Ahmedabad: “It has been 22 years, yet I feel scared of going into Hindu dominant areas. I cannot even think of living there,” said Syed Noor Bano, a survivor of the 2002 Gujarat riots.
Bano is a former resident of Naroda Patiya – a formerly mixed neighbourhood of Ahmedabad, which saw communal massacres a day after the Godhra train burning on February 28, 2002 and the brutal murder of 96 Muslims.
Apart from being a survivor, Bano is also a witness of the Naroda Patiya massacre and had identified at least four rioters who killed and raped Muslims in the area.
Several witnesses like Bano were informed in December 2023 that the police is to withdraw their security cover. Many such witnesses were in the protected persons category since 2009.
This decision has been taken 15 years after the Supreme Court-appointed special investigation team formed a witness protection cell for the complainants/witnesses of the 2002 riots. The Gujarat government has now withdrawn security cover of various witnesses, lawyers of victims and even a judge who convicted 32 accused in the Naroda Patiya case.
In 2009, the Supreme Court had recommended that the SIT must form a special witness protection cell considering the gravity of the the nine cases that it was dealing with.
Unprotected, uncertain
Mohammed Abdul Hameed Sheikh lives in Ahmedabad’s Citizen Nagar, an area which is particularly distinguishable because of its rugged roads, worn out signboards, overwhelming stench of chemicals and heaps of garbage which cast a shadow on the life of the residents of the area. Citizen Nagar houses more than 50 Muslim families who were displaced in the 2002 riots and have been living here for the past 22 years now.
Sheikh, also a witness, feels that the decision to withdraw security of the witnesses was ‘planned’ to expose them to vulnerabilities that are associated with their lives as being witnesses to crimes committed against Muslims.
“Who will listen to us? If we urge them to restore our security cover, I don’t think it will make a difference,” said Sheikh
Sheikh’s house in Citizen Nagar has two identities, one is his address and the other is termed “CISF 22”, the label his house wears for belonging to a protected witness.
Former principal city sessions judge Jyotsna Yagnik, who had convicted 32 of the accused in the Naroda Patiya case involving the massacre of 97 people, is also among those who have lost police protection. She had two layers of security assigned to her after she received threats. The Wire spoke to Yagnik, who refrained from commenting on the matter.
This story was originally published in thewire.in. Read the full story here .