KAWAAL/MUZAFFARNAGAR: An eerie silence envelops Kawaal village, the epicentre of violence in Muzaffarnagar district of Uttar Pradesh. Kawaal would have passed off as just another village in the state but for the numerous barricades set up by the police and intensive patrolling by armed paramilitary soldiers in combat fatigues.Pitched battles and clashes between Hindu Jats and Muslims over the past one week have killed more than 30 people in the district and surrounding villages, shattering the picture of peaceful co-existence. “This is a fight for supremacy between Jats and Muslims,” says the policeman, who is manning one of the barricades. “Jats have a traditional stronghold in the Saharanpur range that is now being challenged by a resurgent Muslim community. Unemployment among the youth of the two communities and patronage by rival political parties have made matters worse.”Both the communities have suffered casualties in the recent spate of violence and both blame each other for the flare-up.But there is unity over one issue — the administration failed to respond to the explosive situation. “Probably, it was the death of a journalist that brought them to their feet,” says a doctor at the Muzaffarnagar district hospital, who has been treating the injured brought from the town and adjoining rural areas. “Thankfully, no casualty has been reported in the past 24 hours.”State officials admit off the record that the administration appeared inert when it could have doused the fire. They say the government of Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav was “super protective” of the minority community. “Partisan diktats in such times dishearten administrative efforts,” says one officer, who does not wish to be named.Kawaal has about 7,000 registered voters, almost equally divided between Qureshi Muslims and Saini Hindus. The two communities have co-existed peacefully for ages. Muslims say it was not the Sainis but Jats from outside Kawaal that stormed the village last week to avenge the murder of two Jat brothers. The brothers were killed in retaliation to the murder of a Muslim youth, whom they had killed for teasing their sister.“Malikpur Jats are notorious for criminal activities,” says Zeeshan Qureshi, a youth who does odd jobs for a living. “They were furious when their youth were lynched by Kawaal villagers.”Following the first round of violence, elders of the Jat community convened a ‘mahapanchayat’ (congregation) to put pressure on the administration to take action against those who had killed the two Jat brothers. The second round of violence took place when the Jats gathered for the mahapanchayat were dispersing. While some of those who attended the gathering say they were waylaid by Muslim groups while returning, Muslim leaders say the Jats were shouting provocative slogans on their way back and some of them even attacked houses and vehicles of Muslims.The government has appointed a one-man inquiry commission under Vishnu Sahai, a retired judge of the Allahabad High Court, to establish the truth. Meanwhile, army and paramilitary soldiers are carrying out flag marches to restore normalcy in the violence-hit areas. However, rumours refuse to die. At various chowks and small meetings, town and village folks alike talk of inflated figures of the dead, huge arms haul from mosques and Jat leaders’ houses.Leaders from both communities are being vilified or glorified for their roles in the violence and the distrust between the two communities is growing. At the district hospital, the human tragedy is shared by both communities, each blaming the other for the violence. The injured include a five-year-old with pellet wounds and a 45-year-old with bullet injury. Many of the dead are 50-70 years old, an unlikely age for so-called rioters.“My gut feeling or a rough assumption is that these cannot be rioters and were included in the list to receive compensation,” says a doctor on duty. “Such cases are not uncommon here where the compensation amount is big (Rs 10 lakh in this case).”