Lawyer-activist Shakil Ahmed has spent three decades helping Bombay riot victims go to court – and believes the courts are sending victims back 'empty-handed'.
https://thewire.in/communalism/bombay-riots-supreme-court-shakil-ahmed
Over the past three decades, Ahmed, first as a young rights activist and later as a lawyer, has helped several riot victims approach the court and receive compensation from the state. He recalls how several female victims were denied compensation because they chose to remarry after losing their respective husbands. Some victims, who were not able to produce adequate documents like ration cards or residential proof, were also turned down. Over the years, people just gave up.
Both lives and properties were lost in the violence. After the riots, many Muslim families were forced to abandon their property and belongings in Mumbai and look for safer refuge in the city’s outskirts. This was the beginning of a systematic ghettoisation in Mumbai, permanently pushing them to the fringes.
08/11/2022