Death's silence still echoes in Gulbarg Society

AHMEDABAD: Today, Gulbarg Society resembles a neglected graveyard. Large neem trees cover the deserted one acre plot within high walls and the ground is overrun by wild growth. The colony was set up in the late sixties as an upper middle class Muslim enclave in Meghaninagar, a lower middle class Hindu dominated area. Over time, some of its bungalows gave way to two-storey buildings.However, the bunglows here are very modest by Ahmedabad's standards.
The ruins here tell the story of February 28, 2002, when a frenzied mob blasted the compound wall with a gas cylinder and killed 69 people cowering in their houses, including Ehsan Jafri, former Congress MP from Ahmedabad. Smashed grill doors and soot-covered walls tell of the savagery of that day. On one of the bungalows, someone has written 'Om' in charcoal, possibly much later with a charred piece of furniture.
A bougainvillea creeper with pinkish violet flowers, the colour of dried blood, covers the front of Jafri's bungalow. A cow has made its home in the rooms here. In the backyard is what must have been a small garden, a broken swing in it telling of good times.
The staircase leading to the upper floor is locked. Those are the rooms from which the 73-year-old Jafri made frantic calls over five hours to everyone he knew to send help. None came. Over the past few years, a SRPF platoon has been placed outside Gulbarg Society.
"This place was 'jannat' (heaven)," said shopkeeper Kasambhai Mansuri, the only resident who continues to live here with what was left of his family after 12 of its members were killed in the massacre. His house is right next to the gate and the stench of the municipal garbage bins kept outside the gate reaches right up to his doorstep.
The Supreme Court's decision on Monday to hand back the case to the trial court does not mean much to Mansuri, who is more concerned about getting all the compensation that is due to him. "It will take another 20 years before the court delivers a judgment. Neither we nor the rioters will be alive to hear it," he said.