Eighty-seven-year-old Zakia Jafri passed away on February 1, 2025. But our country’s judiciary did not give her justice till the end. The heinous incident of Gulbarg Society was not carried out by just an agitated mob, a very big personality was behind it.
Doubts arise because despite the police commissioner of Ahmedabad and the local police coming to Gulbarg Society and assuring Ehsan Jafri, an unforgettable incident took place. And Zakia Jafri passed away without getting the justice she deserved from our judiciary for the death of her husband.
That is why I feel very ashamed as a citizen of this country and I feel the pain of Zakia Jafri leaving this world.
Also read: Zakia Jafri Leaves Behind a Legacy of Resilience and Quiet Dignity
Gulbarg Society is located in Chamanpura, a central area of Ahmedabad city. On February 28, 2002, the very first day of the riots in Gujarat after the Godhra train burning, from 7:30 AM to 4:30 PM, Chamanpura locality was surrounded by 20,000-25,000 rioters.
An FIR was registered against them by G. Irda, then senior inspector of Meghani Nagar police station, but the rioters continued to commit incidents of vandalism and arson.
Former MP Ehsan Jafri, who was a resident of Gulbarg Society, had a visitor that day – P.C. Pandey, then police commissioner of Ahmedabad.
A chronology of events that followed
At 10:30 AM, Commissioner Pandey, along with Congress’s ward no. 19 general secretary Ambalal Nadia and ward no. 20 Kannulal Solanki, met Ehsan Jafri and assured him that “we have made all arrangements for your safety.”
By this time, most residents of the society and people living in the area had taken shelter to save their lives. At 10:35 AM, Jhahir Bakery and an autorickshaw in that area were set on fire.
Between 11:15 AM and 11:30 AM, stone pelting had started in Gulbarg Society.
Between 12:15 PM and 12:45 PM, larger stones were thrown from the roof of a non-Muslim neighbour, while acid bulbs and cloth balls on fire also continued to be thrown at the society.
In the same commotion, someone named Yusuf was caught and burnt.
Around 2:30 PM to 3:45 PM, mobs started breaking in from the gates of Gulbarg Society facing the railway line. A person named Anwar was picked up from the nearby Sansar Bakery and his body was chopped into pieces and burnt.
Around 3:30 PM, Ehsan Jafri was pulled out from his apartment in Gulbarg Society, stripped naked and beaten up. He was taken out in a procession and asked to chant “Vande Mataram” and “Jai Shri Ram”.
This went on for 45 minutes.
First, his fingers were chopped off. Then his hands and feet were chopped off, his neck was sliced like a dead animal and his head was thrown into the fire.
Along with Ehsan, his three brothers, two nephews and a man named Munnavar Sheikh – one of the people who had come to take shelter – were also chopped into pieces and thrown into the fire.
Between 3:30 PM and 4:30 PM, at least 10-12 women were raped, and then their bodies were also chopped off and thrown into the fire. Between 4:30 PM and 5:00 PM, the police finally arrived and tried to save some people from the stone pelting till 7:00 PM.
The rise of Hindutva
If any so-called Hindutva follower is feeling proud of the brutality of this incident – if someone’s 44-inch chest swells to 56 inches – then I would like to call such a person a pervert and a psychopath.
Our country’s politics revolves around Hindutva politics, that too, after the 75 years of the country’s independence, and during the next 25 years of what is being called ‘Amrit Kaal’ (divine era). However, instead of amrit, I only see a poisonous kaal.
Instead of solving the bigger day-to-day problems of our country, everything seems to be revolving around the Hindu-Muslim debate.
We are a country of 142 crore population, of which 40 crore are Muslims. Meanwhile, there are also those raising Khalistan slogans in Punjab but what moral right do we have to stop them from raising those slogans? This is a chain reaction, after all.
How can those who do politics in the name of any religion tell people of other religions not to do politics on the basis of religion? This is precisely why our constitution makers said that religion is fine in personal life within the four walls of one’s home – not out on the streets.
Gulbarg society massacre. Photo: Wikimedia Commons/ Dawnpope (CC BY-SA 4.0)
A burning Gulbarg
Around 10-12 gas cylinders were used to set fire to Gulbarg Society.
Despite commissioner Pandey having met Ehsan Jafri and guaranteed him safety, after the incident, he simply said, “What can we do? We did not have enough police force.”
Police officers were watching people struggle for their lives for eight to 10 hours. They also knew very well that a huge crowd had gathered outside the society. So, why were additional police forces not deployed? Or is it a matter of letting the incident reach a tipping point before taking action?
This is an incident that happened in a centrally located area of Ahmedabad – not in a remote village.
Ehsan Jafri was a Congress MP. From the police commissioner to the chief minister and even then Congress president Sonia Gandhi issued special requests to the state authorities – particularly Narendra Modi, who was the chief minister of Gujarat – for the protection of Jafri and the people who had come to save him.
Also read: Godhra and After: ‘Conspiracy’ a Feature Film Cannot Hope to Unravel
Despite that, more than 70 people, including men, women and children, were dismembered and thrown into the fire.
From 7:30 AM to 9:50 PM – more than 14 hours – more than 70 people, including a former parliamentarian, and women and children were tortured and set ablaze. Lest we forget, the police commissioner of Ahmedabad, C.P. Pandey, saw the rioters with his own eyes in the morning when he came to meet Jafri.
Manoj Kumar, a neighbour, said, “Ten to 12 women were raped and then their bodies were chopped into pieces and burned in the fire. The report of this incident has been filed by K.G. Irda, senior inspector of Meghani Nagar police station, at 9:50 PM.”
If such a heinous incident happened even after the assurance of state authorities then it cannot be called a crime by a few rioters but one that was deliberately committed by the police-administration.
From the Nanavati Commission – the commission inquiring about the Godhra train incident – to the special investigation team (SIT), and recently our Supreme Court, no one provided justice; instead, they put a brave officer like former DGP Gujarat R.B. Sreekumar and journalist Teesta Setalvad in jail. Where can any victim of atrocities in this country go for justice?
Before going to Godhra in the afternoon, Modi had already spoken about the conspiracy of the Muslim community and Pakistan on Doordarshan. While addressing the press, he said, “The person who carried out this incident will not be spared, and he will be taught such a lesson for life that he will never be able to forget.”
Speaking about Modi’s interaction with senior police officers, K. Chakravarthi, the Director General of Police at the time, had said, “Chief Minister Narendra Modi said that during communal violence, the police-administration has to treat the rioters equally. But Modiji clearly said that now it will not be the same with Hindus and Muslims. Hindus will have to be given complete freedom to express their reaction.”
No police officer present in the meeting opposed this statement by the Gujarat chief minister, the DGP said.
In his book Gujarat Behind the Curtain, R.B. Sreekumar, who was the Additional DGP at the time of the riots, says:
“In the afternoon I met DGP K Chakravarthi in his chamber. I found him to be quite perturbed, helpless and stress-ridden about widespread mass violence in the cities of Ahmedabad, Vadodara and many rural areas. He lamented that things were taking a bad shape and activists of VHP, Bajrang Dal and BJP were leading armed crowds and police officers, at decisive level on the ground, were not intervening effectively as they were keen to avoid crossing swords with supporters of the ruling party. He hinted that the Chief Minister had convened a meeting of senior officers at his residence after his return from Godhra in the late evening of February 27, 2002. DGP said that the CM told officers in the meeting that “in communal riots, police normally takes action against Hindus and Muslims on one-to-one proportion, this will not do now, allow Hindus to give vent to their anger”.
In the meeting, Sreekumar writes, that aside from Chakravarthi, PC Pandey, police commissioner of Ahmedabad city; Ashok Narayan, additional chief secretary of home department; Swarnakatha Verma, in-charge chief secretary; PK Mishra, Principal Secretary to the CM (now he is the additional principal secretary to PM Modi); Anil Mukim, additional secretary to CM; and K Nityananda, PM home secretary, also did not take any objection or speak against the illegality of the verbal instructions of the chief minister.
“DGP had apologetically admitted that the posture of CM was a major impediment in initiation of action against communal elements perpetrating bestial brutalities on the minority community. He added that the parading of dead bodies in Ahmedabad city of those killed in Godhra train fire incident, including dead bodies of people who did not belong to Ahmedabad city had magnified communal frenzy of motivated Hindus,” he writes.
Despite those bodies having no connection with the city of Ahmedabad, what other motive could there have been except to start a terrible riot after handing them over to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and taking them out in the form of a procession?
But this was not taken cognizance of by neither the Nanavati commission nor the head of the SIT, R.K. Raghavan. The Supreme Court aso did not take any cognizance of the matter.
The clean chit given to the rioters has served as fuel to carry out crimes in Gulbarg Society, Naroda Patia, Best Bakery and other heinous incidents.
Lieutenant General Zameeruddin Shah, in his book Sarkari Mussalman (page no 117), says:
“I returned to the airfield to check out the arrival of the 60 – odd flights of IL – 76s and AN-32s by 7 am on 1st March 2002, we had about 3,000 troops landed, but no transport, so they remained at the airfield. These were crucial hours lost. Our road columns reached us on 2nd March and so did the requisitioned civil trucks, magistrates, Police guides and maps.”
Nine affidavits each were filed to both agencies – Nanavati Commission and the SIT – on these issues, after R.B. Sreekumar retired from the top post of Gujarat Police, but they were deliberately ignored.
R.B. Sreekumar said in his book that he had a feeling “that both (Justice Nanavati and R.K. Raghavan) have already decided to give a clean chit to Narendra Modi” and were just conducting the investigation for formality.
Subsequently, the Supreme Court, in its verdict in the Zakia Jafri case, sentenced Sreekumar and Teesta Setalvad, who reported on the riots, to jail.
Also read: Gujarat Court Rejects Bail Applications of Teesta Setalvad and R.B. Sreekumar
These days, Modi is talking about loving the Pasmanda Muslims. Where is this sudden fountain of love for Muslims coming from?
Perhaps, so that he does not have to take any measures on the increasing unemployment and inflation, he speaks about dreams of good days.
If this is what good days are, then we do not want such days where rabid Hindutvaists are continuously attacking Muslims and carrying out killings, love jihad etc around the country, or where a Muslim is forced to lose his life for carrying a cow from one place to another.
Modi talks about love but it is difficult to trust such statements from him, considering his political journey of the last 25 years. He only thinks of elections 24 hours of the day, for 12 months.
More than two thousand people have died due to the reasons of a man who spread the riots in Gujarat after the Godhra incident. Billions of rupees have been lost.
However, Modi has not yet apologised for the Gujarat riots.
Suresh Khairnar is a social activist and has been working for the Bhagalpur riot victims for the past 36 years.
