
Fifty-eight people were killed. Over the next three days a retaliatory
killing spree by Hindus left thousands dead and tens of thousands homeless
in Gujarat. A Human Rights Watch report on the violence, "We
Have No Orders to Save You", concluded that Gujarat state officials
were directly involved in the killings and engaged in a massive cover-up.
A follow-up report by Human Rights Watch,
"Compounding
Injustice: The Government's Failure to Redress Massacres in Gujarat",
published in July 2003, concluded that the massacre's ringleaders were
still at large. Human Rights Watch has asked the Indian government to
take over investigations in cases where the state government has hampered
litigation. Although the central government initially boasted of thousands
of arrests following the attacks, most of those arrested have since been
acquitted, released on bail with no further action taken, or simply let
go. Even when cases have reached trial, Muslim victims faced biased prosecutors
and judges, harassment and intimidation. On August 20, 2003, the three human rights
defenders requested police protection from Gujarat's chief secretary and
director general of police and the police commissioner of Ahmedabad. There
has been no response to date. The defenders also filed an application
for protection before the Supreme Court of India on September 1, 2003,
and are still waiting for an answer. - Immediately provide proper and adequate
protection to Teesta The NHRC had also questioned the role of
the Gujarat government in protecting the victims of last year's Gujarat
riots. They indicated that the regulation on witness protection should
oblige the state to provide witnesses and victims with protection from
any physical harm or psychological threats. For the witnesses to come
forward, a witness protection and support program should be implemented
immediately in Gujarat. The witness protection program should also be
extended to activist and human rights workers, and should be available
for witnesses before, during, and after the trial, for so long as threats
to their security remain. The outcome of the Best Bakery case may be critical for the entire justice process related to the Gujarat carnage. Activists have expressed that to regain confidence in the government, a fair trial must be held for the offenders, preferably outside of Gujarat. And that a failure to enforce the law would hurt India's credibility in the eyes of the international community. Copyright
©The Sikh Sentinel 2003 |