2002 Gujarat riots: Indian High Commission responds to UK MP's demand over repatriation of bodies of three victims; Watch

A Member of Parliament in UK on Wednesday sought the repatriation of the bodies of three victims of the 2002 Gujarat riots to that country, Scroll.in reported.

Wide-spread communal violence had trigged in Gujarat in February and March 2002 after the burning of a train coach in Godhra. Official numbers say the riots claimed the lives of 790 Muslims and 254 Hindus. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the chief minister of state at the time.

Labour MP Kim Leadbeater put forward the demand for repatriation of bodies during a discussion on the violence by a small group of British MPs in a Westminster committee room. They were observing the 20th anniversary of the riots.

Leadbeater also demanded that a coroner from the United Kingdom should be permitted to undertake an investigation into the circumstances of their deaths. The family members of the three deceased are citizens of the United Kingdom and reside in the Labour MP’s constituency.

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Responding to Leadbeater, Minister of State for Asia Amanda Milling said that the UK government would support the demand for the repatriation of the bodies

Leadbeater called for an acknowledgement of the belief of the family of the deceased that justice “is yet to be done” in the riots.

The three victims whose bodies have been demanded to be returned are Shakeel, Saeed Dawood and Mohammed Aswad. They were said to have visited Gujarat after a tour to the Taj Mahal when they were killed. A person named Imran, who was the nephew of Shakeel and Saeed, survived the attack.

The Labour party MP said that 20 years after the riots, there is no agreement on what happened during the violence and who was complicit. “All we can say with certainty is that at the very least 1,000 people lost their lives, and that the majority of them were Muslims,” she said, according to The Telegraph.

“Nothing that is said or done today can bring Shakeel, Saeed or Mohammad back,” the Labour MP said. “But that doesn’t mean that nothing can be done to provide some comfort to the Dawood family. And after 20 years, possibly even some sense of being able to move forward with their lives. It causes them enormous hurt that the remains of their three young men have never been returned to them.”

The Indian Mission in London took note of the discussion, but said that it was not approached to engage on the subject, WION reported. “As has been abundantly acknowledged by speakers in today’s discussion, since 2002, due process of law has been followed, closely supervised by the Supreme Court of India,” the mission added.

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The Indian High Commission highlighted that speakers in the discussion in the UK Parliament had acknowledged that “since 2002, due process of law has been followed, closely supervised by the Supreme Court of India” with reference to the Gujarat riots, India Today reported.

Indian diplomat Vishwesh Negi said, “It is well known that under successive Indian governments, there has been continuous parliamentary oversight and judicial supervision of the investigations into the incidents and free debate and discussions have taken place in the Parliament of India. As in a mature democracy, the report of the Special Investigation Team constituted by the Supreme Court of India has been placed in the public domain in its entirety.”

He added, “India is not only the world’s largest functioning democracy, it also uniquely exemplifies unity in diversity. Our internal laws and foreign policy are guided by the principles enshrined in the Constitution of India and this enables our people to address their problems democratically and within our own democratic institutions, including our legislature and judiciary.”