One more death but this time it's murder over food

One more death but this time it's murder over food
MILIND GHATWAI

RELDI (BHUJ), FEB 1: One more death when the toll is in thousands -- nobody should notice. But this one has grim portents. For, it shows, in a chilling manner, how distribution of relief will be the biggest challenge in the coming weeks.

In the first such incident since the quake struck, a 20-year-old man, begging for food on a highway near his Bhuj village, was killed by a group of landowners, desperate to hoard relief-supplies.

The killing has traumatised the village of Reldi and authorities are working hard to ensure that the damage is controlled soon. An FIR has been filed against a powerful Patel family.

Ganiada Kakar, along with other villagers, had lined on the Anjar-Bhuj road hoping that the relief vehicles passing by would stop and give him food for his family. Kakar's village is barely 15 km from Bhuj where relief, ironically, is pouring in but Reldi is starved. The village has only 125 Muslim labourers who work in farms, owned by the Patels, in the nearby town of Madhapur.

Reldi residents said they have to walk upto the highway, even chase relief vehicles to bring whatever they can for their families. They allege that supplies are diverted by the powerful Patels to their godowns.

Yesterday, the two groups came to blows in the afternoon when a vehicle carrying wood was passing by. The police said Ganiada was beaten to death by the group, led by Kanji Patel.

``Ganiada's hands were tied behind his back and he was dragged a long distance to a nearby railway crossing. All the while they beat him up with lathis and sharp weapons,'' Ganiada's father told The Indian Express

today.

He alleged that the Patels had been hoarding foodgrains and other supplies in their godowns ever since help started pouring in.``They did not want to lose any food to us and went after us,'' Ali Umar, an elderly villager said. The Reldi villagers denied they had picked up a fight with the Patels who came in two jeeps. Ganiada was beaten up and other villagers were also assaulted by the group. When Ganiada's father, who received wounds on his left sholder, returned to the spot where the icnident took place, he found Ganiada bleeding severely. He was moved to the local government hospital but was declared dead on arrival.

The death of the young boy, the only son of his parents, has scared the villagers who passed last night in the shadow of fear. When our team arrived there today, all the villagers had holed themselves up in their hutments. Police sub-inspector Omprakash Sharma said the groups fought over food that is usually thrown from relief vehicles. He said since the incident also had a communal overtone the police had provided protection to the villagers. Today, the Muslim familes, mostly women and children, huddled together in their tiny village, waiting for their men to return with the Ganiada's body which was sent to Mandvi for post-mortem.

``The boy was very weak. They beat him up mercilessly,'' said a village elder adding most of the villagers were hungry. ``Before going away in their jeeps, the Patels threatened me that they would burn me alive,'' another villager alleged. ``They wait on the highway for relief vehicles or collect supplies from them to be sold in black market later,'' the villagers alleged.