The team found that a total of 42 structures including 41 houses, 10 shops and a 300-year-old mosque were attacked in Gajapur village.
Waquar Hasan | Clarion India
NEW DELHI — The mob attacks on 300-year-old mosque, dozens of houses and properties owned by Muslims in Maharashtra’s Kolhapur district on 14 July were planned and the attackers were brought from somewhere else to unleash violence in Gajapur village, revealed a fact-finding report.
In a statement released on Thursday, the fact-finding team comprising leaders of Association for Protection of Civil Rights (APCR), Study of Society and Secularism (CSSS) and other groups demanded a High Court-monitored probe into the whole episode.
According to the team, all attackers were outsiders. Before unleashing violence, some meetings were held at the initiative of an individual named Ravinder Padwal at the home of a local man, Narayan Pandurang Velhar, who is also named in the FIR. The police showed initial reluctance at the name of Velhar being mentioned in the FIR.
The attackers were armed with swords, hammers, pick axes, rods, iron pipes, etc.
The team found that a total of 42 structures including 41 houses, 10 shops and a 300-year-old mosque were attacked in Gajapur village. Apart from this, 51 vehicles including 17 four-wheelers and 34 two-wheelers were damaged. The attack continued for a long time from 12 noon to 5 pm. Ninety-six thousand rupees and six tolas of gold were stolen from a house. Three tolas gold and some money was also looted from two other houses. TV sets, cupboards, fridge and light connections were destroyed. A copy of the Holy Qur’an was burnt and walls of a cemetery were damaged, the team said in its report.
There were 15,000 people in the procession but about 1,500 people took part in the attacks, the report said.
“The motive of the attack appears to be political and communal as the attack took place when the assembly elections are approaching and targeted people from the Muslim community who had nothing to do with the encroachments. Gajapur village is 5 km from Vishalgarh. They were attacked because they were Muslims,” the report said.
According to the team, the violent mob also attacked the police in which 11 police personnel were injured. The people of the Muslim community had fled into the forest otherwise they would have been attacked fatally. One victim, Yaqoob Muhammad Parbolkar, a handicap person, suffered two fractures in his leg and one in his arm. He is now undergoing treatment at Dr. Parani Hospital in Miraj.
The team demanded proper compensation for the people of Gajapur village as currently the government has given cheques of Rs 25,000 to Rs 50,000 per household which is insufficient.
It also demanded the registration of separate FIR for each person’s losses, the investigatation under the supervision of the High Court, severe punishment for the culprits and terror charges against them.
“In Maharashtra, several hateful speeches have been made by Hindutvavadi netas and other BJP MLAs. Maharashtra is number one in the country in this matter, there is no doubt that the atmosphere here will turn violent. The government should also take strict action against hate speech,” pointed out the team.
Irfan Engineer, Director Centre for Study of Society and Secularism, Mumbai; Mohammad Aslam Ghazi, Executive President APCR Maharashtra; Abdul Mujeeb, Secretary Jamaat-e-Islami Hind Maharashtra; Advocate Abhay Taksal, Communist Party of India, Aurangabad; Ravi Patil, Academy of Secular Ethics and Humanity; Pritam Ghanghave, Teacher, and Mithila Raut of the CSSS were part of the fact-finding team.
The delegation met the victims of the attack in Gajapur, especially Siraj Qasim Parbholkar, chairman of the 300-year-old Masjid Raza Jama Masjid Trust, and other villagers.
The violence was unleashed after former Rajya Sabha MP Sambhajiraje Chhatrapati had called for a rally over allegations of encroachment at Vishalgarh Fort.