If the NHRC wants more reasons for re-opening the Best Bakery case—other than the statements by the key witnesses to The Indian Express that they lied in court—perhaps it might find some in tiny remote Bhaggowar, 70 km from the town of Basti in the depths of eastern UP.This listless village, where there is no profitable crop and where most of the families are landless labourers, is the home village of Sehrunissa and Zaheera Sheikh. This is where many of her relatives came back fleeing the riots. And now their anger and bitterness is boiling over.One of them is Shah Jahan, widow of Kausar Ali, head cook at Best Bakery and Zaheera’s aunt: ‘‘We are living here like dogs. My husband was burnt to a cinder. Our only crime is that we wanted a better life in Gujarat.’’There are many like her. In fact, Gujarati Muslims were not the only victim of the riots. Many of those who were killed and burnt were UP Muslim bakers, carpenters and construction labourers who had migrated from dirt poor villages in UP to work in Ahmedabad and Vadodara. Only to return in fear.This is madrasah country. From luminous green paddy fields rise marzipan madrasahs, standing silently in the deserted countryside, their doors firmly shut to outsiders.It is to these madrasahs that these abjectly poor Muslim agricultural labourers send their children for food for the stomach and comfort for the soul. ‘‘After the riots we don’t know where to go now,’’ says Zaifullah who used to work in Popular Bakery, a few kilometers away from Best Bakery, ‘‘we have been going to Gujarat for generations.’’This is where Sehrunissa grew up with her brother Kausar whom she employed in her husband’s Bakery. Hasina is the mother of Kausar Ali and of Sahrunissa and Zaheera’s grandmother. She is blind with thick misty glasses held in place with bamboo sticks. Her sorrow is so tremendous, so bewildered that it is impossible to keep tears away.And beneath the despair, there’s no escaping the bitterness. ‘‘Zaheera and Sehrunissa have not been here to see Hasina even once after the burning. Not even once,’’ says Barkhullah, Kausar’s older brother. Shah Jahan is more biting in her criticism. She alleges that Zaheera got paid for turning hostile, a charge that both daughter and mother strongly deny.In fact, when The Indian Express asked her about these allegations made by relatives, Zaheera said: ‘‘I can’t bear such an accusation.every body is saying we took money.’’ And cited as evidence the fact that they have taken such a ‘‘risk’’ to come out and admit they lied in court. Whatever the truth, one thing is clear: the court verdict has done little for the victims to put the past behind them.With their feet caked in mud and all their pots and pans sold, Shah Jahan and her seven children are waiting not only for the Best Bakery case to be reopened but also for compensation. ‘‘My husband’s biscuits was the reason why Best Bakery became so rich. But even though Zaheera has got compensation, I have got nothing.’’The official reason: the government hasn’t been able to confirm the identity of the bones that are suspected to be of Kausar. Go tell that to Kausar’s little son Sufiyan who turns his face to the mud-daubed wall to hide the tears rushing down his face.
