2002 Gujarat Violence - Security Failure

Security Failure

By the evening of 28 February, curfews were imposed in twenty seven towns and cities. By 25 March, thirty five towns were under curfew. Police records show 21,563 preventive arrests were made by the end of April (17,947 of the arrested were listed as Hindus and 3,616 as Muslims) as well as 13,989 substantive arrests (9,954 Hindus and 4,035 Muslims).

The New York Times' Celia Dugger reported that witnesses were "dismayed by the lack of intervention from local police", who often "watched the events taking place and took no action against the attacks on Muslims and their property". Human Rights Watch reported that in some cases members of the state police force led rioting mobs, "aiming and firing at every Muslim who got in the way", or instead of offering assistance "led the victims directly into the hands of their killers." Calls for assistance to the police, fire brigades, and even ambulance services generally proved futile.

Times of India claimed that 93 Muslims were killed in Police firing and only 77 Hindus, however Gujarat Police and BJP claimed that majority of 198 Hindus(excluding 59 killed in Godhra) killed were due to the Police firing and not in riots.

Hindu residents of Mahajan No Vaado, part of the Muslim dominated area of Jamalpur, told HRW that on 1 March, the police ignored phone calls and left them fend for themselves when a Muslim mob attacked. Numerous calls by Hindus throughout the riots were reportedly ignored by the police.

One thousand army troops were flown in by the evening of 1 March to restore order. Intelligence officials alleged that the deployment was deliberately delayed by the state and central governments. On 3 May, former Punjab police chief K P S Gill was appointed as security adviser to the Chief Minister.

The Gujarat government transferred several senior police officers who had taken active measures to contain and investigate violent attacks to administrative positions.

RB Sreekumar, who served as Gujarat's intelligence chief during the riots, alleged that the state government issued "unconstitutional directives", with officials asking him to kill Muslims involved in rioting or disrupting a Hindu religious event. The Gujarat government denied the allegations, calling them "baseless" and instigated out of malice because Mr. Sreekumar was not promoted.

Defending the Modi administration in the Rajya Sabha against charges of genocide, BJP spokesman V K Malhotra said that the official toll of 254 Hindus, killed mostly in police firing, indicates how the state authorities took effective steps to curb the violence. BJP MP and journalist Balbir Punj disputed allegations of bias against Muslims by the BJP-run state government, pointing out that the majority of those arrested during and after the riots were Hindus.

An unidentified pamphlet circulated to journalists in Gujarat in 2007 labelled Modi's government as anti-Hindu for arresting Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) workers and Hindu activists involved in the riots.

The recent report of Supreme Court appointed Special Investigation Team led by former CBI Chief R.K Raghavan gave clean chit to Gujarat government and noticed that Gujarat Police tried everything to prevent the riots.

On Narendra Modi's role the Special Investigation Team report states,