For residents of Jogeshwari chawl 1993 riots is now a distant memory

Anisa Bano, a resident of Radhabai Chawl, now known as Gandhi Chawl, refused to comment on the Supreme Court's verdict on Saturday. Pic/ Ashish Rane

Twenty Six years might not seem like a long time ago, but in Jogeshwari East, which was among the suburbs affected in the 1993 riots, that tragedy is now distant memory.

Residents of Jogeshwari's erstwhile Radhabai Chawl, now known as Gandhi Chawl, where six people from the Hindu community were burnt alive in January 1993, refused to comment on the Supreme Court's verdict. In fact, nobody even acknowledged that an incident of that kind, had taken place here. Most residents claimed to have been living here for the last 25 years, and were not aware of the riots.

Old time resident Anisa Bano, said that she did not want to speak about that time, as she was in her hometown, when the riots broke. Several Hindus used to reside in the chawl. However, post the incident, many of them moved out. "I have only heard rumours [about the killings]. When I returned [from my hometown], most of the Hindus living here, had abandoned their homes."

The four to five homes that were affected during the incident no longer exist at the chawl. These houses have now been replaced with a women's welfare centre called YUVA Sadbhavana. Meanwhile, in order to avert any untoward incident, the police deployed heavy security in the area. A police official at Radhabai Chowky, on condition of anonymity, said, "We are monitoring the situation, but here, people are more bothered about real issues of road, water, health facilities and education."

Sachin Nachnekar, YUVA's youth development coordinator, who is also a resident of Jogeshwari, said, "Our organisation has built a resource centre here to facilitate and offer programmes related to welfare. On Friday, after the verdict was announced, we met several residents to ensure there was peace and communal harmony in the area. Things have changed for the better here."

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