Vigil was held outside the Indian High Commission in London on February 28 to commemorate the murder of 2,000 Muslims, incl 3 Britons, rape of hundreds of Muslim women in Gujarat, India. A family member of the British Muslim victims and survivor of the attack, is seen holding a placard with the names of those murdered in the pogrom.
(Credit: Ahmed J Versi/The Muslim News)
Ahmed J Versi
A vigil was held outside the Indian High Commission in London on February 28 to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the murder of 2,000 Muslims, including three Britons.
Hundreds of Muslim women were raped and many Muslim properties and businesses were destroyed by Hindu mobs in Gujarat under the governorship of Narendra Modi, the current Prime Minister of India.
Family members of the victims are still waiting for justice. Imran Dawood, the only survivor, told The Muslim News he wants “an acknowledgement of the loss, and maybe even some comfort and closure.”
The British government has done little to help the Dawood family to get the remains of their loved ones, Saeed Dawood and first cousin Shakeel Dawood back for closure.
A Foreign and Development Office spokesperson told The Muslim News: “We will continue providing consular support to the family in this case, as we have done since 2002.”
Both the Prime Minister’s spokesman and Labour leader failed to respond to the family’s request that Modi return the remains of the bodies for burial in their hometown in Batley.
Four British Muslim tourists were on their way back from visiting the Taj Mahal. Shakeel and Saeed were accompanied by their 18-year-old nephew, Imran, a childhood friend named Mohammed Aswat, and their hired driver, Yusuf Peragar.
They were stopped by Hindu mobs and asked about their religion. They told them they were Muslims, and that they were British nationals on holiday. Only Imran survived to tell the story. The rest of them were beaten to death and parts of their remains were burnt. Shakeel, Saeed, Mohammed, and their driver were all killed.
Peragar was the first to be lynched to death. His body was thrown back into the vehicle and set alight. “Whatever happened to the driver was not humane,” saud Imran.
Mohammed and Imran were stabbed and left for dead. Imran recalls seeing Saeed and Shakeel pleading with the mob to spare their lives but to no avail. He witnessed the pogrom.
“They left me for dead,” he said. “They attacked me with knives, gardening equipment, sticks, and various other tools. I was bleeding. Yes, I was bleeding from the back of my head. I later found out that I was stabbed in the leg when I was in the hospital,” Imran said.
Speaking of his trauma, he said, “It’s the mental pain that I’m still suffering from after 20 years of fighting for justice and not being able to get any justice in India. I feel this is something I may never get from the Indian government, but I feel I still have hope for justice. For the sake of humanity, I believe I may get justice here in the UK.”
Imran does not know what happened to the bodies of Saeed and Shakeel. Mohammed’s body has been buried in India. “The only things we have are some remains, DNA remains in India, that might identify them as members of my family. The DNA remains were never returned. It’s been so tiring and exhausting.”
“Their parents have sadly passed away now, but just as a normal person, to be fair, what happened was very frightening, very painful.” All three Britons are/were from Batley, West Yorkshire.
According to a leaked report from the British High Commission in India, the 2002 Gujarat pogroms “had all the hallmarks of ethnic cleansing”. The report concluded, “reconciliation between Hindus and Muslims is impossible while the chief minister remains in power.”
It further said, “Far from being spontaneous,” this massacre, “was planned, possibly months in advance, carried out by an extremist Hindu organisation with the support of the state government.”
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