Set 30 kilometres apart, Luhari Khurd and Fugana, in Muzaffarnagar and Shamli districts respectively of western Uttar Pradesh, present contrasting pictures of the Jat-Muslim communal conflagration that raged for two months in September and October 2013 in which more than 60 persons lost their lives.
Slightly three years after the riots, save a lone Muslim man, the rest of Muslim-dominated Luhari Khurd, under Charthawal Assembly constituency, has moved on even as Fugana’s overwhelming Jat population, who will exercise their franchise in the Budhana constituency, continues to seethe in anger.
‘Trumped-Up’ Cases Against Jats
Shahid Hussein, an outspoken lawyer-activist, is still rankled by the ‘fake’ cases of murder and rape that many of his co-religionists, allegedly egged on by the Samajwadi Party, lodged against several Jats of Lisadh village in Muzaffarnagar. He has meticulously gathered police investigation and court documents that expose the ‘perfidious’ SP-backed Muslims’ efforts to corner the compensation money by filing ‘trumped-up’ cases of heinous crimes against some of the ‘innocent’ Jats.
He pulled out the properly indexed documents, claiming that besides the Muslims, several NGOs, such as the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, Tarakki Foundation, Astitwa, Sanjeevani, Action Aid, Yapath Katha, Awam Biradri and others, were instrumental in “making money”.
This is a serious charge against the NGOs, but Shahid, who has no qualms in admitting that his “Brahmin forefathers converted to Islam under duress at least two centuries ago”, wouldn’t budge.
The documents reveal that in at least two instances, separate cases were lodged by different complainants against different individuals for the murder of a single person.
For example, in Crime No 251, one Ashiya claimed that Azimuddin and Haliman were murdered by Subah, Bilendra, Niraj, Jasbir, Inderpal, Kallu and Ashok – all residents of Lisadh.
Surprisingly, Crime No 373 lists that Mohammad Dawood, son of Shabbir of Lisadh, complained that a different set of individuals allegedly killed Azimuddin, Haliman and Nasiruddin.
Likewise, in Crime No 266, Dilshad, son of Haji Nabbu of Lisadh, complained that his father and one Zarifan were killed by Harikishan, Gyani, Ranbira, Pappu, Niraj, etc.
But, according to details of Crime No 376 filed by Yasin, son of Hakimuddin of Lisadh, 62 other Jats were involved in the murder of Zarifan, Hakimuddin, Chhoti, Sukkan and Haji Nabbu.
“How could different cases have vastly different sets of killers in the murder of two or three individuals?” Shahid asks, leaving a lingering doubt that something terribly wrong happened in randomly naming several Jats of the same village.
Shahid then highlighted the six alleged rape cases in Fugana of Shamli district.
In one case, the so-called rape victim, one Shaziya (name changed), wife of Mehtab, charged Rahul, Mohit, Sunil and Arvind with sexual assault. She also claimed in the same FIR that arson, loot and sexual assault took place between 10 and 11 am on 8 September 2013. However, subsequent investigations established that the house was found intact and undamaged.
Muslim BJP Voters of Luhari
While admitting that Muslim women were “certainly molested”, Shahid said that “other cases have come to light revealing that five different compensations were claimed for the damage caused to one house.”
When Shahid, who was loathe to accompany us to the house of the Samajwadi Party Gram Pradhan Tamrez Ali, said that “Muslims’ higher birth rate has caused an imbalance in the demographics of Luhari Khurd,” it echoed the BJP’s language, often deployed for mobilisation.
By the time Shahid finally said that he is a “BJP voter”, his neighbour Yaabir Hussein inched closer, admitting that he too favours the saffron party. “The more the Muslims consolidate, the more the BJP will benefit. Most Muslim residents of Luhari Khurd will not vote for the BJP, but about 100 of us certainly will,” Yaabir, 63, said.
Although Luhari Khurd is overwhelmingly Muslim, the houses belonging to members of the minority community (they constitute the majority in the village) do not display overt Islamic symbols.
Chatty Yaabir gave up going to the mosque to do the Asr namaaz, and walked along with us to point out the rather large and well-appointed house of Tamrez Ali and some of his relatives.
“The Gram Pradhan is the poorest person of Luhari Khurd,” Yaabir said, unable to contain a smirk at Ali’s rising prosperity.
Marred By ‘False Allegations’
The Jats of Fugana are prosperous too, by virtue of their attachment to sugarcane.
“Despite sugarcane becoming increasingly unviable, it is still a cash crop,” 64-year-old Harpal Malik, who spent a good part of 2015 in jail as an accused in the communal riots, said. He was subsequently released on bail, he told us, as he pulled out files of documented evidence from a steel almirah which he claimed would ultimately prove his innocence.
The charges against Harpal, 39 in all, range from murder and arson to looting.
Rifling through the mass of documents, he pulled out a sheet of paper that lists the 39 cases and points to a curious anomaly. In several cases, he is shown to have taken part in rioting and murder at different points at the same time.
“How could I have committed the same crime at different locations at the same time,” Harpal asked as he ran an index finger down the serialised details.
Sugarcane: The Political Crop of Western UP
Harpal agrees that a riotous mob did target the Muslims (two were killed in Fugana), all of whom subsequently fled in fear. Some went to Budhana, others to nearby Kandla, Loyi, Fathepur Khedi, Sara, Kairana and even Loni in Ghaziabad.
“But the settlement was one-sided and in favour of the Muslims. Many of the Jats got a raw deal, their reputation tarnished,” a crestfallen Harpal said as his Jat brethren nodded their heads in agreement.
The Jats of Fugana are substantial landowners who employed Muslims as labourers to till their surgarcane fields. “Production costs, including that of labour, have been going up, making sugarcane cultivation an increasingly less attractive proposition,” Harpal said, agreeing that “sugarcane, besides being a cash crop, is also a political crop.”
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