Marked houses issue in pre-poll Ahmedabad locality

AHMEDABAD: Residents of several societies housing Muslims in Ahmedabad’s Paldi woke up to a sense of unease on Monday after they found cross marks (x) in red on boundary walls. However, the police said that it was done by the municipal corporation.

Paldi Police Station in-charge BS Rabari told ET that the markings were done by Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) workers. “We have spokentoAMCandlearntthattheAMC garbage collection team had marked the houses as they collected garbage from there,” Rabari told ET. “There is nothing more to this,” he added.

Most residents ET spoke to refused to come on record and gave different versions. According to a woman in her forties, the markings came up after some youth went around shouting slogans. An elderly man, whose house has also been marked, however, said the markings were found on Monday morning and was reported to the police.

He said there were some ‘hasty markings’ in some societies were Hindus lived too. Paldi has a mixed population of Hindus and Muslims and falls in the Ellisbridge constituency, considered a safe seat for the ruling BJP.



“We do not want to draw any conclusion,” said Uves Sareswala, owner of a flat in one of the buildings that was marked. “As soon as we saw the markings, we informed the police. It is up to them to look into the matter,” he added.

Posters that said “Paldi ne Juhapura thatu atkavo (stop Paldi from turning into Juhapura)” with a saffron background had come up in the area earlier. Juhapura is to be the largest Muslim ghetto in Ahmedabad. “Some elements are trying to reignite communal feelings in the area during elections,” said Mehmood Miyan, an auto rickshaw driver of the area.



Mehmood had lost his home in the 2002 riots. “All these years we never had fear, but these days, one cannot be very sure,” he added.