AHMEDABAD: With more than 25
instances of communal rioting in the last 10 months,
Ahmedabad district still remains the most volatile
areas of communally sensitive Gujarat state which
witnessed widespread riots last year.
But while other areas have lost
their virulence and have settled down to quieter times,
it is Ahmedabad which accounted for half of the 1,000
lives lost in the violence in 2002,which keeps the
embers burning.
Sunday’s violence in Viramgam
in Ahmedabad district, about 60 km from the city, once
again emphasised its dubious status as the epicentre
of communal trouble since the burning of the train at
Godhra on February 27 last year.
A Viramgam here and there keeps
cropping up once in a while,but it is Gujarat’s
largest city of Ahmedabad which accounts for nearly 90
per cent of all the rioting cases.
After a tumultuous first half of
2002, a lull was observed in rioting in the latter
part of the year as the government went into poll mode
and the BJP won a landslide victory.
Pirana near Sarkhej has a
disputed ‘durgah’ which is always a potential
source of trouble apart from other hotspots like
Kalupur, Dariapur and Shahpur.
The other spots that have kept
the Ahmedabad district police on its toes are
Virochannagar near Sanand, Dholka and Sarkhej. During
the last one year, the city has seen no less than 20
instances of rioting.
January saw three riots, three
more during February, three during March, three in
April, one in June, two in August, three in September
and one in October and one in November so far.
On Sunday, Murad Fardurehman
Shaikh was stabbed to death while the police were busy
trying to stop local residents of Shahe-Alam from
clashing with each other.
Commissioner of police K R
Kaushik says, “Each incident is separate and its
roots are different from the other. One cannot really
club these incidents together. However, senior police
officials are making all efforts to calm frayed nerves
by holding regular dialogue with commoners and helping
them co-exist in peace. Our efforts have been largely
successful.”
DySP (Ahmedabad rural) I D
Upadhyay feels: “These incidents are isolated and do
not follow a pattern.”
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