THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Eighty three of the 85 accused in the 1995 Vizhinjam communal riots were acquitted on Saturday. The communal eruption in Pattani Colony and Pazhaya Madrasa of Vizhinjam had led to the death of seven fishermen, two Muslims and five Christians.
The order was passed by the Additional District Judge-II in the case related to the death of the two Muslims, Moulakkannu, 48, and Abdul Hameed, 70. Ninety five people were rounded up as accused, for charges ranging from murder to conspiracy. Of this, 10 had died in the intervening period. The case files of two are yet to reach the District Court.
The free-all judgment is seen as the result of the communal harmony that had blossomed in the area post-riot. There were 359 witnesses. All of them, except the official ones, turned hostile. Further, sources said, an out-of-court settlement had been struck between the two communities.
The chargesheet of the case was submitted in 2005, a decade after the riots took place. In fact, the chargesheet of the case concerning the death of the five Christians in the very same riots is yet to be submitted.
The riots broke out in May 14, 1995, when a mob of around 500 fishermen belonging to the Christian community descended on the Muslim side, setting the huts on fire and destroying the boats lined on the shore. Moulakkannu was the target. The mobbed bludgeoned both Moulakkannu and his father Abdul Hameed to death using a heavy wooden oar. What seemed to have angered the Christians was a report that Moulakkannu had beached his boat on the no-man’s land between the two warring communities. In retaliation, the Muslim community killed five Christians by forcibly drowning them in the sea.
The riots led the police to open three outposts on the narrow strip of sea shore, dividing the two communities.