The 2002 Gujarat pogrom arrested almost exclusively Muslims despite no evidence
Evidence
In 2002, in the Godhra railway station in Gujarat, a train compartment was mysteriously burned down, and fifty-eight Hindu pilgrims were charred to death. With not much evidence to prove their guilt, some Muslims were arrested as the perpetrators. The Muslim community as a whole was collectively blamed for the crime. Over the next few days, the VHP and the Bajrang Dal led a pogrom in which more than two thousand Muslims were murdered, women were mob-raped and burnt alive in broad daylight and a hundred and fifty thousand people were driven from their homes. After the pogrom, 287 people were arrested under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA). Of them, 286 were Muslim and one was a Sikh. Most of them are still in prison. — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 431
Categorization
Category: Factual Claims
- SEED: The POTA arrest pattern (286 Muslim, 1 Sikh) is a sharp data point for any piece on how anti-terror laws function as communal instruments.
Related
- The 2002 Gujarat pogrom killed over 2,000 Muslims with arrests skewed overwhelmingly against Muslims (similarity 0.95)
- Gujarat pogrom arrestees were mostly lower castes, not upper-caste riot leaders (similarity 0.81)
- Dalits and OBCs made up most Hindu rioters arrested in the Gujarat pogrom. (similarity 0.80)