While the Gujarat police stepped up security for the Sardar Sarovar Dam in Narmada district after the blasts in Ahmedabad, policemen at the dam site turned away groups of Muslim holiday-makers from the popular picnic spot.

Many Muslim tourists , including a Chartered Accountant and his family and a visiting London-based NRI family, were shooed away after they entered the dam site on Sunday and Monday, allegedly because patrolling cops found they had Muslim names.

Among those turned away on Sunday was Imtiaz Attarwala, a Charted Accountant from Vadodara. With him were eight family members. “We were given entry passes and allowed to cross the checkpost to the spot. Then a police Inspector, B M Rajvanshi, patrolling at the dam site, spotted us and asked my name. As soon as I told him (my name), we were asked to go away.”

Attarwala is both pained and shocked. “Vadodara is around 100 km from the Sardar Sarovar, and I had taken my family to show them the beauty of the place. I am sad that I am still identified by my name, not my nationality,” he told The Indian Express.

Ismail Belif from Bharuch had gone there with his extended family including his visting London-based sister Yasmeen Shabbhi Manjhwa and her husband. “We were a group of 13 members and had completed all formalities to enter. But once we did, the police officials came up to ask our names. My NRI brother-in-law, Shabbir Manjahava, was even questioned about his origins.”

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