Muslims of a village in Sanand taluka of Ahmedabad district have been boycotting the backward communities in the village, most of whom happen to be Hindu Dalits.

Muslims are in an overwhelming majority in Andej village, while the backward Hindus are in a minority. The Muslim community began its boycott of the backward communities on July 1 after a scuffle, in which a Dalit Hindu was left with a fracture in the left hand.

The Dalit lodged a police complaint against the Muslims under the Prevention of Atrocities Act.

After that a verbal fatwa was issued by the Muslim community warning Muslim auto-drivers that they would be fined Rs2,000 if they ferried any Dalit.

Andej has around 700 Muslim families, and 100-odd backward community families, including Dalits belonging to Shenwa, Valmiki and Rohit communities.

Since July 1, the backward communities are allegedly not allowed to purchase anything from the market. They are also not allowed to use the local transport system which is dominated by Muslim auto-drivers from the village.

“We are not allowed to purchase anything from the local market,” Shankar Shenwa said.

The scuffle that led to the atrocity case and the boycott took place after Shankar’s brother, Manu Shenwa, was accused of stealing stones meant for construction being carried out by one Hussain Khokhar.

“Khokhar came to my house, asked me about the stones, and then started beating me,” Manu said. He said Khokhar, along with five other people, had assaulted him and fractured his left hand.

Manu eventually filed a case, which led to the boycott.

Fatu Rehmu, sarpanch of Andej Gram Panchayat, was not available for his comment but, her husband, who handles all the activities of the panchayat, said it was true that the Muslim auto-drivers were boycotting the backward communities. “But they are doing this because they do not want any conflict between the two communities,” he said.