Relocated near garbage dump,survivors still picking up the pieces of their lives

Javed’s family of eight – three younger brothers,parents,wife and a two-year-old son – lives in the two-room-kitchen house provided by a Muslim organisation in 2004.

“Luckily,we all survived but that was the day (February 28,2002) I would not like to remember. I have to take care of my family,” says Javed,who drives a dairy delivery van and an auto-rickshaw for a living.

Though scarred by that day,Javed says he frequently visits his Hindu friends in Kubernagar and Naroda. “Many confess they were instigated and misled by politicians. They regret they did wrong to some,” he says.

Javed’s younger brother Iqbal (18),however,says he still cannot shake off the memories of that fateful day. “I know we have to leave it behind,but how can I forget scenes of children being put to swords,women being molested and the dead bodies in Teesra Kuan! When I remember all this,it causes a lot of heartache,” says the teenager who drives a garbage-collection van for a private firm.

Their younger brother Sabbir drives a truck while Wasim,the youngest,is a casual labourer. Their father too is a truck driver.

A few yards from Javed’s residence,15-year-old Salman is sitting in his shop. He was just five when rioters attacked and injured his head. Salman says he cannot remember but had only heard from his family members. His father too was injured when a teargas shell hit him. “I know nothing about it and nobody at my home talks of it anymore,except when relatives from outside Gujarat visit,” the teenager,who had to abandon his studies after his house was torched,says.

In the same lane lives Hamida Pathan,who runs a school for drop-outs. “We are originally from Maharashtra and had settled there (Naroda Patiya) just a few months ago. We all survived but my husband’s fledgling business of scrap was ruined,” says Pathan,who teaches 25 students born after 2002.

There is a CISF chowky in the area to provide security to 28 witnesses in the Naroda Patiya case. Locals say many people had moved out of the locality,which is barely a few yards from garbage mounds.