[Narendra Modi with David Cameron in a file photo.]
London: A British Muslim who survived the 2002 Gujarat riots and kin of three other British Muslims who were brutally murdered by Hindu mob, while opposing Prime Minister Narendra Modi's proposed visit to the UK due in the next month, are demanding afresh for justice.
"Modi should not be allowed into the UK. I saw burning buildings. I saw mobs committing genocide. I saw dead bodies, I saw burnt bodies all around me. I experienced smells like never ever before. I was terrorised and left for dead", Imran Dawood said while talking to The Muslim Mews.
"My family, neighbours were taken away from me and until now no justice has been delivered. And it sickens me now when I see the news on how killing of Muslims is still happening,” he added.
Imran Dawood was 18 when he was stabbed by the Hindu rioters during the 2002 Gujarat riots. He along with his uncles Shakeel and Saeed Dawood and their friend Mohammed Aswat were returning to Gujarat from Agra when they were stopped by the rioters.
The Hindus circled the jeep and demanded to know from the occupants their religious identity, the tourists answered that they were British citizens and were Muslims.
The hired driver was then dragged out of the jeep and attacked with sticks and killed on the spot. His body was then thrown back into the vehicle and set alight. In the meantime, the British tourists were chased to a nearby farm.
Aswat and Imran were stabbed and left for dead. Imran miraculously survived. Imran recalls Saeed and Shakeel pleading with the mob to spare all their lives but to no avail.
“Many words, thoughts and feelings come to mind as to when we first received the information about what had happened and even now the same feelings remain. We feel anguished, hurt and sadness. A father, husband, brother, son and friend to many were lost", Aswat’s son, Suleman, told The Muslim News.
“The fact that Modi is due to come to the UK is extremely sad,” he said.
“Will Modi be challenged when he comes to the UK on what happened? It is unlikely", he asked.
Narendra Modi was Chief Minister of Gujarat during the riots. UK ended its boycott of Modi in October 2012 despite earlier quote from the leaked report of British High Commission in India according to which the pogroms in Gujarat in 2002, “had all the hallmarks of ethnic cleansing and that reconciliation between Hindus and Muslims is impossible while the chief minister remains in power.”
The report further said, “far from being spontaneous” this massacre, “was planned, possibly months in advance, carried out by an extremist Hindu organisation with the support of the state government.”
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