Gujarat's Gulbarg Society to see life after 18 years: Report

Gulbarg Society, after 18 years of Godhra riots, may see some life again as at least two families are preparing to return and start afresh, reported The Times of India.

After the three-day period of inter-communal violence in Gujarat, 69 residents of Gulbarg Society in Meghaninagar were killed. Two of the families who survived have now decided to go back to that place and start their lives again.

Firozkhan Pathan told The TOI that he was planning to renovate his bungalow and move in there within six months. He said, "My Gulbarg Society house covers 220 square yards. I cannot afford to buy a house of that size anywhere else. I have police protection anyway."

Pathan currently stays at a rented house in Juhapura. He lost 10 of his family members in the riots, the news report stated.

The Gulbarg Society massacre took place in Gujarat on February 28, 2002 when Narendra Modi was the Gujarat Chief Minister. It shook the nation when a mob of 400 people set about attacking the society in the heart of Ahmedabad and killed the residents including former Congress MP Jafri.

It was one of the nine cases of the 2002 Gujarat riots probed by the Supreme Court-appointed SIT.