Thread by @_Shams11

Communal killings in Hyderabad, 1983

On September 7, a mentally handicapped Muslim leaving a mosque threw a stone at a Hindu temple.
This incident of stone throwing at the temple created tension in the area and the man was arrested immediately.

On 8 September, as revenge, a mosque in the compound of Allwyn factory was desecrated by P.Narendra (BJP MLA) and his men.

An idol was installed inside and pictures of Hindu gods were put up. The fans were damaged and the copies of the Koran were thrown into an ablution tank.

Soon the news spread and the AIMIM gave a call for bandh.

When the Chief Minister Mr. N.T. Rama Rao came to know about the bandh call, he called a meeting of the Majlis leaders and requested them to withdraw the call.

The Chief Minister assured them that he would personally repair the damage done to the mosque and restore it to the Muslims. On this assurance the Majlis leaders agreed to withdraw the call.

However, the Congress-I persuaded the Majlis leaders to go ahead with the bandh.

The reason being, Congress-I was looking for opportunities to rehabilitate itself with the Muslims, as in the previous assembly election the Muslims had voted en masse for the Telugu Desam Party, and this was one such opportunity.

What did it matter if a few lives were lost!

The Majlis leaders went ahead with their bandh programme on 9th September.

Upto 11 a.m. the bandh appeared to be a peaceful one, but it took a violent turn thereafter as the Majlis volunteers started forcing shops to down their shutters.

On that day a police officer killed two Muslim boys who were returning from college.
The police officer fired from a jeep and sped away.

After this, there were many stray stabbing incidents in the city until September 21, after which the situation took a turn for the worse.

In Vinayak Chowk, a huge pandal was erected for the festival of Lord Ganesh.
There was a huge gathering in the pandal.

One the day of immersion, the function was presided over by the Maharana of Udaipur.

Everyone wore saffron caps and all Hindu houses nearby had saffron flags.

This was said to have been done with a view to identify the Hindu houses while attacking the Muslim houses.

Provocative speeches were made in the pandal.

On the stage was a huge banner with the incription:
'Implement the Nagarcoil Resolution and declare India a Hindu Republic'

The CM, Mr. N.T.Rama Rao attended the function.

He laid stress on Hindu-Muslim Unity and when he talked of Hindu and Muslim being brothers (“Hindu- Muslim bhai bhai”) there went up a slogan from the audience, “Hindu-Hindu bhai bhai.’

The Chief Minister was presented with the saffron cap which he first declined.
But when the Maharana insisted he wore it for some time and then laid it aside.

The tenor of all other speeches was to protect Hinduism and establish a Hindu Raj in India.

The immersion procession was accompanied by 32 trucks; many of them contained lathis and other weapons.

The procession followed the prescribed route, but after immersion it left this route and went through Muslim inhabited areas attacking Muslim houses on the way.

The police officers did not stop the processionists from violating the prescribed route.
In these attacks no lives were lost but property was damaged.

But what is most disturbing is that after this, the number of stabbing incidents shot up rapidly and more people were killed.

Strangely, the CM tried to avoid imposing a curfew even after the attacks that followed Ganesh Chaturthi procession.

It was only on September 25, when 4 people were stabbed in separate incidents around the city, that it was decided that a curfew was unavoidable.

Resultanty, the violence claimed 45 lives, according to official figures.

Unofficial estimates put the actual death toll at 70 and the number of those injured at more than 200.

Reference:
1. Communal Riots in Post- independence India by Asghar Ali Engineer
2. Hindu-Muslim Communal Riots in India by Violette Graff and Juliette Galonnier