Fugana, Muzaffarnagar:
Muzaffarnagar, torn apart by riots seven months ago, saw 67.8 per cent voter turnout today. Among those who voted were about 150 people who traveled to their village Fugana for the first time since they fled their homes as communal violence spread across this region in western Uttar Pradesh last September.
Fugana saw some of the worst violence during the riots; three deaths were reported, several people went missing and many houses were burnt down.
"I was pregnant at that time but somehow managed to flee Fugana with my husband in the middle of the night," said 35-year-old Gulshana, clutching her voter ID card and a six-month-old sleeping baby, on the five-km ride by tractor trolley to the village she left months ago.
Her father-in-law, she said, was murdered by rioters.
Gulshana broke down as the vehicle entered Fugana, saying, "I am seeing my village after seven months. I want to see my home, but I fear entering the village." She quickly cast her vote and settled into the trolley for the journey back. Many others did the same.
Some mustered the courage to walk from the polling booth to what was left of their homes, amid tight security. They wept, but said emphatically that they will not return to live in Fugana. The fear is clearly larger than nostalgia and pain.
Mohammad Dilshad, 34, said he encountered hostility. "We saw hatred in their eyes," he said, about people who were once neighbours.
Jat leaders in Fugana said they will not stop those who had fled the violence from returning. But they also admitted that political rhetoric has kept the atmosphere communally charged even seven months after the riots.
Arun Malik, a Jat leader in Fugana said, "Till the politics is polarised here, it will be difficult. This will have a longstanding impact on our relations."