Mayank vs Gujaratriots.com

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Sun, 13/11/11, Mayank Gupta  wrote:

From: Mayank Gupta
Subject: Correction Needed on Your Website
To: “admin” <admin@gujaratriots.com>
Date: Sunday, 13 November, 2011, 12:56 PM

Hi,

The Page http://www.gujaratriots.com/27/myth-2-muslims-were-%E2%80%98butchered%E2%80%99-in-gujarat/
need couple of corrections.

1. On 23 March 2002, 50 Hindu shops were burnt in Ahmedabad’s Revdi
Bazaar that caused a loss of 15 crore rupees.

Correction: The article by timesofindia does not mention that 50 shops
burned belonged to Hindus. How did you come to the conclusion?

2. They did not allow the police and the Army to search for criminals
in their areas. They pelted the police and even the Army with bullets
and stones, when they arrived to conduct search operations in Muslim
areas.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Ahmedabad/Rioters-torch-50-shops-at-Revdi-Bazaar/articleshow/4609603.cms

Correction: The indiatoday article does not say that people pelted
police or army with bullets and stones. Please correct it.
http://www.indiatoday.com/itoday/20020415/states.shtml

Regards,
Mayank Gupta

OUR ANSWER:

1. On 23 March 2002, 50 Hindu shops were burnt in Ahmedabad’s Revdi Bazaar that caused a loss of 15 crore rupees.

Correction: The article by timesofindia does not mention that 50 shops
burned belonged to Hindus. How did you come to the conclusion?

Answer: Quoting from that Times of India article “Local residents and shopowners who have suffered heavy losses due to the arson said the situation in Panchkuva had been tense soon after daybreak. “since morning, there were instances of stone-throwing and abortive attacks on local shopkeepers and their residences. Matters turned worse after a mob attack on the Sindhi market was foiled by SRP personnel stationed at the site. the mob then turned its fury on the Revdi Bazaar and started sprinkling acid, oil, petrol and inflammable chemicals on cloth shops. the next thing we knew, our shops were ablaze,” said Balram Thavani, a former BJP corporator and a local shop owner.”  Since Balram Thavani is a Hindu, and his shop was set afire, it is obvious that it was an attack on Hindus. Had it been an attack of shops on Muslims, the Times of India would have definitely written “50 shops belonging to minority community were set on fire”. Since it mentions a Hindu shop-owners’ shop being set afire, it is clear that this is an attack on Hindus. (Also, it is a well-established fact that this was a minority mob attacking Hindus, you can ask this to anyone who lives in Ahmedabad’s  Revdi Bazaar area).
 
Also, in another report months later, The Times of India said, “Property worth almost Rs 5 crore was destroyed in a devastating fire which gutted nearly 60 wholesale cloth stores in the Revdi Bazar area of Ahmedabad at 2.45 am on Tuesday night. Police said the fire was caused by a short-circuit. The market had been set on fire during the peak of the riots some months ago. Most of the shops belonged to Sindhi businessmen who have suffered a loss for the second time in recent months….Gopalbhai Keshwani, the owner of a gutted cloth shop, said, “Ill luck seems to be dogging the shopkeepers of Revdi Bazaar. Just three months ago our shops were set on fire by rioters in the Mirgawad area of Revdi Bazaar.” Gulshanbhai R Shabnam, owner of Vijay Laxmi Fabrics, said, “The upper storey of my shop was packed with brand new sarees and costly fabrics. I don’t how will I rebuild by business from this heap of ash.” http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2002-07-31/ahmedabad/27303398_1_cloth-shops-fire-tenders-shop-owner
 
Since these names are of Hindu shop-owers whose shops were torched by rioters in March 2002- it is clear that these were 50 Hindu shops burnt by Muslims. Also see the word “Sindhi businessmen who shops were burnt in March 2002” which clearly shows that they were Hindu shops. Also that Times of India article of March 2002 says “Matters turned worse after a mob attack on the Sindhi market was foiled by SRP personnel stationed at the site. The mob then turned its fury on the Revdi Bazaar and started sprinkling acid, oil, petrol and inflammable chemicals on cloth shops.” India Today weekly says in its issue of April 15, 2002 “….Next (After 17 March 2002) , the Sindhi Market and Bhanderi Pole araeas of Ahmedabad, hitherto calm, were attacked by mobs. This phase, really was one of Muslim mobs attacking Hindus.“ http://archives.digitaltoday.in/indiatoday/20020415/states.html This shows that the attack on Sindhi market, which India Today says was done by Muslims, was foiled by the police and after that the mob (i.e. Muslims) attacked Ahmedabad’s Revdi Bazaar, burning Hindu shops.
 
 

2. They did not allow the police and the Army to search for criminals in their areas. They pelted the police and even the Army with bullets
and stones, when they arrived to conduct search operations in Muslim areas.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Ahmedabad/Rioters-torch-50-shops-at-Revdi-Bazaar/articleshow/4609603.cms

Correction: The India Today article does not say that people pelted
police or army with bullets and stones. Please correct it.
http://www.indiatoday.com/itoday/20020415/states.shtml

 

Answer: The India Today weekly report dated 20 May 2002 says-”A series of attacks on policemen by Muslims has further added to the lack of faith. Now, strapped with the anti-Muslim label, the police has been slow in acting against Muslim fanatics”.

This will contain the above sentence in the 6th paragraph from the top.

Yes you are right when you say that that India Today article does not say that people (i.e. Muslims) pelted Police or Army with bullets or stones. But it is true. One has to read between the lines and understand what happened. We have not said that India Today says that Police and Army were pelted with stones, we have said that it just says that they cut off power lines and formed human chains to allow Muslims to flee with weapons at night. But even though India Today does not explicitly say so in this article, it happened. In the next article of 20 May 2002, India Today says, “A series of attacks by Muslims on policemen has further added to the lack of faith.” On 21 April 2002, in Ahmedabad’s Gomtipur area, a police constable (A Hindu- his name was Amar Patil) was killed by Muslims. India Today says this in its issue of 20 May 2002- that a police constable was killed in Gomtipur (Muslim area) on 21 April 2002. In that issue, it also says, “By nightfall, the death toll had crossed the 940 mark when a group of Muslims in Ahmedabad’s Shah Alam area drew Hindus out by throwing bombs at their homes in the Maninagar area and then launched a fierce attack with country-made weapons and crude bombs. BSF jawans who intervened were fired upon before they killed five of the attackers and arrested several with a huge quantity of weapons including a country-made cannon…”http://archives.digitaltoday.in/indiatoday/20020520/states.html

This shows that Muslims attacked police and also attacked the Army (BSF Jawans) with bullets. Many policemen lost their lives in the Gujarat riots trying to control the violence. The encyclopedia wikipedia reported that as many as 200 policemen gave their lives trying to quell violence in Gujarat though I feel this number is impossible. We have official records revealing that as many as 552 security personnel were injured trying to control the riots- 83 officers, 419 men and 50 Home Guard. The number of security men who gave their lives is not told here in these records. A series of attacks on policemen by Muslims means attacks with stones and bullets only. Also, it is well-known that there were and maybe still are places in Ahmedabad which are so densely populated by Muslims that even the police didn’t dare to go there- like Juhapura.

 

From: Mayank Gupta
To: Gujaratriots.com Admin <gujaratriots2002@yahoo.com>
Sent: Monday, 14 November 2011 7:49 AM
Subject: Re: Challenge To Gujarat Riots Team
Hi,

Thanks for the reply. (We had said we would get back to him in 4-5 days, hence he said this). I would like to point out another mistake in the article.

The article http://www.india-today.com/itoday/20020422/states.shtml
does not mention Police saving over 24,000 Muslims. It only talks about 2,500 Muslims saved in Sanjeli.

OUR ANSWER:

However, it is not merely this act that is record. Like in Sanjeli, 5,000 Muslims were saved in Bodeli, a town in Vadodara district, from a crowd of over 7,000. The following is another report quoted from India Today dated 8 April 2002:

“When a Muslim woman was burnt alive by Hindu zealots, (in Viramgam, not far from Ahmedabad) the minorities, who constitute almost 30 % of the 70,000-odd population went on the rampage. Soon, nearly 15,000 Hindus from nearby villages encircled Viramgam and targeted the Muslim localities in the town. It took some deft handling by the police and the Army to save the day.”

http://archives.digitaltoday.in/indiatoday/20020408/states2.html

And in the 22 April issue- India Today says-

“…Take Sanjeli. In the carnage that ensued after the February 27 Godhra killings, 8,000 armed tribals descended on the town of 8,000 in the tribal heartland of Dahod district. Bows, stones and gunshots rained on the fleeing Muslims, killing 15. Police intervention meant another 2,500 were spared a savage death … In an identical display of insanity, around 7,000 armed tribals marched into Bodeli town in Chotte-Udepur tribal area of Vadodara district intent on massacring the Muslims who had taken shelter there after being driven out of the neighbouring villages. While hundreds were saved by the police, Vadodara District Collector Bhagyesh Jha and other senior officers were fired upon by tribals as they tried to rescue the trapped Muslims.

Tragedy was also averted by the police and army at Viramgam town near Ahmedabad where over 15,000 Hindus, mostly armed OBC Thakores, burnt 250 Muslim houses…”

http://www.india-today.com/itoday/20020422/states.shtml

It is mentioned in that article that Muslims were nearly 30% of the 70,000 strong town of Viramgam, i.e. their number there was around 21,000. That is to say, the Gujarat police and the Indian Army together saved thousands of Muslims, of the 21,000-odd of the town. If we assume that there was no police or Army presence, 10,000 Muslims of the town may have been killed.  Though India Today does not give the exact number of Muslims saved in Bodeli, merely saying “Hundreds were saved”, this writer (i.e. me, Admin of this website) personally met the India Today correspondent and asked him about the number of Muslims who were saved in Bodeli and Viramgam and got the answer “At least 5000 in Bodeli. Had it not been for the police and the Army, they would have killed 20,000 in Viramgam.” But even assuming the least estimate of 10,000 in Viramgam, 5000 in Bodeli and 2500 in Sanjeli we already get 17,500 Muslims saved. It is well-known in Bodeli that 5,000 Muslims were saved by the police.

It was also mentioned by the Gujarat Government in an ad given in India Today weekly dated 6 May 2002 that there were 5000 Muslims saved in Bodeli. Though this number was given by the Gujarat Government itself in an ad, this incident was also independently reported by the weekly and has also been mentioned by the SC-appointed SIT. Hence it is absolutely correct that 5000 were saved in Bodeli, like 2500 in Sanjeli.

The website www.indianembassy.org seems to be an official site of the Indian Embassy in USA. It says-

 “In Mora village of Panchmahal district, SDM, Mamlatdar and police rushed to the spot where the crowd was gathered, dispersed the crowd and saved the lives of 400 people by shifting them to a safe place.
On receipt of information on 3rd March 2002 a madarsa in Asoj, in Vagodia, Vadodara district was likely to be attacked, nearly 40 persons including 22 children were evacuated to a safe place.
On the night of 2/3 March 2002, in Dahod, the police escorted over 2000 persons belonging to minority community to a safe place, rescuing them from the mob that had gathered from surrounding 28 villages.
In Surat city, protection was provided to about 60 persons and mosque in Nana Varacha area.
On receipt of information that some women and children were trapped in a mosque, Surat police escorted them to a safe place.
On receipt of information that 100 persons were trapped near Rita society opposite Yateem Khana Jain Mandir, the police immediately rushed there and dispersed the mob, but found no persons trapped inside. Surat police immediately provided protection requested for by 12-15 houses of Muslims near Khoja Masjid.”
 
And this is not the complete story! Times of India also reports in its online edition that police escorted 400 Muslims to safety from Naroda Patiya on 28 Feb night. Since the 17,000 strong- mob was bent on killing 1,000 Muslims in Naroda Patiya, and the final toll (revised after 7 years when all missing were declared dead) was 95- revised from 84, it shows that police saved 900 Muslims in Naroda Patiya. In the Ehsan Jafri case as well, close to 200 Muslims were saved by the police, as there were 250 people inside the housing complex and the mob killed 68 (revised toll after all missing were declared dead after 7 years). This despite the fact that the Police were overwhelmingly outnumbered by the mob. Such cases adding up do give us sufficient reason to believe that 24,000 Muslims were saved.
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