By Mumtaz Alam, IndiaTomorrow.net,

Parasoli, Muzaffarnagar, 23 Feb 2015: Even one and half years after the Muzaffarnagar riot, hundreds of people have not been able to return to their homes that were looted and torched during the Sep 2013 communal violence in the Uttar Pradesh district – many of them still living in community-run relief camps, others at relatives’ homes. For poorer among these homeless people, Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, country’s largest socio-religious Muslim organization, has constructed a colony in Parsoli area of the district. Jamaat leaders handed over keys of the new homes to 88 such riot victim families at an event here Sunday.

The victim families are happy that someone has erected a roof on their heads when the state government ruled by ‘socialist’ Samajwadi Party of chief minister Akhilesh Yadav failed to give them compensation and protection required for them to return to their villages and rebuild their homes.

“We are happy to get a home here, we are thankful to Jamaat,” says Tabassum in late twenties standing outside her flat in the newly constructed Falah-e Aam Colony. Tabassum, a native of Hasanpur village in Muzaffarnagar, has her husband and three young daughters. When asked if she is missing her village and old home, she says: “How can we remember it when we saw people being killed in front of our eyes? We will never go there.” Her husband is a daily labourer.

Mohammad Qasim is another beneficiary. Originally from Lisarh village, he has also got a flat here. “For the last two years since after the riot, we had been living in a make-shift relief camp. We had hoped that we will get a home from the government. We have got one from Jamaat. We have forgot our own home which was looted and torched by rioters,” says Qasim standing along with his family inside the Flat No. 3.

The riot had erupted in several villages of Muzaffarnagar and adjoining Shamli districts on 8^th Sep 2013 after mobs of Hindu Jat community, armed with crude weapons, went on rampage after a Maha Panchayat in Kawal area following lynching of two Jat youths who had earlier killed a Muslim youth for allegedly having affairs with a Jat girl. More than 50 Muslims were killed during the riots and over 50 thousand rendered homeless. The state government though gave compensation to families who lost their dear ones during the riots it was unable to restore normalcy in all violence-hit areas, and consequently hundreds of victims have not yet been able to return to their homes.

The Jamaat-built colony has 88 houses – each spreading over 50-60 squires with one bedroom, kitchen, latrine and bathroom.

Giving details about the colony, Mohammad Shafi Madani, National Secretary of Jamaat who heads its Social Service wing told IndiaTomorrow.net: “We bought eight bighas of land from a Hindu villager and constructed 88 houses on it for the riot affected people. Each house has cost us Rs 2.6 lakh. The colony also has a mosque, a community centre and a primary school.”

When rehabilitation of riot affected people is the duty of the government, then why did Jamaat do it?

Responding to the question, Shafi Madani said: Like in Gujarat and Assam, the government of Uttar Pradesh failed to compensate and rehabilitate all victims. It is then Jamaat had to intervene. “We have built this colony for those victims who got no compensation and who have no alternative,” said Madani adding that Jamaat has always first tried to restore such victims in Gujarat, Assam and Uttar Pradesh to their own villages and homes. “We had to construct such colonies and rehabilitate the victims only when the government failed to perform its own duty,” said Madani who has also managed Jamaat’s relief work in Gujarat and Assam after riots there. He said Jamaat has always been doing such relief work.

The Muzaffarnagar colony was inaugurated on Sunday by national president of Jamaat Maulana Syed Jalaluddin Umari. Addressing the beneficiaries and villagers he said: “Whenever a natural or man-made calamity has hit any area of the country, Jamaat has rushed to help the victims irrespective of their region or religion. We do it on humanitarian ground.” He was accompanied by some national secretaries of the Jamaat including Mohammad Ahmed, Shafi Madani and Rafeeq Qasmi.

The event was organized a day after chief minister Akhilesh Yadav and Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi to marriage function of their relative in Saifai – the native village of the Yadavs. Some legislators of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party are accused in the Muzaffarnagar riot – some of them were arrested but later they got bail from the court.

According to media reports, the Yadav family spent several crores of rupees on the Tilak ceremony. On the other hand, hundreds of riot victims have not yet got full compensation from the state government.

In Muzaffarnagar, it is not only Jamaat that has rehabilitated riot victims. Some other organizations of the Muslim community are also doing it. Jamiat Ulema Hind has also constructed a colony for riot survivors here. The Charity Alliance - an NGO run by Muslim Majlise Mushawarat president and veteran journalist Dr. Zafarul Islam Khan, is also constructing a colony with over 30 houses for the Muzaffarnagar riot victims.

Giving details about his project, Dr. Khan told IndiaTomorrow.net: “We have actually built 32 houses. We could have built some 30 more if we had adequate funds. In any case, we have now decided to use the left-out space to build some three large rooms/halls to be used as a vocational centre to serve the riot victims as well as the people in the adjoining villages. The houses should be complete in about two months time from now.”

This all is success of a community when government of the day fails.

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