NGOs organise public hearing for Gujarat riot victims

A public hearing was organised in Ahmedabad today jointly by NGOs where social outfits and members from the minority community shared their experiences in Gujarat after the 2002 riots.
    
"This public hearing has been organised in response to Maulana Vastanvi's statement where he meant that everything was hunky-dory for the Muslims in Gujarat. He never condoned the 2002 Godhra riots while speaking at the function," Founder Member of Anhad, an NGO, Shabnam Hashmi said.
     
Over 50 riot victims, besides a few social outfits from eight districts of Gujarat expressed their views on the lives of minority community in Gujarat  after Godhra riots during the hearing, she said.
     
Member, National Commission for Minorities, Syeda Bilgrami Imam, was present during the hearing as a special observer, besides a jury comprising President National Federation for Indian Woman Annie Raja, Gagan Sethi and Gita
Hariharan.
     
After the public hearing, the jury recommended that there should be a high-powered judicial commission headed by a former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court to examine all cases of terror across the country, Hasmi said.
     
The Ministry of Minority Affairs should ensure that minorities avail the benefits of various schemes formulated for them, she further said.
     
"Anhad will come out with a full report of this public hearing in next ten days. The report would be sent to Member of Parliament's (MPs), National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and international agencies," Hashmi said.