From: seeta@eng.wayne.edu (Seetamraju UdayaBhaskar Sarma)
Subject: Re: News - Shocking
Reply-To: seeta@eng.wayne.edu
Organization: College of Engineering, Wayne State University, Detroit Michigan, USA
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1993 01:29:32 GMT

gujarat ?  surat ?  One of the most industrialized/advanced areas in india?

Felt a bit nauseated...


 (Jimmy Antia) writes:
-+>
-+>	GRUESOME TALES BY SURAT WOMEN
-+>
-+>    From the Times of India, Dec.22, 1992.
-+>	Reproduced without permission
-+>
-+>_________________________________________________
-+>
-+>The Times of India News Service
-+>
-+>SURAT, December 21
-+>
-+>	A 19-year old girl who was gang-raped and     
-+>tonsured is convalescing in the Surat civil hospital.
-+>	She is one of the victims who was pulled out
-+>from the ill-fated Bhusaval-bound train on December 10.
-+>Her brother who was accompanying her to Dhulia was
-+>stabbed and burnt alive in front of her.
-+>	A 20-year old married recently to a religious
-+>leader and came from Assam to Surat was also gang-raped.
-+>Her husband was slaughtered in front of her. She is now
-+>struggling for life at the Sarvajanik Hospital here,
-+>following an acid attack. 
-+>	Another victim, in her early twenties and the
-+>sister of a Surat police officer, also met with a 
-+>similar fate on the night of December 7 on Varachha Road.
-+>	Tragedy has struck Surat women with a vengeance.
-+>And for them, it was hell let loose. These are some of the
-+>gruesome cases that have come to light. How many women have
-+>been gang-raped is now known but tales which some of the 
-+>women relate at different relief camps are shocking.
-+>	Vijaynagar-II, Vishramnagar, Tunkinagar, J.P.Nagar,
-+>Sandasnagar, adjoining areas of Dawal Shah Peer Dargah on
-+>Ved Road are the societies where the women were subjected to
-+>such barbaric acts. The night of December 8 would go down
-+>as the darkest night the residents ever saw in their lives.
-+>	With no police at all to stop the frenzied mobs, a
-+>grisly drama of murder, loot, rape and sadism at its worst
-+>were enacted. While men were thrown into bonfires, torched
-+>alive or had burning tyres put around their necks, women
-+>were stripped of all their clothes and ordered to "run till
-+>they can run". 
-+>	As the naked women ran for their lives with shivering
-+>and shuddering children clinging to them, the ancient system
-+>of tripping horses was applied. Sticks and ropes were used as
-+>hurdles, so that several of them tripped and fell down
-+>becoming easy prey for those hoodlums.
-+>	A visit to the Marjaan Shaani Hall where about 1,529
-+>terror-stricken people are taking shelter is a tragic sight.
-+>Many of the survivors have gory tales to tell. But what is most
-+>shocking; is that the killers video recorded the incidents. 
-+>Why did they bring the video camera along with them and what
-+>was their intention in recording their inhuman acts on tape
-+>defies explanation because if the tape falls in the hands of
-+>the police, it may become a vital piece of evidence against
-+>the same killers.
-+>	Many in the camp have now mustered the courage to
-+>identify by name some of the hoodlums who led the mobs.
-+>	Yet another unfortunate women who is also taking
-+>shelter in the same camp has become a widow at 22 after her
-+>husband was butchered. A fifth victim recalls that she had
-+>just prepared food for the family when her husband called 
-+>from the stairs that he would just go down and ask the
-+>children to come upstairs, as the situation was very tense.
-+>He went down never to return. Later as the family fled the
-+>home following another attack, his father was hacked to
-+>death, and his three-year-old grandson suffered sword
-+>injuries on the head.
-+>	Perhaps the plight of Jamilabanu, who is several
-+>months pregnant is the most tragic of all. Having seen her
-+>husband and three children being slaughtered in front of
-+>her own eyes and their bodies being hurled into a bonfire,
-+>she had lost her mental balance. She was amongst the
-+>several women who were brought to the camp totally naked, 
-+>thanks to the help from a local leader. Lying in one of
-+>the corners of the camp office, she has not opened her
-+>eyes since the last five days.
-+>	The same story is narrated in the other camps. Not
-+>a tear has so far been shed by a young boy who saw his
-+>mother and young sister being gang-raped and later torched
-+>to death. He is among the 600 persons taking shelter at
-+>the Surat Lala camp house in the Saiyad Pura area of the
-+>city.
-+>	"I just pretended I was dead," another riot victim
-+>narrated. She along with her brother and sister-in-law were
-+>proceeding towards their native Dhulia on Thursday last by
-+>the ill-fated Surat-Bhusaval train when the killers struck.
-+>She was gang-raped, beaten hollow by sticks, set on fire
-+>and thrown on the rail track.
-+>	A couple of policemen who spotted her on the track
-+>covered her body and rushed her to the Surat civil hospital.
-+>Her sister-in-law who was carrying a 10-month old son with
-+>her was spared by the mob.
-+>	Mny of the young girls in the affected areas are
-+>still missing. whether they are alive or not and in what
-+>condition, no one knows.
-+>	For the time being, the ball is in the court of the
-+>police, at least to seize the video cassette which has the
-+>gruesome incidents on the tape. The scars that these women
-+>have suffered will take years to heal and many of them are
-+>not sure as to where to return when the situation becomes
-+>"normal".
-+>
-+>___________________________________________________________
-+>
-+>
-+>Standard disclaimers apply 
-+>such barbaric acts.