Social activist Teesta Setalvad has said the country had rarely seen accountability of the state as far as targeted violence is concerned, and added that survivors and citizens supporting them are among the “fallout” of such violence.

Delivering the Girish Patel Smarnanjali Lecture here on Sunday, Setalvad said the story of targeted violence begins with the build-up that is created with hate speeches and hate writings.

The survivors of such violence have to face difficulties in ensuring punishment for the perpetrators, she added.

“What is fallout? State accountability happens rarely in our country. How many people have been punished in (the riots of) 1984, 1992 and 2002? These are the questions before us. And the difficulties that survivors have to face to ensure punishment and citizens for supporting them are the issues that come up,” she said.

Setalvad was recently arrested by Gujarat police in a case of the alleged fabrication of evidence to frame innocent people in the 2002 Gujarat riots cases in which a large number of people, especially those from the minority community, were killed. She was recently granted interim bail by the Supreme Court.