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3 March 2012
Last updated at
01:57
India's Gujarat riots: 10 years on
Has Gujarat moved on?
BBC journalist's story
'Face' of riots
'Houses of death'
Return to riot neighbourhood
Nearly 100 people were killed in the Muslim-dominated Naroda Patiya area of Ahmedabad in one of the worst incidents of the 2002 riots in the Indian state of Gujarat. Ten years later, award winning photographer Arko Datta, who covered the violence, returned to the neighbourhood to record his impressions.
More than half of the 1,300 houses in the district were destroyed in the violence. While on the surface it seems that the survivors have moved on, a few minutes with them reveals their sense of disorientation and feeling that justice has not been served, says Datta.
Seven-year-old Altaf, whose uncle was killed in the rioting, shies away from the camera.
Sarifa Bibi wipes her tears away as she recounts how her 17-year-old son, Shariff Bhai, was burnt to death by rioters in the area. "While I saw her sharing light moments with neighbours, I realised it was just a way to cover the pain of losing her son. She lamented that she and her family have not received justice," says Datta.
Security is tight in Naroda Patiya.
Salim Roshan Ali cries as he remembers how his 27-year-old son Siddik was killed during the riots. When his family and others went to seek help from the authorities, they were told that “today you all have to die”, he says.
Most of the Muslim families living in Naroda Patiya at the time of the riots were migrants from Karnataka and Maharashtra.
"While the streets bear no scars and life has returned to normal, the people still seem to live with the vivid memories of the shock and anguish of those tragic days," says Datta.
It is the young ones who are most likely to move on, such as 10-year-old Salim, who was born on the fateful night of the riots - 28 February - in a refugee camp.
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