An uneasy calm has prevailed in the Balisana village of Patan District in Gujarat after 10 people, out of which 8 Muslims, were arrested and sent to jail following a communal flare-up over an alleged Facebook post about the controversial movie, “The Kerala Story” leaving the Muslim community in fear.
Meanwhile, a social media post, written in the Gujarati language is also taking rounds in the village calling for a social, political, and economic boycott of the Muslim community in the village.
For as long as 52-year-old Yunus Ibrahim Shaikh recalls, people of both communities have been co-existing peacefully in Balisana, a Hindu-majority village.
On July 16, two communities faced each other which spiralled into a communal clash, leaving eight people injured and shops ransacked in the Masjid Chowk area of Balisana Village.
Yunus Ibrahim Shaikh, a resident and an activist told Maktoob that it all started on July 13 when a man named Mukesh Bhai Patel from the Hindu community made a social media post, which was deleted later, related to the dialogue in the movie ‘The Kerala Story’.
“Since the post was against the Muslim religion and had the potential to incite communal hatred, some responsible elders of the community came forward to make Mukesh understand. He apologized for his post and agreed to delete it, after that everything was settled.”
The next day on July 14, members of the Hindu group gathered outside the Chowk Masjid during the Fajr prayers, but since there were not many people in the morning prayers, there was no escalation. Mukesh was with them and was also beaten by the group for “apologizing and deleting his post”.
“They were repeatedly telling him why he apologized and deleted the post.”
“Again a meeting was held inside the mosque among people from both communities and the matter was resolved”, said Shaikh.
But on July 16, some ‘unidentified men’ gathered outside the Masjid Chowk. These men were armed with rods, knives, swords, iron pipes, and other weapons, and they were found abusing too, as per eyewitnesses of the incident.
Clashes broke out leaving at least eight people injured before police intervened. Soon after the incident, several Muslims were picked up by police.
Two FIRs have been registered by the Balisana Police, which are in possession of Maktoob.
On July 17, one FIR was filed by Meetkumar Sureshbhai, against 10 people alleging, “On July 16, a mob of around 35 to 40 people came from the mosque located on the other side of the road at Masjid Chowk and surrounded him and his friends while they were walking.”
The FIR reads, “The mob asked our names and threatened us to kill. Soon after that, the mob started attacking us with iron rods, knives, swords, and other weapons.”
Another FIR was filed by one Arif Shaikh against 2 people, Krish Patel, and Nimesh Patel.
Shaikh in the FIR alleged that mentioned Patel men attacked Arif Shaikh and his uncle Ilyas Shaikh despite the peace agreement by the elders of the community over the social media post and not to escalate it further.
The FIR also stated that Patel men beat them up with iron rods and attacked them by throwing stones.
During the investigation on July 17, Balisana police took 6 accused along with them at the incident spot. The officers called it a ‘police exercise’.
The accused taken by the police for the investigation were Muslims and after the investigation, they were paraded in the village while their hands were tied with the rope.
The locals are outraged by the said exercise and accused the Balisana police of falsely implicating the Muslims in the entire matter.
A Balisana-based activist told Maktoob that as a part of the investigation Police also raided the houses at midnight of at least 200 Muslim families and continue to arrest Muslim men.
He said, “Police picked Muslim men at midnight and put them in jail, without their involvement in the incident, and say that they will arrest more people.”
He also accused the police of invoking serious and non-bailable charges on Muslim accused and lenient and bailable charges on the men belonging to the Hindu community.
“Families here are living in fear because of police action and sent their children to their relatives, as police are arresting Muslims randomly”, he added.
Superintendent of Police KK Pandya also confirmed the social media post spur and said, “The matter escalated over a social media post, directed towards Muslims which was later resolved at the community level itself as both the communities came together and reached an agreement. But later, some people from both the communities faced off and communal clashes erupted, some people got injured and some people endured capital loss as their shops were ransacked during the clashes.”
According to Inspector JS Chaudhary of Balisana police station Investigation Officer of the case told Maktoob that they have arrested 20 people so far in the matter based on the FIRs filed from both sides on the charges of rioting, assault, and attempt to murder.
The officer confirmed that only 2 of the arrested persons are Hindus and the rest of them are Muslims.
“Cases have been filed against them for rioting and attempting to murder. All the accused has been sent to judicial custody”, said the officer.
When asked about the reason behind the communal clash, Chaudhary said, “We are yet to find the instigators and the reason behind the communal flare-up, the investigation is underway.”
Minority Coordination Committee (MCC), a legal and advocacy Human Rights organization in the state, is said to be approaching High Court over the ‘false implication of Muslims’.
Mujahid Nafees, Ahmedabad-based rights activist associated with MCC speaking to Maktoob, said, “Police is unnecessarily arresting the Muslims and treating them as criminals without fulfilling the due process.”
He said that when 10 people were arrested, why police only picked Muslim men and paraded them in the entire village?
Nafees accused police of arresting Muslim men and planting a fake narrative by calling them ‘Bangladeshi’.
He said, “While police were searching the households, they repeatedly asked if there are any Bangladeshi residents among them. From where did this Bangladeshi narrative come into the picture?”
A social media post, written in Gujarati language is also taking rounds in the village calling for a social, political, and economic boycott of the Muslim community in the village, seen by Maktoob.
The post is undersigned by three individuals Dheeraj Patel, Satyam Yamin, and Nikul Patel Mukhi.
The post reads, “The people from 5 nearby villages should come together in unity and take a decision on this matter that has prevailed in the Balisana village.”
The post publicly calls the Hindu Brahmins, Schedule castes, and Scheduled Tribes to come together to boycott Muslims.
It reads, “Everyone should economically boycott Muslims, stop getting their clothes stitched from Muslim tailors, take back the land given for agricultural purposes, stop lending money to them, stop the water supply.”
“We, Hindu upper castes should come together and stop them involving Muslims in our community-related issues or meetings, if anyone has mutual relations with both the communities we should distance ourselves from them”, the post further reads.
It finally said that if any action is not taken against Muslims now, they will take over the Hindus.
“Muslim families are scared and living in fear”, it is a beginning towards ousting the Muslims from the state”, said Nafees.
