Purola tensions latest gash in communally scarred Uttarakhand

{ EXODUS IN HILL TOWN} FUELLED BY POSTERS ON THE WALL

- Amit Bathla

PUROLA (UTTARKASHI): The blue shutter has been closed for two weeks, the longest it has ever been. The signs of damage are everywhere. On the left and right bottom corners are two padlocks, but in the centre, the steel sheet is twisted - a testament to a frenzied May 29 attack.

The banner atop the shop that once proudly proclaimed the words "Balle Garments" has been torn asunder, and is barely readable. Then, there is the poster, its remnants still on the shutter, fluttering in the wind. A poster that asks Muslims traders from the town of Purola to leave; a poster that has caused an exodus of sorts; and a poster that is emblematic of a Uttarakhand that is lurching from one communal conflagration to the next.

Originally from Bijnor, 66-year-old Balle Khan was 22 when he first came to Purola, in the foothills of Uttarkashi, seeking work. He first worked at a small factory, building and filling quilts. Then he found employment, in turn at a flour mill and a bakery, slowly putting together money for life ahead. Only in 2000 did Khan finally have the ₹2.5 lakh required to rent the shop where he would sell ready-made clothes for the next 23 years. Since then, except for Sundays, the shutters always opened at 8am, closing like clockwork at 8pm. "Nobody has said a bad word about me or the community in my 44 years of living here. Everything we have is here. Our home, our business, our family, our kids. Now they say we must leave," Khan said.

The trigger