SOUTH ASIA - House Foreign Affairs Committee Democrats

2250Such violations led to numerous tribal movements demanding the protection ofland and property rights. The Jharkhand Movement in Bihar and Orissa, and theBodo Movement in Assam, reflect deep economic and social grievances among indigenouspeople. In the Jharkhand area, tribal people complain that they have beenrelegated to unskilled mining jobs, have lost their forests to industrial construction,and have been displaced by development projects. During the year, the Governmentintroduced and Parliament passed legislation creating new, largely tribal-populatedstates from the Jharkand area of Bihar and the Chhatisgarh region of MadhyaPradesh. The Chhatisgarh State came into existence on November 1 and theJharkhand State came into existence on November 15.There also is some local autonomy in the northeast. In Meghalaya tribal chiefsstill wield influence in certain villages. The Nagaland government controls therights to certain mineral resources, and autonomous district councils in Tripura,Assam, and Meghalaya control matters such as education, rural development, andforestry in cooperation with the state governors.Religious Minorities.—The potential for renewed Hindu-Muslim violence remainsconsiderable and both sides committed human rights abuses during the year. Hindusand Muslims continue to feud over the construction of mosques several centuriesago on three sites where Hindus believe that temples stood previously. In1998 the Sri Krishna Commission, established by the Government to inquire intothe cause of Hindu-Muslim riots in Mumbai in December 1992 and January 1993,released its report (see Section 2.c.). The riots, which followed the destruction of anhistoric mosque in Ayodhya in December 1992, left more than 1,000 persons, mostlyMuslims, dead. Maharashtra’s BJP-Shiv Sena ruling coalition rejected the report,which laid responsibility for much of the violence on leaders from both parties. Thatgovernment fell and was replaced by a Congress Partyled government, which submittedan affidavit to the Supreme Court in August promising to implement theCommission’s recommendations. The same government established a special taskforce to implement the recommendations of the Sri Krishna Commission report. Therecommendations included prosecuting the 31 police officials and several Shiv Sena,BJP, and Congress Party politicians found to have abetted the anti-Muslim riotingin Mumbai in 1993.On January 30, Muslim and Hindu crowds in Bangalore clashed and threw stonesat each other after an idol was desecrated in a Hindu temple. Two persons wereinjured in Hindu-Muslim clashes in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, from August 5 to 7.Human rights groups allege that following the riots, the state reserve police officersforced some Muslim residents of the city to sing the Sanskrit anthem ‘‘VandeMataram’’ to prove that they were not ‘‘anti-national’’ (see Section 2.c.). On August31, several hundred angry Hindus pelted Muslim houses with stones and tried toset fire to several homes after a Muslim eloped with a Hindu in a town in Vadodaradistrict, Gujarat. On September 12, Muslim-Hindu violence in Nanded, a city 300miles southeast of Mumbai, left approximately 60 persons injured. The attacksoccured during the annual Ganesh festival when a procession of Hindus passed bya mosque. According to some reports, Muslims in the mosque threw stones at Hinduworshippers whom they claim offended the mosque by making too much noise. TheMaharasthra government ordered a judicial inquiry. On October 16, a gang enteredTahira village, Siwan district, Bihar, and murdered five members of a Muslim family.Police suspect unknown persons in nearby Mohajirpur village committed thekillings in retaliation for the killings of Hindu villagers a few days earlier. On December3, a group of men in Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu, attacked and killed a Muslimpreacher with crude bombs and sickles. No one was convicted in connection with theAugust 26, 1999 mob mutilation and burning to death of a Muslim cattle trader inPadiabeda village, Orissa; about 400 persons witnessed the killing.Attacks by Muslim militants seeking to end Indian rule in Jammu and Kashmir,and contining political violence, has driven almost 95 percent of Hindus in theKashmir valley (Pandits) to seek refuge in camps in Jammu, with relatives in NewDelhi, or elsewhere, during the last few years. Throughout the year, militants carriedout several execution-style mass killings of Hindu villagers and violently targetedPandits, and in one instance the Sikh minority, in Jammu and Kashmir (seeSections 1.a. and 1.g.). On February 28, militants killed five truck drivers on theSrinagar-Jammu highway. The militants systematically halted commercial truckstraveling along the route and questioned the unarmed drivers and cleaners onboard. Those persons identified as Hindus were taken out of the trucks and shot.On March 20, 17 unidentified gunmen in army uniforms killed 35 Sikh men inChati Singhpura (near Anantang in south Kashmir). The incident was the largestsingle massacre of civilians during the past 11 years of militancy, and at year’s end,the only mass killing in Kashmir to have involved the Sikh community. Accordingto various reports, militants separated unarmed male members of the Sikh familiesVerDate 11-MAY-2000 13:46 Sep 20, 2001 Jkt 071555 PO 00000 Frm 00094 Fmt 6601 Sfmt 6621 F:\WORK\COUNTRYR\S71555\71555.035 HINTREL1 PsN: HINTREL1