28Feb2013

08, May 2017

February 28, 2013

FORGOTTEN CITIZENS OF 2002

Victim Survivors
of 2002 who are also IDPs (internally displaced persons) continue to
languish in sub-human conditions eleven years after the state
sponsored massacre which saw the brutal killings of over 2,000
members of the minority community and rendered thousands homeless.

A year long
protest programme to demand dignified rehabilitation from
the Gujarat government will be launched from CitizenÂ’s Nagar, Bombay
Hotel area from Thursday, February 28 2013, the eleventh anniversary
of the pogrom. A detailed memorandum highlighting the many demands
of the residents of Citizens Nagar, Faisal Park and Ekta Nagar will
be released and submitted to the Gujarat government thereafter.
Until these demands are met the protest will continue and extend to
other rehabilitation colonies and IDPs living all over Gujarat.The
memorandum will be accompanied by a detailed survey of 239 homes
from these localities.

The Gujarat government has shown scant respect to the Millennium
Development Goals for Gujaratis in general and particularly for the
Victim Survivors of 2002. The CJP will assist IDP communities all
over Gujarat throughout the state to ensure regularization of their
lands and homes, the provision of safe drinking water and sanitation
facilities, access to primary health and education.

Together we
participated in the Remembrance Prayers today as also the launch for
this campaign of the Forgotten Citizens of Gujarat for Justice
and Dignity. We stood in solidarity with our sisters and
brothers, the forgotten citizens of 2002 at Citizens Nagar, Bombay
Hotel even as a Brutal Story of Exclusion and Torture of the
Mustifabhai Ismailbhai Patel family at Virangam continues in Gujarat
today.

Threats and
Exclusion faced by Muslim Hotelier in Viramgam, Gujarat (2013)

Background:
A
hotelier since 1986, Shri Patel is being brutally victimised since
24.5.2012 and his hotel, Jyoti Hotel that he has been successfully
running for decades, has been closed since 9.2.2013. Threats from
Dasrathbhai and Ajmalbhai Gohil (captured on CD) with relatives DD
Barat, working as Upsachiv in “Pipo” department at Gandhinagar have
made his life a living hell. Shri Patel has gone for court
proceedings and a Court Commission was set up on 22.2.2013 after
which the hotel has been legally restored to him. He went to open it
thereafter but even as he did so within 20 minutes 15-20 men along
with the Gohils threatened him. Viramgam rural police have refused
to give him protection (Viramgam PSI Rathwa and DSP Gagandeep
Gambhir). The Patels contacted DD Barat the influential relative
from Sachivalayas who further threatened him, “why have you done the
case? we are in government…” Shri Patel will speak to us all and
distribute the CDs that show the vile behaviour of the criminals.
Shri Patel had also suffered significant loss when Jyoti hotel had
been attacked and the hotel destroyed in 2002.