FAIZAN MIAN SINDHI: When the mob arrived, he took shelter in a Hindu household, from where he saw his uncle and his family being bludgeoned to death and their entire mohalla being burnt

As smoke starts to lift and flames flicker away from the carcass that was once a community, a structure begins to take shape. That's all there's left of it, a misshapen frame. A splintered psyche jutting ominously, a fractured faith protruding starkly. As for the heaving, throbbing spirit, it has been hacked and burnt, pillaged and plundered, left for dead. Which is perhaps why breathing life into the state's Muslim community seems less of an option, more of an impossibility for now.

It is a minority haunted by visions of burning houses and bodies that followed the killing of 57 kar sevaks at Godhra on February 27. It is a community oppressed by figures. Of a death toll numbering 750 according to official records, but probably double that. Of the nearly 1.25 lakh displaced from 2,600 villages and towns in central and north Gujarat, with nearly 50,000 lodged in makeshift camps in Ahmedabad and another 50,000 reportedly staying with their relatives. Of the Rs 3,000 crore suffered in losses as estimated by the community's leaders.

RAHIMMIYA SINDHI (Left):The farmer who lost his father, wife and three children in riots refuses to return to Kidiyad

This last is the most forbidding. For besides their homes, many thousands have lost their livelihood. The paanshops and bakeries, the barber shops and cycle-repair shops, the hotels and factories have all been razed by mobs, at times 10,000-strong. The insurance claims from the community amount to Rs 400 crore so far. An estimated Rs 50 crore has been lost by the destruction of 75 per cent of the state's bakeries, Rs 200 crore by the demolition of 60 textile and chemical units and powerlooms in Surat and Ahmedabad. Almost 18,000 two- and three-wheelers and 800 trucks have been destroyed. Says Firoze Khan, owner of the Telco service station that was torched along with 22 trucks by a mob of 7,000 at Jetalpur near Ahmedabad: "God alone knows how we will bear this economic blow." Though the building and trucks were insured, the spare parts worth lakhs of rupees stocked by the service station were not.

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Along the Navsari-Mehsana stretch on the 700-km Mumbai-Mehsana highway and other state highways, most of the restaurants were owned by Muslims; nearly 700 have been burnt. Mohammed Iqbal Kuskiwala, 45, owner of a biscuit factory at Modasa, a small town in north Gujarat, lost Rs 50 lakh. His factory was ransacked by a crowd before being blown up by dynamite. "I have decided to shift to Malawi in Africa. The African nations are notorious for their security, but is there any safety in this country any more?" asks Kuskiwala.

MOHAMMED IQBAL KUSKIWALA:The owner of a biscuit factory on the outskirts of Modasa town has decided to shift to Africa after the factory was ransacked and later blown up with dynamite

Equally grave is the altering demographic profile of the state. Makeshift camps for displaced Muslims dot the state's towns-Dohad, Lunawada, Godhra and Chotta-Udepur in central Gujarat, Modasa and Khedbrahma in north Gujarat, and in other places. None of them want to go back to the villages for fear of murderous attacks. "How can we go back? They will kill us if we return," says 27-year-old Rahimmiya Subhanmiya Sindhi, a farmer and cattle trader who lost his father, wife and three children in the savage attack by a mob of 3,000 at Kidiyad in north Gujarat.

Mohammed Amin Seth, a social worker from Modasa, explains, "The game plan of the Hindutva brigade is clear. They want to push the villagers towards the cities by terrorising them even as they incapacitate the urban Muslims so that they are unable to support the fleeing masses."

The state Government claims it is aware of the problem. "We are taking steps to create confidence in the minority community," assures Chief Minister Narendra Modi. But few are willing to believe him, given the police's record during the initial phase of rioting. Modi now faces an unenviable task: to propose an economic scheme for the regeneration of the displaced Muslims while providing them with adequate security.

It is an uphill task. For compounding the Muslims' problems is the campaign calling for an economic boycott of the community. As part of the crusade, a large number of leaflets are being circulated in the state. Without any mention of the publisher's name, they urge the Hindus to save their religion and country by severing economic dealings with the Muslims "in order to teach them a lesson". They warn against employing Muslims, buying from them or selling to them. Though the Gujarat VHP leaders deny having published the leaflet, they add that the prevailing atmosphere is a natural corollary. More worrisome is the support that the campaign is gaining among the Hindus this time in sharp contrast to the past when calls for a similar boycott were ignored by the majority community. "The Muslims find themselves at a dead end," says J.V. Momin, a senior Congress leader.