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.”

Belif added: “Shabbir told them he was originally from Kosamba area, and the cops remarked : ‘Abhi abhi toh wahan se bomb mile hain’.”

Belif, currently in Mumbai, managed to videograph the conversation with policemen on his mobile phone. “The cops asked Belif to show his driving licence, and his sister and husband, their passports. They did not carry their passports. They immediately asked all of us to get out of the site, “ says Belif’s driver Hanif Banwa, who was with them.

Belif’s family friend Zuber Nanbava says they asked the grilling cops for the phone numbers of local police authorities to sort out the misunderstanding. “But we were given wrong numbers and clearly misguided,” he says.

Narmada district Superintendent of Police (SP) Khurshid Ahmed claimed the tourists were sent back only because they had entered after the 6 pm deadline. However, the entry pass issued for the Attarwala family by the Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Ltd (SSNNL) has logged 4:55 pm, Sunday. The pass issued for Belif’s family shows the time as 4:27 pm, Monday.

When contacted by The Indian Express, senior police officers said they would make amends. “We will invite back all those who were turned away to visit the place,” said SP Ahmed.

“The issue will be taken up soon with SSNNL Chief Executive Engineer since the SSNNL tourism department has lodged a complaint with us,” said G M Tadvi, Deputy Collector in charge of Narmada district. “A report regarding ill-treatment of Muslim tourists has been submitted to me by the SSNNL Public Relation Office. I will order an inquiry soon,” he added.

This incident comes after Godhra police called 52 local clerics on Sunday and asked them to disclose who funded the local madrasas and what kind of training went on there_besides being asked to “disclose” details of the funds they received from Pakistan.

Leaders of several prominent local Muslim religious organizations who took part in the “community watch meeting”’ presided over by Godhra Town Inspector MS Patel are now fuming over the humiliation. Top police brass in Bharuch has sought to disown the event. Godhra Superintendent of Police JR Mothalia says he had “no clue about any such meeting.”

(With Anupam Chakravartty)