Purola from a young girl’s eyes
Updated On: 19 June, 2023 08:04 AM IST | Mumbai | Ajaz Ashraf
A rally of Hindutva hotheads stops outside her house. Behind closed doors, Tabassum, her younger sister and brother are huddled together. Abuses against her father and grandfather rend the air
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Members of right-wing outfits at the mahapanchayat on the Yamunotri highway in Purola, Uttarkashi on June 15. Pic/PTI
I spoke to five schoolchildren and a college student on their experience of living through 20 days of Nazi-style witch-hunt at Purola, a town nestling in the hills of Uttarkashi district, Uttarakhand. Their trauma began on May 26, the day Ubaid Khan and Rajinder Saini were nabbed allegedly abducting a minor Hindu girl. Declaring it to be a case of love jihad, Hindutva groups organised rallies, marked shops of Muslims with an X sign, and stuck posters asking them to vacate the premises before a mahapanchayat of June 15. The administration foiled the mahapanchayat and, in protest, Purola and neighbouring markets observed a bandh. Two days later, some Muslims opened their shops.
Among the six I spoke to, Tabassum (name changed), a Std X student, articulated her thoughts and feelings with the vividness of those who maintain a diary of daily jottings. Since she echoed, with minor variations, the other five, I have chosen to abridge her story and retell it.
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