Muslims in Haryana’s Ballabhgarh, place for last week’s communal violence are refusing to return to their village Atali after the police failed to make a single arrest till date.
A delegation consisting of members of Jat community from the village reportedly met Muslims in Ballabhgarh police station on Sunday. They asked the Muslims to return to village promising there will be no further incidents of violence against them.
Muslims, who have been camping inside the compound of Ballabhgarh city police station since last week, refused to accept this proposal.
Another bone of contention is the construction of mosque in the village. Muslims, who according to police, have permission from the court want to continue with the construction of the mosque, local Hindu population is against this idea.
Abdullah, whose house too was torched by the rioters, told Janta Ka Reporter on the phone that Muslims were extremely upset with the way police had been dealing with the situation.
He said, “It seems they (police) have instructions not to arrest those who came to kill us and destroyed our properties. The rioters are in the village and police knows who they are. But they being given proptection while we are having to live in camp with our women and children? Kya yahi insaaf hai. Agar yeah desh hamara nahi hai to phir ek kaam karo, ham sab logon ko maar kyon nahi dete (Is that what you call justice? ).”If we don’t belong to India, then why don’t you do one thing. Kill all of us.)
Many riot victims had questioned the role of the police even on the day Janta Ka Reporter had visited Atali last week. The police forces deployed in the village had prevented the JKR team from going inside the village as they feared an attack by the rioters.
In Ballabhgarh police station, no one was willing to speak to us. One police officer wanted us to take a prior appointment with them for any interview. According to him, “will you just turn up at the prime minister’s office just like that without any appointment?”
When we finally approached the lady SDM, she too had refused to speak before shutting the door of her car on us.
On Monday night last week, around 2000 armed men had attacked the local Muslim population, torching their houses, shops, cars and place of worship.