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Zakia Jafri, a human rights activist who sought justice for the killing of her MP husband in the course of the 2002 Gujarat riots in India, has died on the age of 86.
Jafri’s dying marks the tip of a two-decade-long battle to carry political figures accountable for the violence that claimed the lifetime of her husband, Congress Occasion politician Ehsan Jafri, and 68 others in a bloodbath at Gulberg Society, a Muslim neighbourhood in Ahmedabad.
Jafri’s husband was certainly one of an estimated 1,180 folks, principally Muslims, who died on 28 February 2002 throughout spiritual riots throughout Gujarat that adopted the burning of the Sabarmati Specific, a prepare carrying Hindu pilgrims, in Godhra.
Her son, Tanveer Jafri, confirmed she had died, saying she had accomplished her common morning routine earlier than feeling unwell. A health care provider was referred to as however declared her useless round 11.30am. Jafri lived in Surat along with her son however had been staying along with her daughter, Nishrin, in Ahmedabad throughout her closing days.
Teesta Setalvad, a fellow human rights activist and long-time co-petitioner in authorized challenges associated to the riots, mourned Jafri’s loss. Setalvad wrote on social media that Jafri was “a compassionate chief of the human rights group,” and expressed solidarity along with her household. “Her visionary presence shall be missed by the nation, household, pals, and the world,” Setalvad wrote.
In 2002, a Hindu mob dragged her 72-year-old husband out of their plush bungalow in Gulberg Society, then tortured and killed him in entrance of her eyes.
Jafri, 64 on the time, may do nothing to save lots of her husband. The state was beneath lockdown following the bloodbath of 59 Hindu pilgrims on the Sabarmati Specific the day earlier than. The lockdown was referred to as by the unconventional right-wing Hindu group the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP).
The 59 killed on the Sabarmati Specific have been principally volunteers of Hindu organisations who perished when their coach was set on hearth at Gujarat’s Godhra station by a suspected Muslim mob, although who lit the fireplace is commonly disputed.
It unleashed violence on such a scale throughout the state that it led to deep political ramifications and irreversibly altered relations between India’s majority Hindu and minority Muslim communities.
By the tip of the day, Jafri had witnessed a violent mob not solely kill her husband, however ransack the neighbourhood and set hearth to her dwelling of 30 years, forcing her and scores of her neighbours to depart barefoot looking for security in a state simmering with communal rigidity.
Police and authorities officers have been accused of directing the rioters and giving them a listing of Muslim-owned properties, whereas India’s prime minister Narendra Modi – who was chief minister of Gujarat on the time – was accused of condoning the violence. Mr Modi has all the time denied any wrongdoing.
Suspicions that Mr Modi quietly supported the riots led the US, UK and EU to disclaim him a visa on the time. These strikes have been later reversed, and a committee appointed by India’s Supreme Courtroom discovered there was “no prosecutable proof” of complicity involving both Mr Modi or senior officers from his state authorities.
Jafri’s authorized efforts have been pivotal within the re-investigation of a number of riot instances, together with the bloodbath at Gulberg Society, ordered by the Supreme Courtroom in 2008. However her pleas for political accountability have been constantly dismissed by the courts, culminating in a 2022 verdict that cleared Mr Modi of wrongdoing.
Regardless of these setbacks, Jafri continued to go to the ruins of Gulberg Society, the place she and her household had as soon as lived, up till final yr.
“We have been planning to go once more, this 28 February,” her son Tanveer Jafri advised the Indian Specific. “She fought from 2002 to 2022… and until the Supreme Courtroom verdict (in 2022) she had hopes that she would get justice.”
Amongst these providing their condolences for her dying included Kerala’s chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who praised Jafri’s authorized battle as a “shining chapter” within the historical past of secular India, whereas Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera mentioned Jafri “noticed her hope for justice die earlier than her eyes”.
“Future generations will hear the historical past of the ‘new India’ in Zakia Jafri’s tears, sobs, battle for justice, after which her defeat,” Khera wrote in a put up on X.
