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NHRC moved for Marad rehabilitation

By Our Staff Reporter

THRISSUR JULY 10. The Thrissur-based human rights organisation, `Jananeethi', has approached the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to initiate action against the State Government for its failure to take proper steps to rehabilitate those who had to flee from Marad in the aftermath of the killings there in May this year.

In a petition filed before the NHRC, the organisation said the Chief Minister, A.K. Antony, who also holds the Home portfolio, was duty-bound to protect the life, property and freedom of the people of the State.

``The failure of the rule of law (demonstrated in the failed rehabilitation process at Marad) only manifests the total callousness of the Government and the criminal neglect of its Constitutional mandate. It should be held a gross violation of the fundamental and human rights of the citizens and a devastating decadence of the democratic principles and values enshrined in the Constitution,'' the petition said.

The director of the `Jananeethi', George Pulikuthiyil, in his petition said that the families of the two elderly women, Bichivi and Mariambi, formed part of the 500-odd families that had to flee from Marad for fear of lives following the communal carnage there on May 2, 2003. But they were helped back by the district administration to go back to their residential houses on June 24 last.

``However it is learnt that a crowd of nearly 100-women activists of the BJP supported by their male counterparts resisted rehabilitation of the Muslim families. The demonstrators declared that no Muslim family would be allowed to re-enter Marad or would they be permitted to occupy their own house at Marad until all the culprits of the riots in May were punished. The family of Ms. Bichivi could not withstand the tough resistance of the violent crowd and hence decided to leave the house as they apprehended `dire' consequences. The family of Mariambi had determined to stay back in their own house, no matter what the hostile demonstrators would do to them. With hundreds of police constables remaining mere onlookers, the demonstrators threw stones at the house of Mariambi, destroyed vegetations in her property and shouted abusive slogans at the family.''

The petition emphasised that the second riot at Marad was only a balance sheet of the first one in 2002. It said that ``the present fiasco at Marad will naturally lead to another round of violence''. Pointing out that the VHP International secretary, Pravin Togadia, had made a ``highly provocative and communally charged speech at Marad on July 8,'' the petition said ``if the State Government is allowed to continue its inaction, the life and liberty of the people are going to be in danger.''

Criminal offenders and instigators should be firmly dealt with. At the same time no communal force/group should be allowed to form parallel government depriving the human and Constitutional rights of the people, it said.

``It is a pity that the Chief Minister had to seek the permission of the Sangh Parivar to visit Marad and it is deplorable that a Government in a democratic State is not able to provide statutory protection to its citizens,'' the petition said.

It appealed to the NHRC to bring back the people who had to flee from Marad to their houses at the earliest. It also emphasised the need for conducting an independent inquiry to bring all those responsible for the communal carnage there before the law.

``Any investigation by the State police or State-owned machinery, as long as some of the ``accused'' persons are exercising great powers in the present Government, will not be free from speculations,'' the petition alleged.

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