THE sharpness of the harsh afternoon sun is dulled by the lush greenery of Hijirapuram. This is one of the five Muslim villages in northern Mullaitivu, once a bastion of war, to which Muslim families have returned after the end of the conflict in 2009. Their memories of leaving home are bitter. They were forced out of the north by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 1990, amidst the height of the militants’ war for a separate northern Tamil state. The LTTE expelled a population of over 72,000 Muslims from the entire Northern province, giving them just two hours to leave. Many wealthy Muslims who were part of the business community in Jaffna, the nerve centre of commerce in the north, were forced to abandon their businesses.

The Muslim community was seen by the militants as being supportive of the military and accused of being informants. In Mullaitivu, an agricultural hub, most of the Muslims who left their homes were small-time business people, agriculturists and labourers.

Sixty-four-year-old Abdul Gafoor of Hijirapuram recalls how he joined the throngs of Muslim families who were given two-hour notice by the militants to leave the area. “We left with only the clothes on our backs. The north is where generations of our families lived. Although the war began after 1983, we stayed on until we were forced to leave. When we left we became refugees in Puttalam,” he says, referring to the region in the North Western province where hundreds of Muslims set up temporary shelters.

Although the departure from the north was traumatic and filled with strife, the return, says Gafoor, was completely amicable; the Muslim returnees received a warm welcome by the Tamil civilians of Mullaitivu, who were themselves the most afflicted by the conflict.

“Our houses and our agricultural lands were occupied by Tamils of the area after we left. However, we had absolutely no problem getting them back when we returned to stay permanently in 2011. We did not even have to ask them,” says Gafoor.

This gesture by northern Tamils came despite many of them struggling with land and livelihood issues, owing to the occupation of Tamil-owned private lands by the military.

“There were 736 families in Hijirapuram but only 230 families have returned,” says Gafoor.

Originally, the total number of Muslim families in the entire district of Mullativu in 1990 was 1,500 — but only around half has returned to the area, says Jeevan Raja, the ‘Grama Sevaka’ or village officer, of Hijirapuram.

Raja is Tamil and Hindu but he has a very good understanding with the Muslim villagers.

“Every Muslim family here has about twenty perches of land each. The farmers who own lands have about two to three acres. Most of the cultivation done by them is paddy,” says Raja.

The Muslim villagers recall their forced exile, 26 years ago, with sorrow but some believe that the exit was a blessing in disguise.

“Twenty-six years ago we were not ambitious. We were satisfied being small-time farmers. When we settled in Puttlam we had better educational opportunities for our children. We never had anyone going to university. Now, we have several university graduates in our community,” says S.M. Noordeen, caretaker of the local mosque, whose son is an arts graduate of the University of Peradeniya in Kandy.

“We are small-time farmers and we are poor. We are not highly educated. If our children get educated and can do good jobs in Colombo or abroad, they can help us to develop the village,” he says.

So far, there are three mosques for the five Muslim villages in Mullaitivu.

Noordeen would like to see more mosques being built in anticipation of more Muslim returnees. For now, the returnees are only a trickle — although the original Mullaitivu Muslim population has expanded from 1,500 families in 1990 to 6,500 families today.

The reason for the low number of returnees is because a significant number have become successful traders, or are employed in other professions such as teaching, elsewhere in Sri Lanka.

“I came back here to reclaim our house and land, but I want my children to remain in Puttalam to get educated and obtain good jobs,” says Mohammed Junaid, a 53-year-old fish trader whose four schoolgoing children are in Puttalam.

He travels 25 kilometres on his motorbike to the coastal areas in Mullaitivu to buy fish from local fishermen, which he then resells to local fish traders, keeping a small margin.

Hijirapuram does not have a Muslim school but Neeravipitty, the adjoining Muslim village around 200 metres away, has a Muslim school.

The other Tamil schools in the district cater to both Muslims and Tamils, as the medium of instruction for both communities is Tamil.

What the future holds for Muslim villages like Hijirapuram is unknown. For now, it is a rustic post-war haven — of peaceful coexistence between Muslims and Tamils — in Sri Lanka.

Published in Dawn, July 3rd, 2016