Discriminating to Minorities in India

Cleared by CBI, held by police, man alleges assault in jail

2009-02-07T03:10:00.001-08:00

New Delhi, February 07: A man arrested on charges of being a terrorist by Delhi Police's Special Cell on Friday told a city court that he was thrashed by inmates of the high-security Tihar Jail here.

He had earlier sought Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's intervention for relief as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had given him a clean chit.

In an application filed in the court of Additional Sessions Judge S.K. Gautam, Irshad Ali sought a medical examination as he claimed he was beaten up inside the Tihar jail by two inmates Thursday.

He demanded an inquiry into the matter to ascertain who was behind the attack.

Taking cognizance of his application, the court asked the jail superintendent to file a report by Monday.

The Special Cell arrested Ali and Mohammed Moarif Qamar Feb 9, 2006, from the G.T. Karnal Road bus terminal and said they were Al-Badr terrorists. The police claimed that pistols, RDX, detonators and other ammunition was recovered from them.

The CBI in its closure report last year submitted that the two alleged Al-Badr terrorists were innocent and were wrongly framed. The investigating agency even came to the conclusion that the two were working as police informers.

--IANS

http://www.siasat.com/english/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=325435&Itemid=59&cattitle=India

Rizwanur death case: All accused released

2009-01-18T21:23:00.000-08:00

Kolkata,January 19: All accused in the Rizwanur Rahman death case are out on bail with Pradip Todi being the last of the seven to be released from jail on Sunday after being granted bail by the Supreme Court.

Kolkata,January 19:All accused in the Rizwanur Rahman death case are out on bail with Pradip Todi being the last of the seven to be released from jail on Sunday after being granted bail by the Supreme Court.

Though the apex court granted him bail on Friday, the documents related to the bail were cleared from the metropolitan court in Kolkata only on Saturday and as such the accused could not be released from the Presidency Jail.

However, Todi, the main accused in the case, whose bail prayer was also granted by the Supreme Court on Friday, was released on Saturday evening.

Industrialist Todi was under treatment in the state-run SSKM Hospital and was last night admitted to a private facility after being released in the evening.

Todi after reaching his plush Salt Lake residence alleged that he had been unnecessarily detained by the jail authorities for an extra day though the papers reached the jail by evening.

All the accused were charged with criminal conspiracy in the death of the computer graphics teacher whose body was found on September 21, 2007 beside railway tracks far from his home in Park Circus a month after his marriage to Ashok Todi's daughter Priyanka.

Priyanka's uncle Pradip and maternal uncle Anil Saraogi had allegedly played a role in getting her back to her parents from the youth's modest residence in Park Circus area.

Three officers of Kolkata Police, including IPS officer Ajoy Kumar who was at that time deputy commissioner of detective department, were accused and released on bail after spending a night in jail.

Rizwanur's family friend Pappu had also been accused by the CBI of taking Rs 11 lakh from the Todi family for ensuring a split between the couple.

The arrest is a warning to all Muslims who are raising their voices against the injustices perpetrated by security agencies in the name of fighting t

2008-12-21T22:13:00.000-08:00

New Delhi, Dec. 21: Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad has picked up a 23-year-old IT analyst hailing from Uttar Pradesh for his alleged role in procuring arms and explosives, a charge denied by his family.

Mohammad Talha, a resident of Azamgarh and working as a financial analyst with a multinational company in Hyderabad, was picked up in connection with an arms recovery case, an ATS officer said. However, Talha’s father Maulana Aamir Rashadi alleged that ATS picked up his son from Nagpur railway station while he was returning to Hyderabad after spending Eid holidays in Azamgarh.

“My son was returning by Patna-Secunderabad express on December 19. When he stepped out of the train at Nagpur railway station at 11.30 pm along with a colleague to fetch water, four to five people claiming to be from the ATS grabbed him and took him away,” Rashadi, principal of the Jamiatur Rashad Islamic educational institution in Azamgarh, alleged.

“They pushed his colleague to the floor and took Talha away,” he said. Meanwhile, All India Muslim Majlis-e Mushawarat president Zafarul-Islam Khan said the arrest is a warning to all Muslims who are raising their voices against the injustices perpetrated by security agencies in the name of fighting terror.

http://www.deccanchronicle.com/Nation/NationalNews.asp#ATS%20picks%20up%20city%20techie%20over%20arms

Tension at Koti over temple demolition, one Muslim youth stabbed

2008-12-13T03:05:00.001-08:00

Hyderabad, December 12: Demolition of a temple supposedly by local civic authorities on Friday in a busy area here led to angry protests by local residents and Sangh Parivar activists.

The demolition of the temple of a local deity in Kothi area, in the early hours on Friday, as part of a road expansion programme by Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) led to angry protests by activists of Bajrang Dal, VHP and BJP.

In the meantime few miscreants belonging to the Sangh Pariwar stabbed one Muslim youth Syed Ibrahim (24) a Hard ware engineer and a resident of Chilkalguda. Ibrahim was stabbed at Sultan Bazaar while he came out after offering Namaz.

While the protest was in progress a group sangh Pariwar activists beaten one police constable Syed Ajaz of Armed Police. Both the injured have been admitted into Osmania Hospital for treatment.The Sultan Bazaar police have registered a case and are investigating.

Police resorted to baton-charge as protestors allegedly pelted stones on them, smashed windowpanes of some government buses and set some government vehicles on fire.

Sangh Parivar leaders alleged that GHMC officials were targeting only Hindu places of worship and demanded that the temple be rebuilt.

Additional forces were rushed to the area to bring the situation under control.

BJP support to Malegaon blast accused, shocking: Paswan

2008-11-18T00:35:00.001-08:00

New Delhi, November 18: LJP chief and Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan on Monday found it "shocking" the way BJP leaders have come out openly in support of the Malegaon blast accused.
"The BJP had been strongly vocal against terrorist activities all this while and the present stand taken by party president Rajnath Singh and senior leader L K Advani is shocking to say the least," Paswan said in a statement.He said both the leaders owed an explanation to the nation for their stand."This only goes to prove that the BJP practices politics on communal lines for petty electoral gains," Paswan said.Condemning BJP, VHP and Bajrang Dal for "coming out openly" in support of the Malegaon blast accused, he said the stand of these organisations would not only demoralise the agencies conducting investigations into the whole issue, but also cause hindrance in pursuing proper investigation.The LJP leader said that terrorists do not belong to any particular religion and any person who extends support to the terrorists should be branded anti-national.Paswan's statement comes a day after RSS, VHP and BJP denounced "UPA's vilification campaign" to "malign" Hindutva at a conclave in Panipat and vowed to counter "attacks on Hindu seers and Indian soldiers". Coming to the defence of Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and Lt Col Srikant Purohit, who have been arrested in connection with the Malegaon blast case, the conclave insisted that Hindus could not be involved in terrorism and alleged that the investigations against them are "inspired by political motives".

How CBI missed leads: HINDU TERRORISTS BEHIND THE MAKKAH MASJID & AJMER BLASTS?

2008-11-17T21:55:00.001-08:00

New Delhi, November 17: More arrests are expected in the coming weeks as the frightening dimensions of a radical Hindu terror plot start to unravel....

....with investigators indicating that it had the makings of a larger conspiracy and planning of reprisal killings of Muslims for serial bombings in a number of Indian cities.

Ten people, including a self-proclaimed Hindu seer and a serving lieutenant colonel, have so far been arrested for the Sep 29 bombing in a Muslim-dominated neighbourhood in the small Maharashtra town of Malegaon that killed five people. Investigators are now examining if a Hindu terror conspiracy was involved in several other blasts - like the one of the Samjhauta Express train in 2007 - that have till date remained unsolved.

The Anti-Terrorism Squad's (ATS) arrest of Mahant Amritanand Dev alias Dayanand Pandey, the self-styled pontiff from Kanpur, which investigators say is a "prize catch", has already revealed that it was under his instructions that Lt. Colonel Shrikant Purohit procured RDX from an army depot that was used in the Malegaon blast.

"Pandey was present in all the pre-blast meetings in Bhopal, Jabalpur and Faridabad, monitored operations meticulously and was also responsible for arranging the finances that came in through illegal channels," an ATS source told IANS.

Investigators are now questioning the suspects on the May 2007 blast at Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad, the attack on the Samjhauta Express train between India and Pakistan in February 2007 and the April 2006 twin blasts at New Delhi's Jama Masjid.

"Not much headway has been made into the investigations in these attacks. We need to examine if a similar radical Hindu fringe could have been behind these bombings and that is under the scanner now," said a senior intelligence official, who could not be named because of the sensitivity of his position.

“We could see more arrests in the coming days but that will depend on whether we can get sufficient evidence.”

It is believed that Pandey, a dropout from the National Defence Academy, was in touch with two other accused who are on the run - Ramji Kalsangara, who allegedly planted the motorcycle owned by the Hindu ascetic Pragya Singh Thakur in Malegaon, and Sameer Dange.

In the Mecca Masjid blasts as many as 14 people were killed and over 50 injured. The case was investigated by the city police special wing and was later handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation which could not come to any conclusion. There were some remote indications of Bangladesh-based terror outfit Harkat-ul-Jihad- al-Islami' s involvement.

Investigations into the Samjhauta Express explosion, in which at least 68 people were killed, and the Jama Masjid blast also failed to make headway and police could not across on any tangible leads.

Police have already established a strong link between Pandey and some of the suspects in the Kanpur blast case through surveillance - on Aug 24, two members of the right-wing Bajrang Dal were killed there while assembling bombs.

“With his (Pandey) arrest we will now get to the bottom of this case and see if there are linkages as well in the 2006 Nanded blasts in Maharashtra,” said a senior police official.

Unearthing this terror network has indicated a major course correction for police, who had blamed Islamic terrorists for a wave of bombings that have killed more than 145 people targeting cities like Delhi, Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Jaipur this year.

The arrests have reinforced growing suspicions over the last few years of a potential threat from Hindu extremists.

--IANS

'Media must not get swayed by police'

2008-11-12T03:13:00.000-08:00

Hyderabad, November 12: Media should not be carried away by the versions of the police and intelligence department on reporting terror activities and thus play into their hands in ‘demonising Muslims’, speakers at a workshop felt.

The PEACE Hyderabad today organised ‘Let’s Talk’ , a dialogue with the representatives of media on the role of different media in fostering harmony and issues of religious conversion, terrorism and minority appeasement. The speakers comprised representatives of NGOs, rights and social activists and legal fraternity.

Speaking on the occasion, executive committee member of Harmony India, Chennai, A Faizur Rahman said media always portrayed Muslims in a bad light in reporting terror-related activities. “We don’t have any problem if a terrorist, who is actually involved in such activities, gets the highest punishment. But, innocent Muslims are being victimised by the police and the media is getting carried away by the inputs given by police and intelligence agencies,’’ Faizur Rahman said.

He blamed the media for carrying the version of the police rather than taking up their own investigation.

Senior journalist K Venkateshwarlu took objection to the entire media being blamed for ‘demonising’ the Muslim community and asked why the civil rights groups were failing to take up the issue with the police rather than the media.

Indian Journalists Union member K Amarnath said the media (personnel) did not have the mechanism or training to investigate a crime.

“Investigative journalism is about bringing out facts that a Government suppresses and it is not about media investigating the cases,’’ he said. “Media depends on police for information and for authenticity, we quote the police officer,’’ he said and added, ‘’If the intelligence or police indulge in misinformation, it is for the Government to come out with the true picture.’’ Prof Rama Melkote wondered why media depended solely on the police rather than talking to victims and eye-witnesses. “The words ‘Hindu terrorist’ or ‘Islamic terrorist’ are highly condemnable and it is unfortunate that some reports say a terrorist is acquitted. How can a person acquitted of terror charges be called a terrorist,’’ she questioned.

Senior journalists, however, contended that priority was given to taking the account of victims and eye-witnesses in reporting and police version followed it.

When a senior lawyer, L Ravi Chander, criticised the media for not taking up the case of innocent victims of police like Junaid, media representatives wanted to know what the legal fraternity was doing over such issues.

“You talk about the case of Junaid, why don’t you look at the role played by media during the Gujarat incidents,’’ they questioned. “It is almost like demonising the entire media,’’ they remarked.

Commending the role of media, eminent scientist Dr P M Bhargava said there was more scope for the media to improve and promote peace and communal harmony.

“Is it not the duty of media to look into the future,’’ he asked.

Another senior advocate, Shafique Rehman Mahajir, said politicians and religious leaders had failed the people and it was time for the intelligentsia to come forward for the betterment of the country. “Jihad is making a righteous action to improve the society. We are doing it now (through the talk),’’ he said.

Social activist Arshia Ahmed Ayub said the talk was the first initiative and in future, the police would also be involved in such discussions.

http://www.siasat.com/english/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=308274&Itemid=79&cattitle=Hyderabad

MODI'S COPS STOP ARREST OF SANGH TERROR SUSPECT

2008-11-10T23:19:00.001-08:00

THE TERMS of the terror probe have changed. On instructions from a state minister, the Gujarat police last week stopped the Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) from picking up a terror suspect with Sangh Parivar connections because the arrest papers were not in order.

The suspect is linked to Sangh Parivar leader Asimanand, who had earlier shared a platform with Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi and other BJP leaders.

State governments all over the country have so far hosted police raiding parties from across state borders and happily handed over Islamic terror suspects without much fuss over documentation, which very often is done afterwards.

The Gujarat and Maharashtra police have been working in tandem to solve the Ahmedabad blasts and Surat ‘ bombsprouting’ cases and Congress- ruled Maharashtra had been keenly assisting the Gujarat police.

Yet, the Gujarat police have now stalled the Malegaon blast investigation by throwing the rule book at the Maharashtra ATS which is probing Sangh Parivar activist Pragya Thakur’s terror links in

Malegaon blast inquiry suffers as Gujarat plays delaying game

Modiland. Pragya is suspected to have stayed with Asimanand in Gujarat. The ATS wanted to pick up Asimanand’s associate Sunil Dhawde last week. Dhawde had driven Pragya around for about a month during the three-day Shabri Kumbh in February 2006 organised by Asimanand along with Sangh Parivar leaders. This massive religious ceremony in the Dangs was attended by Modi.

The Pragya trail had led the ATS to Dhawde who is now reportedly in Valsad. It is still not confirmed whether the ATS could finally arrest him after the initial attempt was stalled last week. Meanwhile, Asimanand has been missing since the terror probe began. The ATS first landed at Asimanand’s ashram in the Dangs and there found out that Dhawde had moved to his native place in Valsad district. But the ATS was in for a shock at Valsad. According to Mumbai police sources, the local police sprung into action as soon as the ATS team landed in Gujarat. The deputy superintendent of Valsad police D.J.

Patel immediately informed his boss, inspector general of police (IGP) Sivanand Jha who apparently rang up home minister Amit Shah. The minister, said the police sources, gave out an order not to let anyone from Gujarat be picked up without completing the due processes as per the law. Of course, the bureaucratic process could at least delay the arrest of the Sangh activists. These developments have been taking place over the past week. Patel casually told the ATS team that he wouldn't let Dhawde be picked up unless the relevant papers had been furnished. In fact, he confirmed that he didn't hand over the suspect to the ATS. "We have taken a decision that no suspect would be allowed to be arrested without proper documents and proper verification," he said.

But, he wouldn’t admit that home minister Shah had asked him not to allow Sangh Parivar activists to be arrested by the Maharashtra ATS unless the required procedures for the arrests had been completed. "We have not been instructed by anybody. This is my decision. We have to follow proper legal procedures before handing over anybody’s custody to anyone,” claimed Patel. Even though the ATS team sent word back to Mumbai and hurried with the necessary papers, Patel still insisted that he has not handed over Dhawde to the ATS as it has not furnished all the required documents for the arrests. The state’s former top cop and Modi-baiter R.B. Sreekumar is amused by the Gujarat police’s respect for the law. “When I was serving in Gujarat, I came across a number of cases where people were simply picked up by the police and locked up without registering the arrests. The family members of the victims would not bother to complain or raise a voice as they feared that their men folk would be killed in fake encounters if they did so. In fact, I was told by the chief secretary himself to eliminate people in fake encounters if I perceived any problem during a Rath Yatra organised in Gujarat. The instructions were obvious – no arrests were to be made," said the former intelligence chief of Gujarat. According to Maharashtra ATS officials, since Asimanand had deputed Dhawde to assist Pragya for a month, the planning for some blasts could have happened at the Shabri Kumbh and that Dhawde might know who else attended her meetings.

Asimanand hails from West Bengal and, sources said, has an MSc degree. He has been known to make hate speeches against Christians. He is also known to make speeches against Islamic terrorism. If the probe does lead to Asimanand, then it could embarrass Modi, apart from a host of senior leaders in the BJP as he is close to several top functionaries in the BJP.

Maharashtra ATS spokesperson Dinesh Agrawal declined to comment on the wrangle with the Gujarat police saying he was attending a family function.

http://www.siasat.com/english/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=307852&Itemid=120&cattitle=HINDUTVA%20TERROR&mosmsg=Thanks%20For%20Your%20Vote!

Hyd blasts: 21 youths wrongly held, tortured by Police

2008-11-09T21:26:00.001-08:00

New Delhi, November 09: In an embarrassing and shocking admission, the Andhra Pradesh government has conceded that 21 Muslim youth were wrongly detained and tortured for the blast probes at Mecca Masjid, Gokul Chat and Lumbini Park in May and Aug 2007.

The State Minorities Commission had come out with a report stating that over 20 Muslim youth were illegally detained and tortured by the police. Each of those youth will now be given a grant of Rs 30,000 while nearly Rs 70,000 would be arranged for them through private cooperatives.

"The youth were arrested wrongly in the Gokul Chat, Lumbini Park and Mecca Masjid blasts on the basis of suspicion but were proven innocent. Now compensation worth Rs 30,00 is being paid to them in the form of autorichshaw..."

http://www.siasat.com/english/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=307773&Itemid=79&cattitle=Hyderabad&mosmsg=Thanks%20For%20Your%20Vote!

Hyd blasts: 21 youths wrongly held, tortured by Police

2008-11-09T21:26:00.000-08:00

Man cleared in conspiracy case after Masjid blasts flays police

2008-11-08T04:15:00.000-08:00

Hyderabad, November 07: The police were forcing innocent people to become terrorists by implicating them in false terror plots, charged Shoeb Jagirdar and his relative Syed Imran Khan on Thursday.

Jagirdar, 42, a kerosene dealer from Jalna of Maharashtra, and Imran, 22, a private company executive from Hyderabad, were recently acquitted in a criminal conspiracy case registered against them by Hyderabad police following the bomb blast in Mecca Masjid in May 2007.

At a press conference here, they alleged that the police had illegally detained them for days and tortured them to extract a confession on a crime which they never committed. The duo alleged that apart from the continuous third degree torture, the police had also administered electric shocks on their private parts. “Even innocents would admit any crime if subjected to such torture.

Naturally, the person would be branded a terrorist,” they remarked. According to Mr. Jagirdar, the Hyderabad police picked him up from Jalna on May 21, 2007. On the way to Hyderabad, the police halted near Andhra Pradesh border for dinner at a dhaba. “I saw a TV news channel running scroll that I was arrested in connection with the blast in Mecca Masjid. Had police not misled the media by leaking false information, how would it happen?” he questioned.

He alleged that he was taken to an undisclosed place — later identified as Commissioner’s Task Force office in Secunderabad — here he was beaten up severely and forced to accept that he had given some packets to Imran Khan. The police finally registered two cases against them.

http://www.siasat.com/english/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=307377&Itemid=79&cattitle=Hyderabad

And Now Hindu Terrorists?

2008-11-03T00:36:00.000-08:00

And Now Hindu Terrorists?

Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur

Muslims for long had been objecting to the term Islamic terrorists and when the term Hindu terrorists was used by a section of the media the Sangh Parivar members protested how can one use the term ‘Hindu Terrorists? The first to object to this term was Mr. Ram Madhav of RSS told The Asian Age “There is no such thing as Hindu terror at all. It is an orchestrated campaign to protect the real terrorists.” Also when asked about the Sadhvi Pragnya’s arrest, he immediately tried to distance RSS from her. The “involvement of individuals, he said, “had nothing to do with any Hindu organization.”

Similarly Mr. Advani, the opposition leader, also distanced BJP and RSS from the Sadhvi. He claimed he had no knowledge as to who Pragya was till now. Advani told Times of India that it seemed obvious that she would have parted ways with the pariwar outfits because her thoughts and methods did not match with those propagated by the organizations which she may have belonged to. This was reason enough for her to move out of them.”

Mr. Advani went on to cite the example of Nathu Ram Godse who killed Mahatma Gandhi on January 30, 1948. “Godse was associated with RSS earlier in his life but left the organization way back in 1934 because he did not agree with its ways”, he pointed out. Mr. Advani at least admitted that Nathu Ram Godse was associated with the RSS which was denied earlier.

Well it is Mr. Advani’s view that RSS does not believe in violence. Mr. Advani himself was in the RSS for long time and who knows better than he that very beginning of RSS was to train Hindus to fight Muslim bullies and all RSS branches give training in wielding lathis. Then it also set up other organizations to give training in arms. Even Durga Wahini gives training to its women members in using firearms.

Mr. Advani also must know very well that RSS has great admiration for Hitler and even today in some BJP ruled states like Gujarat and Rajasthan Hitler and Nazism is admired and described as the only solution for the country as the country needs a strong leader to take right decisions in right time. And Hitler was not all about peaceful means. To claim that Hindutva organizations do not believe in violence is to say fire does not burn at all but heals.

Everyone knows what VHP and Bajrang Dal were up to in Gujarat and what kind of violence they indulged in during Gujarat carnage of 2002. It is VHP cadre along with BJP leaders who killed or prompted others to kill 2000 Muslims most brutally. Was that no violence? Or was it no belief in violence?

Mr. Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, the BJP vice-president tried to argue after arrests of Sadhvi and her associates that “To protect real terrorists, the artificial terrorists are being shown.” He clearly implies that Sadhvi and her two associates are not real terrorists and the police have arrested them only to protect real terrorists. Mr. Naqvi thinks real terrorists could be only Muslims? But he also said, “There can’t be either Muslim or Hindu terror.”

Was this not what all secularists and Muslims maintained all along? Terrorists have no religion but the Sangh Parivar in particular and the media in general always used the terms like Islamic terrorists or Muslim terrorists and the police, whenever arrested some Muslim boys without any proof invariably described them as Muslim terrorists. And even if these boys whom police arrests are in any way involved in those horrific acts of terror it does not mean Islam teaches terrorism or Muslims in any way believe in killing innocent bystanders.

But RSS continued to propagate what has now almost become a proverb “All Muslims are not terrorists but all terrorists are Muslims.” Now that their own people have been found involved in Malegaon bomb blasts, all Hindutva organizations and their leaders are maintaining that Hindus cannot be terrorists and Hindu culture does not believe in violence. As long as Muslims were being arrested it was quite alright to maintain that it is Islam and Muslim culture which produces terrorists.

The real fact is that neither Hinduism nor Islam nor does any other religion preach terrorism. It is possible that some individuals or even group or organization may employ religious terminology or employ religious rhetoric to justify their condemnable acts but that does not hold that religion or religious community to be responsible for that act of terrorism. The group or concerned organization can alone be held responsible for its acts, not the religion that the group belongs to, much less entire religious community.

Here that Hindutva leaders are cleverly saying that how Hindus or Hindu culture can be responsible for such violence. The Hindus as individuals or as a groups believing in violence can certainly be responsible but not Hinduism. Hinduism is a religion of peace and non-violence as Islam is also religion of peace and non-violence but some Hindus or Muslims or some organization consisting of some individuals form these communities can certainly be responsible for terrorist violence.

The arrests of Sadhvi and her associates has at last brought out in open what was all along known that some Hindutva organizations were making bombs and they should be investigated in terrorist attacks in places like Malegaon (2006), Mecca Masjid blasts in Hyderabad etc but the police turned a blind eye to this demand and arrested only Muslims indiscriminately.

Now after arrests of Pragnya and her associates many Muslims feel that the UPA Government arrested these persons only on the eve of election to soothe Muslim frayed nerves, especially after the Batla House ‘encounter’ which human rights activists and Muslims thought had raised many questions. Thus Muslims and secular forces in the country feel these arrests of some Hindutva activists were done to satisfy them and after elections again the police may continue to harass Muslims.

Also, the Malegaon blasts of 29 September 2008 it was almost impossible for police to arrest some Muslims as all former SIMI activists were under jail already and secondly if Muslims were arrested this time again, Muslims would have protested severely and UPA Government would have suffered another credibility blow on the eve of elections.

I had investigated Malegaon blasts of 2006 and had made all political leaders across party lines and common people and intellectuals and no one was convinced that those arrested after the blasts in 2006 in which more than 50 persons were killed could have been carried out by those arrested by the police. It was important festival and Friday and the bombs went off just when the Friday prayers ended. No Muslim would go for blasting bombs at such a place on such an occasion.

Yet the police was determined to blame it only on some ex-SIMI members and would listen to no arguments. The 2006 blasts should be reinvestigated and I am sure something else would be revealed. I have seen the charge sheets filed by ATS in 2006 Malegaon blasts. It totally depends on confessions obtained in police custody and is bound to fail in any court of law. The real culprits would certainly escape.

The Nanded blasts in which two Bajrang Dal activists were killed had taken place just before Malegaon blasts of 2006 and there was every possibility of involvement of some of those persons in Malegaon blasts. Similarly the Mecca Masjid blasts of Hyderabad should also be thoroughly reinvestigated as it also took place on Friday just at the end of Friday prayers when thousands of Muslims were coming out of the Mosque.

And all those arrested in Mecca Masjid blasts were also mostly innocent persons. I have heard them in a public hearing in Hyderabad and human rights activists and civil rights group worked hard to get them released on bail as there was nothing by way of credible evidence against them. The courts had to give them bail. The Hyderabad police could not, or did not want to lay its hands on real culprits.

The involvement of some army officers even of the rank of major should not be surprising as many RSS sympathizers are regularly employed and after retirement they become active in Hindutva organizations. The army usually claims to be quite secular, and probably it is, but it should be much more careful while recruiting soldiers and officers. No one with communal background should be recruited. This principle is not being rigorously observed at the time of recruitment. Many people who come out of RSS controlled schools and colleges are recruited in army.

I think it will be better if all terror blast cases be investigated by the police of credible conduct under the supervision of retired high court justices. This will reduce possibility of biased investigation though may not all together eliminate it. It is in the interests of the internal security of the country. It appears communal riots are fast being replaced by bomb blasts and some people suspect, it is new strategy of the communal forces. Major communal riots are becoming increasingly difficult to organize.

The civil society should also become vigilant against all terrorists of whatever religion or group. As communal riots were major danger in twentieth century, terrorist attacks are for 21st century.
——————————————-
Centre for Study of Society and Secularism
Mumbai.
E-mail: csss@mtnl.net.in

Photo: Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur

Whither India: Qualitative Change In Polity

2008-10-27T22:01:00.000-07:00

Indian Muslims Blog

Whither India: Qualitative Change In Polity

Posted: 27 Oct 2008 03:07 AM CDT

Last six months have been most disturbing on the Indian political scene. As far as the values of integration are concerned they are being attacked very severely by terrorist-communal forces. First, we saw the series of bomb blasts, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Delhi and Malegaon. It was projected by the authorities that all these acts are due to Jehadi Muslim groups that police have succeeded in cracking the network. One outcome of this was the Batla house encounter in which police, bravely killed the terrorists. It put out a version that now the terror ring has been busted and kingpins have been arrested. It is another matter that later the relevant-uncomfortable questions were raised and satisfactory answers to these were not forthcoming. On the top of this the claim that Malegaon blasts were done by SIMI proved to be false as the investigation showed the possibility of ABVP/Bajrang Dal being involved in same.

During the same time two Bajrang dal Activists got killed while making bomb in Kanpur, two activists of Hindu Jagran Samiti were involved in placing the bombs in Thane due to which seven people got injured. During this time again in Tenkasi, Tamil Nadu, the bombs went off near RSS office and as usual the cry of wolf was made, but the wolf here had different shades than what RSS wanted to propagate, as most of those planting the bombs turned out to be Hindus, with affiliation, which are not difficult to guess.

During the same time the anti Christian violence was orchestrated and launched in Orissa to begin with, later on spilling to Karnataka. The pretext first was that Christians have beaten Swami Laxmananand (December 2007) and later that Christians have killed the swami. Interestingly a Maoist group claimed to have killed him but the RSS combine stated that they don’t believe in the claim of Maoists, meaning there by that they have the right to decide who the culprit is!

The third tragedy related to the Hindu Muslim violence in Burhanpur, Dhulia and few other places on the slightest pretext of tearing a banner or some such. What is disturbing is the way things are shaping in the country. The anti Muslim hate propaganda, which has been sustained on various myths have gradually been taking the shape of deep rooted perceptions. Earlier lot of planning and bigger pretext was needed to unleash the violence, now even a small pretext suffices to initiate the mayhem. Some of the properties are well marked in advance for destroying. The loss of lives of minorities is many times more than their presence in population.

The stereotyping of Muslim community through reporting of acts of terror has boosted the negative perception of the community in a serious way. At the same time the there is a realization that there are two set of laws, that they will not get justice and that their feeling of insecurity in the society is going up by leaps and bounds. One does not know whether this disturbs the ruling coalition or not. For Muslim minorities to keep faith in the Governemnt in such circumstances is not difficult, it is impossible.

Christian minority was not the target till quite late. As the hate propaganda based on make believe forcible conversions, allurement, insult of our gods, foreign money keep percolating in the society, and a silent sanction for attacking them started building up. Now even a slightest pretext is sufficient to undertake the despicable violence against the community.

This is a clear case as to how already a social mind set has been created, through word of mouth propaganda and media where by the minorities have been demonized and now the violence against them has become the order of the day. Even the global phenomenon of terrorism and local phenomenon has added on to the same and in this case Islamic terrorism, and ‘all terrorists are Muslims’ has been made the fodder of social thinking. As such, starting from Golwalkar, RSS’s formulation that Muslims and Christians are threats to Hindu nation, to the present day, there is a consistent worsening of the level of demonization of minorities.

These entire social phenomenons are raising a deeper question related to our democracy. Democracy not only ensures that are citizens are treated equally it also stands for giving affirmative action for weaker sections of society. As such the litmus test of democracy is the welfare and security of minorities. Here we see that as to how the marginal stream which came up during freedom movement and kept aloof from it, the Hindutva vehicle, RSS, has been successfully working, using the democratic space to abolish, precisely the democratic values which gave it a space to stand. While totally defamed after Gandhi murder by one of its followers, its acceptability began with Jayapraksh Narayan letting it run the movement, which led to emergency and later formation of Janata Party. RSS began by spreading hate against Muslims and Christians, formulated by its founders and penned by its ideologue, M.S. Golwalkar. Golwalkar instructed that Muslims, Christians and Communists are the threat to Hindu nation. The RSS shakhhas kept spreading this ceaselessly and it became a part of social common sense over a period of time.

RSS also planted its swayamsevaks in different walks of social and political life, education, media, police, bureaucracy etc. Once its political child, Jana Sangh became part of Janata Party, it ensured that large number of swaymsevaks become part of media establishment. And later during NDA regime, this game of theirs’ had a field day. Capping these efforts through Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram, social engineering got intensified in Adivasi areas. With US administration coining the word ‘Islamic terrorism’ and that propaganda that Madrassas are the dens of training terrorists; RSS completed its indoctrination module.

The deadly poison it spread against minorities first spread hate and created divides in the communities, leading to ‘hate other’, which in turn forms the base of communal violence. Communal violence in Indian context gets assistance from the communalized state apparatus, sections of police in particular leading to polarization of communities and rise to political power of the communal party. The conveyer belt begins from demonizing other and leads to the RSS’s political child becoming politically strong. That’s how a political party which managed two seats in parliament in1984 elections has become formidable electoral force today, knocking the democratic values and imposing the religion based nationalism.

Though not in power in center, its machinations are polarizing the society all over, creating divisions in the society, rampaging the rule of law and paving the way for creeping fascism. What is happening today is reminder of how things happened in Germany, with Hitler leading the carnage. Beginning with hate Jews and then Christian minorities, then Communists and trade unionists paved the way for the stifling atmosphere of fascism, authoritarian state with social base. Today we seem to be helplessly watching a similar situation. While RSS combine is behaving like a rampaging bull, Bajrang Dal planting bombs, its workers carrying arms openly, distributing trishuls en masse, the state ruled by so called secular combine, UPA alliance seems to be a helpless observer, as the whole machinery itself seems to be affected by the communal virus.

Where do we go from here? Opposition to this fascist politics, fighting it tooth and nail cannot be postponed by a single minute. The time has come that all those believing in democracy and welfare of all need to come together and put and end to the politics of hate. Popular front at social and political level is the need of the day. The power seeker political formations may not look beyond their personal gains but the social movements need to put the pressure in the right direction for these political people to hang together before we are hanged separately. It is not just a question of opposition to one political formation. The question is can we let the RSS version of Hindusim destroy the Kabir and Gandhi version of Hinduism and religion? The question is can we let the innocent minorities be the scapegoats for the fascist politics to keep on going? Should we let the democratic space be usurped by those wanting to bring in a nation state in the name of religion?

Whether India will nurture the values of freedom movement and strive for human rights of all depends on us, as in no time in past the very concept of democracy has been stifled as much as we are witnessing today.

Photo: A Ghat in Varanasi, India

http://indianmuslims.in/india-orissa-bangalore-anti-christian-violence/

Nun claims Orissa police biased, demands CBI probe

2008-10-25T00:04:00.001-07:00

New Delhi, October 24: Coming out in the open for the first time, a nun who was allegedly raped during the recent communal violence in Orissa today demanded a CBI probe into the incident, charging the state police with being "friendly" with the attackers.

The nun, addressing a press conference in the capital two days after the Supreme Court ruled out a CBI inquiry into the August 25 incident and asked her to cooperate with the state police in the investigation, alleged that the Orissa police did not take her statement and even pressurised her not to file the FIR against the attackers.

"They tried their best to ensure that I do not file the FIR....I was raped and I do not want to be victimised. I want a CBI probe," said the nun, who had disappeared from public gaze soon after the incident in Kandhamal district.

Questing the Orissa police's neutrality, she said the cops were "very friendly with the attackers" and even "warned her of consequences" of filing an FIR against them.

--PTI

http://www.siasat.com/english/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=305873&Itemid=

Life and economy of Kandhamal in doldrums

2008-10-24T08:32:00.000-07:00

Life and economy of Kandhamal in doldrums

October 24, 2008

The life and economy of the people in Kandhamal have been affected due to communal violence that broke out in the region taking a toll of 35 lives and forcing 20,000 people to the refugee camps.

Violence has disrupted normal life, especially hitting hard the businessmen of the area.

Traders and shopkeepers complain they are finding it difficult even to earn their livelihood.

http://specials.rediff.com/news/2008/oct/24video.htm

TAHELKA: "The RSS and the MIM reinforce each other in a dangerous way": HR Activist

2008-10-21T01:21:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, 21 October 2008

Since the violence, and the stench of burnt flesh, plastic, wood, and cotton is still overpowering. Add to that the smell of the mangled remains of a bed burnt out of shape and food grains strewn on the floor, soot-covered walls and a roof that no longer exists.

Add to that the memory of the photograph which shows six charred bodies lined up on the floor of a room less than three strides across. This witch’s brew of sight, smell and memory permits a visitor only 30 seconds inside before the need to run out overwhelms. Yet, this house in Vatoli, a village 12km from mandal headquarters Bhainsa in Andhra Pradesh’s Adilabad district, has had a stream of visitors since October 12, the date of the brutal murders. The killings were preceded by violence in Bhainsa on October 10, which claimed three lives.

The villagers are tired of being asked the same question repeatedly: How could a house in the middle of a village with 200 homes burn down without anyone noticing till it was too late? Their responses are curt and evasive, and the woman whose house was next to the one burnt slips away when identified.

It is this silence that stokes the rage of the relatives of the murdered family. Tanveer Ahmed, whose wife and twoyear- old child were among those dead, squarely blames the villagers for shielding the murderers. “It takes a while for bodies to be charred, for the entire house to burn down,” he says. “Even if we accept the police report that the house burnt for 40 minutes from 2am, how can there be no eyewitnesses? Don’t people try to rescue those inside a burning house?”

Equally furious is Ahmed’s nephew, Imran Khan, whose parents, Mahboob Khan and Safia Begum, were among those dead in the fire. “I was spending a week in Bhainsa and our neighbours knew that They had my phone number. Yet, they didn’t call me or the police.”

Their rage is understandable. Khan’s parents were one of the only two Muslim families in Vatoli. Doubling as the village tailor and grocer, both considered themselves to be secure, believing their security was guaranteed by all villagers. When communal clashes broke out in Bhainsa on October 10 and tension gripped the area, Mahboob and Safia refused to flee, despite repeated appeals from relatives. These relatives reject the claims that all the six who perished were burnt alive.

“The bodies were piled on top of each other and covered with mattresses, gunny sacks and things from the storeroom. Besides, there were several injuries to the bodies. Even limbs were missing,” says Mujahid Khan, a relative. The police found one of the missing limbs a day later outside the house.

Fairoz Khan is the father of six-year-old Arsalan and three-year-old Numan, both of whom were burnt alive. “We found the bodies only after we dug the rubble. Until then, we were told our family had run away,” he says, shaken. Not even the police who arrived hours before he did offered help. He says he got no cooperation from the villagers; not even the offer of a glass of water. “Humanity died in Vatoli,” he says. “Is this the age for me to see the charred bodies of my children?”

Distrust runs deeper in Bhainsa, where a curfew was put in place after the October 10 communal clashes. Forty per cent of the town’s 41,000 people are Muslims. It has a strong presence of Sangh Parivar affiliates such as the Hindu Vahini and the Bajrang Dal. In addition, the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM), a state-wide political organisation, too, is strong there. The administration has classified Bhainsa as a ‘communally sensitive town’ due to its history of sectarian violence.

The October 10 trouble erupted in Bhainsa when a Durga idol procession passed through a sensitive area. According to Bhainsa police Sub-Inspector A Uday Kiran, the people leading the procession changed the music to a tape that blared Banayange Ram mandir (We will make a Ram temple) just as it was passing the mosque. This provoked some Muslims to pelt stones. “This minor altercation suddenly grew dangerous. Within 10 minutes, there were 200 people on both sides throwing stones, while the police was stuck in between,” says Uday Kiran. Unable to control the situation, the police resorted to firing in the air to pacify the mob. Reinforcements took two hours to arrive. In the interim, Bhainsa burnt. About 30 shops from both communities were looted and set on fire. Ten vehicles were burnt. Police say the mobs attacked them, too.

THIS VIOLENCE in turn triggered attacks on Muslims in villages nearby. While the October 12 Vatoli murders are the worst of the attacks, mosques in the village of Mudhol were stoned and shops looted and burnt in at least 15 separate attacks. While both Muslims and Hindus rioted in Bhainsa, SI Uday Kiran states that subsequent violence was primarily orchestrated by the local units of the Hindu Vahini.

Certain local trends are important when trying to understand why communal violence is growing in the area. Most locals clearly state that in the last 10 years, increasing importance has been attached to Durga and Ganesha processions and immersions, which, Muslims say, did not occur until two decades ago.

Explains K Balagopal, a human rights activist from Hyderabad: “This is a recent phenomenon that has been cultivated by Hindutva forces across Andhra Pradesh. In Telangana, women celebrating Durga Puja would carry kalashas in a procession and immerse them in tanks. However, the concept of men marching with an idol is new.” Bhainsa police have in the past banned processions during Holi, Dussehra and Muharram.

Balagopal lays equal blame at the door of the MIM, saying that organisation would serve the Muslims better by finding ways for their economic growth rather than using them for political and cultural goals alone. “The RSS and the MIM reinforce each other in a dangerous way,” says Balagopal.

This grisly dance of provocation and counter-provocation has already claimed nine lives. •

Courtesy: Tehelka

http://www.siasat.com/english/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=305214&Itemid=67&cattitle=Featured%20News

Jamia encounter, a reality check to cash in on vote bank?

2008-10-19T02:43:00.000-07:00

Jamia encounter, a reality check to cash in on vote bank?

Saturday, 18 October 2008

New Delhi, October 18: Ahead of Assembly Elections in five states, the competition among political parties to tap into the unease in the Muslim community over the Jamia Nagar encounter has intensified.

Late on Friday night, Samajwadi Party’s Amar Singh and Trinamool leader Mamata Bannerjee joined hands and demanded a probe into the encounter in which Delhi police lost their decorated officer MC Sharma.

Even the Congress doesn’t want to be left behind. On Saturday, the party's minority cell met the Prime Minister asking for a re-look into the incident.

“We are not doing competition for vote-bank politics, we are in competition for human rights,” said Congress leader Salman Khursheed.

Caught in a bind, Congress is playing it safe. Home Minister Shivraj Patil and National Security Advisor MK Narayanan have ruled out a probe. At least as of now. seriously looking at saving face.

One solution, sources say could be setting up of a committee to look into whether anything went amiss during the encounter.

This, the Congress leadership hopes will soften the anger of the Muslims who have been seemingly unhappy with the party.

The BJP is playing the wait and watch game as of now. It hopes to counter what it calls minority appeasement with its resurgent Hindutva agenda.

“Why can’t you pick up any other national issue to remain politically relevant?” asked BJP’s Ravi Shankar Prasad.

According to the Sachar Committee report on the status of Muslims in India - which the government is using as a yardstick to provide facilities for the minority – says Muslims are economically and socially lagging. However, in an election year, development seems to be the last thing on the mind of the politicians.

Anger mounts in South Africa over pigs' heads thrown in mosque

2008-10-18T04:58:00.001-07:00

Anger mounts in South Africa over pigs' heads thrown in mosque

Potchefstroom, October 18: South African Muslim leaders have called for restraint as anger mounted Friday over two pigs' heads being thrown into a mosque after its windows were smashed by unidentifed people earlier this week.

Local Muslims said they had lived peacefully with their neighbours, especially some white right-wing supporters who are known to still have strong racist views in what was once one of the heartland areas of apartheid.

However, at regular Friday prayers across the country, Muslim anger grew at the incident as groups huddled to discuss it.

Moulana Ebrahim Bham, secretary-general of the Jamiatul Ulama (council of Muslim theologians), called on Muslims to respond "with restraint" to such provocation.

'The Jamiatul Ulama has learnt with sadness of the news of the desecration of a mosque in Potchefstroom...such contempt for a place of worship is an act of barbarism which cannot be condoned in a diverse society like ours that is built on mutual respect and understanding,' the council said in a statement issued here Friday.

'We join all faith groups as well as the Bishop Desmond Tutu Diversity Trust in unequivocally condemning this act, especially at a time other incidents of racism and intolerance have been linked to the town,' it added.

A police spokesman confirmed that a charge of malicious damage to property had been laid after the caretaker of the mosque had locked up for the night and then found the pigs' heads inside the mosque when he opened to prepare for the pre-dawn prayers. He also found two windows of the mosque broken. Blood had also been smeared on the walls of the mosque.

The incident with the pigs follows closely on several White students at the North West University campus in Potchefstroom coming under fire after starting a racist group on the Internet social networking site Facebook and making strong statements that they hated blacks, using a local derogatory Afrikaans term to describe them.

The small Muslim community of the town, some two hours west of Johannesburg, are almost all of Indian origin and were forcibly resettled outside the town from areas in the central business district that they had lived and traded in for generations.

http://www.siasat.com/english/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=304819&Itemid=&cattitle=World

India: Jamia residents foiled "ENCOUNTER" attempt

2008-10-18T04:55:00.000-07:00

Jamia residents foiled "ENCOUNTER" attempt

New Delhi, October 17: The residents of Jamia Nagar today foiled a kidnapping/encounte r attempt by some policemen in plainclothes in Shaheen Bagh area under the Jamia Nagar Police Station in Delhi.

It was around 8 in the night when a black Hyundai car with tinted glasses but with no number plates entered Shaheen Bagh. Five persons, may be ATS sleuths in plainclothes, came out and tried to drag a youth named Amir into the car. He resisted and asked them why they were dragging him. They said they will tell him soon.

As the Jamia Nagar encounter and subsequent indiscriminate picking of locals were fresh in people's mind, locals began gathering. The plainclothes people threatened them but as mob got thicker, some of them slipped away. The locals, however, were able to catch one who later turned out to be an ASI of Noida Police. The public brought both the policeman and Amir to Jamia Nagar police station.

Hundreds of people gathered around the police station and demanded action against the 'kidnapppers'. They alleged that their plan was to encounter the person and later declare him a terrorist.

People say Amir was with his friend Irfan on a motorcycle. Amir from Zafarabad area in Delhi had come here to meet someone. They alleged that his friend Irfan was police informer because those came in car tried to drag into the car only Amir, not Irfan. Irfan also fled the scene.

The car had no number plate but a number plate was found in the car which had DL1T W 1590 written on it. The plate looked new and unused. The mob also was able to snatch some documents from the Noida policemen. They include PANCARDS, mobile, SIM. Among other things in the car two ID with different picture but same name belonging to an IT company was found in the car. The angry residents damaged the car and broke window panes. The local police reached the spot and asked the residents to hand over Amir and the policemen but the people demanded that they will do it before higher authorities.

Soon ACP (Sarita Vihar) Gurcharan Das reached there and persuaded the locals to handover the men. After much effort the police could bring them and the car to the Jamia Nagar Police Station. But hundreds of locals followed the police and reached the station.

People remained outside the station until 1 am when the police announced that the FIR from Amir has been registered. This all proceeding was done in the presence of Aziz Burney, Editor of Sahara Urdu daily, Md Rahman, Delhi High Court advocate and some local leaders.

Talking to mediapersons around 1 am, DCP Ajay Choudhry said those who came in the car were Noida Police personnel. The Delhi Police will investigate the matter. He said he had contacted Noida SSP and he assured he is looking into the case and action will be taken against the guilty officials.

http://www.siasat.com/english/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=304538&Itemid=59&cattitle=India

Bhopal Archbishop urges PM to pay attention to attacks on Christians in MP also

2008-10-13T03:07:00.000-07:00

Bhopal, October 13 (Pervez Bari): The chairman of the Catholic Council of Bishops in India Archbishop Leo Cornelio on the eve of the National Integration Council meeting has urged the Prime Minister to take into consideration the increasing violence against minorities, especially the Christians, in Madhya Pradesh also, and not only just focus on the attacks in the states of Orissa and Karnataka.

The Archbishop’s letter opens by commending the Prime Minister’s decision to convene a meeting to discuss “the grave situation in Orissa and Karnataka” due to a “series of murderous attacks on Christian communities and their Churches.” While the prelate notes that the attacks in those particular states are violent, Archbishop Cornelio has requested that the head of the state pay attention to the “happenings” in Madhya Pradesh that “are also equally serious”.

“From the day the [Bajrang Dal] Bharatiya Janata Party, (BJP), came into power in Madhya Pradesh in 2003 minorities in Madhya Pradesh have been subjected to a series of violent attacks on shops of Muslims and churches of Christians at many places. At many places violent attacks were made on the members of the two communities causing them grave injuries,” wrote the Archbishop.

The letter goes on to give examples of the violence against religion in the region. “In some cases churches more than 80-year-old were set on fire. Even the Nuns at various places including Indore, Ujjain, Bhopal etc. were not spared.” Though these incidents continue to occur, the government has not intervened.

Archbishop Cornelio explained that when the violent attacks have occurred, the “police and administration remained mute spectators” or even “helped the miscreants in their nefarious acts”. In hope of receiving protection, Indian bishops “have been repeatedly drawing the attention of the Chief Minister, Chief Secretary and Director General of Police seeking their intervention. But our attempts did not yield any positive and effective results”.

Greater protection is needed for the security of the Christian people, Archbishop Cornelio insisted, pointing out that recently the president of Vishwa Hindu Parishad, (VHP), released a statement “hailing the attacks on Orissa Christians”. He has also warned that such attacks “will continue with greater intensity and determination”.

Because of this, the Archbishop concluded, “we again request you to include the incidents of Madhya Pradesh on the agenda of the forthcoming meeting of the National Integration Council.”

It may be pointed out here that between April 2004 and September 2008, in the state of Madhya Pradesh, there have been nearly 111 communal attacks. Dozens of families have lost their homes and more than 20 churches have been burnt or desecrated. In one instance, an 11-year-old girl was raped and murdered in the bathroom of a Catholic Church. Several of the attacks were witnessed by the police, who stood by watching.

A larger survey of the violence within the five states of Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala, reveals a devastating picture: 149 churches have been burned and 4,640 homes set ablaze, leaving 53,000 Christians homeless, 18 000 wounded and more than 50 dead.

Adilabad riots: Government orders CBI probe

2008-10-13T03:03:00.001-07:00

Hyderabad, October 13: Andhra Pradesh government today ordered a CBI inquiry into the communal violence, including the death of six members of a family whose house was set on fire today, in Adilabad district.

A CBI inquiry would be ordered into the incidents of communal clashes in Bhainsa town during the immersion procession of Goddess Durga idol and death of six persons of a family whose house was set on fire at Watoli village, Home Minister K Jana Reddy announced after visiting the violence-hit areas.

Three persons were killed and others injured during clashes between two groups last Friday and six persons, including three children of a family, were burnt to death at Watoli village when their house caught fire in the wee hours today. While curfew continued in Bhainsa, prohibitory orders have been imposed in Nirmal and Adilabad towns as precautionary measures, officials said. Additional forces have been deployed in Bhainsa to maintain communal harmony and tranquility, they said.

The Home Minister, along with the DGP, visited Bhainsa town and Watoli village. Earlier, Majlis Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) president and MP Asaduddin Owaisi, who also visited the village, demanded a CBI inquiry into Bhainsa clashes and Watoli incident. Demanding compensation for those who lost their property in the clashes, the MIM leader alleged Hindu fundamentalist groups were behind the incidents.

Theories on Bhainsa riots and Killings ?

2008-10-13T03:00:00.000-07:00

Hyderabad,October 13:The involvement of rebel TRS mla is recent riots in bhainsa is an eyeopener,The mla factory was used by miscreants to set the town ablase,most of the rowdy elements were seen operating from the factory in carrying out their attack on muslims of bhainsa .

Police are reportedly investigating the role of a TRS rebel MLA from Adilabad district and members of the Hindu Vahini, in the communal violence at Bhainsa, even as six persons of a family were burnt alive in a house in nearby Watoli village early Sunday morning.

Many eyewitness has taken the name of patel as the main suspect in these riots and he happens to be trs rebel mla and now under the patronage of congress party.

Just a day before the riots the TDP has extended support for the TELANGANA statehood which was a historical decleration.The congress party is on a backfoot after this declaration and the involment of rebel TRS mla in riots has lot of questions to be answered as majority of congress leaders of andhra are against formation of telangana state.

Muslims all over the country are not taking the UpA governement role specially the arrests and torture of innocent boys in the name of terrorissm lightly,Jamia millia fake encounter and the govt failure to appoint a judicial commission to enquire, has hurt the muslims feeling all over the country.

Atleast in AP muslims have aternate secular forces like TDP and rjp of chirenjeevi to vote . Can these riots are trigerred to consolidate muslims votes ? and for whom ?

Can these riots be engineered by congress leadership to put the telangana issue on a back burner by raising a communal issue in andhra pradesh .

Bjp is non-existenent in AP and a spent force till now but bjp can be a big gainer in telangana if communal tensions are aroused.Maharastra is just 40 km from bhaisa and there are good chances of shiv sena and bajrang dal forces comming from maharastra for formenting trouble in AP.

Bjp has tasted power in karnataka by playing the soft communal card and they are bent upon playing an active role in andhra politics ,as Ap will have a triangular and four cornered fights Bjp wants to fish in the trouble waters of andhra pradesh to fetch some good catch.

Terror – can the State and the Parivar face the truth ?

2008-10-09T06:11:00.000-07:00

Recent efforts to create a distinction of allegedly “secular” terrorists and “religious” terrorists are rubbish. Terror is terror. Terrorists are terrorists. To categorize them as “secular” terrorists and “religious” terrorists is to create an artificial dichotomy of two types of terror – one allegedly secular or nationalist and therefore acceptable or less condemnable, the other religious therefore unacceptable or more condemnable.

This is actually stupid à once you cross the line and make some or a certain type of terror acceptable, then it is just a matter of what type that can vary. The acceptability is taken as given value. An illegitimacy, instead of being condemned, is, subject to circumstances, accorded the status of a legitimised action !

The terrorist is a person who uses terror as a tactic, and that is all. The tool or means the terrorist employs can be a bomb, a uniform, a robe, or sheer numbers. The terrorist who explodes a device is no less a criminal than one who inflicts terror using other weapons à a mob, a uniform, a statute, anything. They are all à the bomb planter; à the marauding mobs raping women, murdering hundreds, destroying and burning places of worship; à the policemen who kidnap and torture innocents, fabricate evidence, or kill people in fake encounters; à the politicians who through illegal use of statutory provisions give expression to their communal bias and vengefully retaliate for imagined abuses of 800 years ago à the advocates assaulting other advocates to prevent them from defending an accused in Courts à they are all terrorists, make no mistake. Falsely, people have come to think if two persons do something it is an act of terror, and if two thousand do it, it is a riot. Both are actually terrorist acts, in the one case involving two terrorists, in another involving two thousand. The second is actually worse, for it is accompanies not by the hiding that the numerically insignificant terrorists resort to, but by aggressive posturing, slogan mongering, intimidating acknowledgements and actual threats of more to come. The State sleeps.

Projecting an ostensibly “fair” assessment, self-styled analysts and slant-affected spokesmen pronounce a grand verdict : “most Muslims are not terrorists, but most terrorists are Muslims” ! This has an immediate appeal because of certain things it fallaciously and misleadingly attributes to those making the pronouncements, and is a devious misuse of the psychology of deductive logic and defective epistemology à these misleading fallacies are :

(i) they are fair enough not to say all Muslims are terrorists, therefore they must be fair persons, and therefore their assessment would not suffer from either bias or prejudice;

(ii) they are making an objective assessment based on data that is known to all from press and media coverage across the country, therefore they are not saying things referable to any agenda;

(iii) it is a fact that Muslims are what all arrested terrorists are known to be, therefore there is something wrong with Islam which makes its adherents alone take to terrorist acts;

(iv) “pseudo-secularists” talk of human rights only of the “perpetrators of terror”, and take no notice of the human rights of the victims of terror; therefore (a) they are pseudo-secular”, (b) they are affected by wrong thinking that places a premium on rights of perpetrators of terror rather than rights of victims of terror.

All four propositions are actually absolute communal rubbish. Here is why.

How many Muslims have been arrested under terror related laws so far ? Thousands. What does that prove ? Only that the state agencies responsible for responding, have a strong tendency to suspect Muslims, and carry out witch-hunts.

How many Muslims have been convicted under terror related laws so far ? Only a few. What does that prove ? This, that the state agencies responsible for responding, have been mistaken in their effort to suspect Muslims.

This also shows the focus on Muslims to be faulty, and as a result-seeking exercise, unproductive. Had it been unproductive, things could have been left to set themselves right sooner or later. But it goes beyond that. It is counter-productive. Let’s see :

How many Muslims have been tortured in custody on alleged suspicion of terror related offences ? Hundreds. What does that prove ? This, that the state agencies responsible for responding, have an anti-human rights, anti-Muslim mindset, are communal, and are also confident that so long as the subjects of their torture are Muslims, they are protected from adverse action by any legal machinery of the State.

This means that hundreds of persons, ordinary law abiding citizens, have been denied freedom, incarcerated, abused, their family life, social life, academic life, businesses, reputations, health, mental equanimity, all destroyed, and then they are let loose without a thought as to either compensation or rehabilitative schemes. With no money, no job, crippled in health, bitter in mind, angry at the way they have been treated, frustrated at not having any hope, where do they go ? A polarised society is a guaranteed fall-out of the situation. Not having any central leadership, a drift sets in that seeks the least effort-oriented expression.

How many non-Muslims have been arrested, charged or convicted under terror related laws so far ? Hardly any. What does that prove ? This, that the state agencies responsible for responding, have a strong tendency to start with the premise that the non-Muslim is free from blame, do not really investigate aspects which suggest culpability of the non-Muslim, continue their anti-human rights, anti-Muslim witch-hunts. This, that the state agencies responsible do not find real culprits, and those comprising malevolent mobs of hundreds and thousands who are actually terrorists, burning, pillaging, raping, murdering, intimidating, all presently roam free, putting innocents at continued risk.

Do we stop at seeing what is happening, or do we also take into consideration who is causing it to happen ? Exit the capable state. Enter the culpable state.

There is a power vested in the judiciary, meant to be exercised suo motu – of its own motion, without necessity for anything to be filed before it as a formal complaint. What happened to that salutary power ? What happened to the judges who deemed fit to exercise that power ? When power vested for use is, despite its need being perceived, not used, it is referred to as dereliction of duty. If there is such perception, and power lies unused, can it be said the judiciary is also guilty ? If the very basis, that is, the perception of need, is absent, it can mean : either that there was no need to act, the perception being correct, or that the capacity or willingness to perceive correctly is itself on vacation.

There is another issue this last aspect raises : if the allegations of anti-Muslim bias are true, why does the community not bring the issues before the Courts ? One answer is provided by the results of many habeas corpus writ petition results in recent times : person found, petition closed. No inquiry into the allegations of illegal detention ? None into the kidnappings, actually, the holding at farmhouses, the torture, the anti-Islam abuses ? Message to citizen abused ? No point in making a fuss. Message to terror inflicting criminal policeman ? Don’t worry, you won’t have to answer inconvenient questions.

Another issue : who is more in need of judicial activism : the one who has the wherewithal to bring issues to the forum and agitate for his rights, or the one who perceives himself as so low in the scheme of things that he does not even have that voice ? Can the stand (excuse actually) that the complaints have not been filed before courts by adversely affected persons be used as a shield or a cloak by a court which is asked to exercise its plenary power of acting suo motu ?

Capable, incapable, or culpable ?

Now, are most terrorists Muslims ? No. They are Hindu. Basis for the statement ? Across the country, 15 Muslims are alleged to be involved in planting bombs. Its an allegation. Not yet proved. No evidence exists, except confessions, extracted under torture, therefore incredible and suspect.

In contrast, the Bajrang Dal leadership admits that murderous rampaging mobs that attacked Christians in a wave of terror attacks were its members, all naturally Hindu. Thousands of terrorists, all Hindu.

Also in contrast, the Gujarat CM admits that murderous rampaging mobs that attacked Muslims in a wave of terror attacks were “the people of Gujarat” to whom he had given (abdicated, actually) “the right to do justice” (read the power to murder, rape, burn, loot), all of them targeting Muslims therefore in that situation naturally Hindu. Thousands of terrorists, all Hindu.

Take Delhi, 1984. Or any other, any time. Hindu, every time, and in the thousands at that.

So which community has most terrorists ? Shall non-Hindus sit back smugly and pronounce condescendingly “all Hindus are not terrorists, but most terrorists are Hindus” ?

Shall non-Hindus sit back smugly and pronounce condescendingly “since most terrorists are Hindus, there must be something seriously wrong with Hinduism which makes thousands of its adherents alone take to terrorist acts” ?

The fact that we don’t is testimony to the fact that unlike the few demons in the media that demonise us, we do not subscribe to false impressions, do not lose a sense of balance, a sense of proportion, when faced with a crisis situation. We retain our national identity as we do our Islamic identity, and we speak the language of inclusive dialogue, not adopting the opposition’s destructive, hate-based aggressive and divisive posturing.

Finally : the allegation that “pseudo-secularists” talk of human rights of the perpetrators of terror, and take no notice of the human rights of the victims of terror. The allegation is as usual clothed in misleading language à Someone calling me an angel does not cause me to grow wings. Nor does someone calling me a devil cause me to grow horns. The perception of “pseudo” secularism is just the poison in the mind of the speaker, finding expression. And who said they are “perpetrators of terror” ? No court has said so, so far. Human rights are recognized by the State, founded on constitutional and legal obligations, and therefore their violation by an instrumentality of state is unacceptable by any legal regime, and that is what we object to. We equally condemn violation of human rights by anyone, but notice that by definition a terrorist is hardly expected to uphold human rights of his victims, so the action of the terrorist, condemnable as it is, is to be faulted on other grounds, moral and ideological, not the legal grounds of treaty-based, constitutional or legal obligations requiring States to observe and uphold human rights. As usual, a close examination of the nonsense that is thrown around in talk shows by Muslim-baiters, is seen as so much hot air.

Conclusion : (i) their assessment is faulty, (ii) their speech is agenda-oriented, (iii) their accusation is to deflect the realisation that thousands of Hindu terrorists roam the country freely spreading poison, and it is time the basic inclusiveness and tolerance claimed of Hinduism must be re-examined and preserved to ensure that militant concepts alien to it are not engrafted onto it adversely impacting its pristine glory in a misdirected attempt to seek a militant aggressive ascendancy, causing something to be seen as wrong with Hinduism, and (iv) human rights are to be protected against violation by all – when the terrorist violates human rights, it is the State that steps in to protect them; when it is the State that violates them, to its lasting shame the burden is lifted by us citizens who are genuinely secular.

Seen as a malfeasant State, the ruling parties have a tough time seeking votes from those it acted against : minorities. What is different about a State perceiving the need for action and yet choosing not to act ? The non-feasing, inactive State ? Has it not then aligned itself with the marauding mobs ? We ask it to own up to the abetment.

Will the State please wake up ?

Jai Hind.

Advocate, Hyderabad

Muslims gets "TOOTHLESS COMMISSION" :Jaweed Akhter

2008-10-06T03:54:00.000-07:00

Muslims gets "TOOTHLESS COMMISSION" :Jaweed Akhter
Javed Akhtar is not only a well known lyricist and script-writer, he is also president of Muslims for SecularDemocracy and an articulate commentator on social issues. He has been outspoken on community affairs and the current burst of terrorism has led him to question some beliefs that have become received wisdom in the media and in society. Terrorism, he tells Labonita Ghosh can take various forms — mob violence, encounter killings and ‘state-sponsored’ acts of arson and carnage too.

Is the Muslim community feeling alienated and under attack because of the alleged links of some of its members with the recent blasts cases?
Muslims are definitely feeling alienated from both the administration and law enforcement agencies. They feel there is a bias against them. That whenever they are killed, raped or burnt alive or their property destroyed, all they get is a commission which sits on the case for years, and ultimately gives a report. It may indict some people, but the report eventually finds its way into the dustbin. It appears to have no legal power to implement what it suggests.

Are you saying that everyone is ranged against Muslims?
No extreme stance can be right. Every community has an extremist fringe in it. In the Muslim community there are those who believe that no Muslim has ever participated in any blasts. (Laughs) I’m not willing to buy that. On the other hand, just as there is something called Muslim terrorism, there is Hindu terrorism as well, emanating from the Sangh Parivar. You don’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to figure that the VHP and Bajrang Dal are behind the church attacks in Orissa and Mangalore, but somehow this is not discussed. After all, this is also terrorism.

So terrorism, in all its hues, should be opposed — whether it is a bomb, a mob or the state. We live in a society where encounters — which are nothing but extra-judicial killing — have, shockingly, become a way of life. Is this also not a form of terrorism?
There will always be justification. The man who planted a bomb will give you an emotional story for why he did so, and the policeman, who shot an innocent dead, will also have a reason ready. But no justification should be acceptable anymore.

Is there any thinking in the community about the fact that young Muslims have been arrested for alleged terrorism?
I recently heard a TV anchor ask someone if it was time for the Muslim community to do some introspection. This is a loaded question, even if it was not intended that way. It suggests that the Muslim community is, in fact, responsible for the various acts of terrorism its members have been accused of. Would you say that since the Bajrang Dal is burning churches, the Hindu community should do some introspection? I won’t ever say that because I don’t believe that the Hindu community as a whole should have to bear the responsibility for the actions of some of its members.

Yet, it is a fact that the terrorists have given a bad name to the community.
Are people from extremist Muslim groups really looking out for the community as a whole? They are the worst enemies of the Muslim people in this country — Bajrang Dal, VHP and RSS included. Even the extremist Hindu outfits haven’t been able to harm the Muslims the way these hardliners have. Look at the perception of Muslims they have created.

What are your personal experiences from visits to Muslim neighbourhoods?
People are traumatised, scared and deeply hurt. During riots they don’t get protection; and after the riots, they don’t get justice. This discontent in the community is then seized upon by some extremists to use as a rationale to do what they do, and try to convince more young people to join them. This kind of denial of justice is not just bad for the community and society, it is bad for the country as a whole.

We are now seeing the emergence of “hubs of terror” like Azamgarh…
Azamgarh has a population of 40 lakh. If 10 of its residents have terrorist links, does that make the entire town a hub of terror? In our country, ‘Terrorist’ seems to be a word reserved exclusively for Muslims. Those indulging in unrest from the border of Nepal to Andhra Pradesh are naxalites; in the Northeast they are insurgents. And in the case of the Bajrang Dal and VHP, they are ‘social activists’. We also hear the phrase ‘homegrown terrorist’. What is that anyway? At one time, we blamed the ISI for anything that happened. Then we blamed Dawood Ibrahim and his gang, and then Lashkar-e-Toiba and the Jaish-e-Mohammed. Now we have the homegrown terrorist. This entity will stay for a while till another comes along.

Bajrang Dal is terrorist outfit: Sharad Pawar

2008-10-06T03:53:00.000-07:00

Alibaug, October 06: Sharad Pawar, the National Congress Party (NCP) chief and Union Agriculture Minister on Sunday, Oct 5 strongly reacted against the 'double standards' of police for only targeting Muslims as terrorists and not Hindu groups like 'Bajrang Dal'.

“If Muslims are being targeted as terrorists, why no action is taken against Hindu groups like Sanatan Prabhat and Bajrang Dal," he said.

The culprits should be booked under the law whether they are Hindus or Muslims," Pawar said at the end of a two-day NCP meeting in Alibaug. "The involvement of Sanatan Prabhat and Bajrang Dal in the riots at Thane and also blasts came to light recently but it was not highlighted," he added.

He asked the Union Home Ministry to intervene and adopt a different attitude to handle the issue of terrorism. Pawar said "after all the unity of the nation is important otherwise the society will have to pay the ultimate price for it."

"Those who get involved in illegal activities and create enmity between the communities, whether they belong to Bajrang Dal or SIMI... I am not taking any names but same approach should be taken for everybody," he said.

“I have read the literature of Sanatan organisation written by founder Anil Pachpute and it was horrible." Sharad Pawar futhre warned that isolating particular strata of society by labelling as terrorist is not a good sign.

"I have worked with the Home Department but I don't know why police are declaring names of terrorists at press conferences nowadays. This may affect investigations," Pawar said. "How come all the accused are masterminds who were caught after blasts." he added.

medical examination of the nun conducted the same night at the Baliguda Hospital by two lady doctors confirmed rape.

2008-10-03T06:38:00.000-07:00

Kandhmal, October 03: There seems to be no end to the Kandhmal horror story as disturbing new facts are emerging from Orissa's communal flashpoint.

NDTV has now got confirmation that a nun was raped on August 25, two days after the killing of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader Laxmanand Saraswati and the entire district was on fire and Christians were attacked.

However, the rape has not been officially confirmed yet.

Sources have told NDTV that the medical examination of the nun conducted the same night at the Baliguda Hospital by two lady doctors confirmed rape.

Although the medical report was ready a day after the assault, the police did not collect it, apparently because they didn't have time.

The report was collected by the police just two days ago and perhaps shows how lightly the case was treated by them.

According to eyewitnesses, the mob took the nun and Father Chellam to a house where they were kept for several hours before the police rescued them. It was here that the nun was raped by a man who was part of the mob.

Story of a Innocent Muslim

2008-09-27T19:35:00.000-07:00

Mumbai: It was 12.30 in the afternoon on January 10 when, without any provocation, sub-inspector Nikhil Kapse and his men barged into the Hari Mosque on Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Marg in Mumbai, between Sewri and Wadala, and fired on the namazis, killing six of them and wounding others.

The situation was tense. The night before, Shiv Sainiks from the Sarkanagar Naigon Crossroads, near Talwalkar Gym, were throwing fireballs continuously at the area near Hari Mosque. The menfolk in the area told the womenfolk and children to go to the nearby Kidwainagar for safety. So all the women and children had left in the night.

The next morning, after the firing, Roshan Bi, then about 65, who heard the firing, went towards the mosque after the firing died down to see if she could locate her son Adam Mohammed Syed, 35. She found him and they were standing together when the then sub-inspector Nikhil Kapse came towards Adam and asked him to help them remove the bodies from the mosque. Adam left his mother’s hand and said he would come back. That is the last time she saw him, said Hafiza, Adam Syed’s wife. "They took him from his mother’s hand and should have returned him. We want to know what they have done with him," she said when we met her at her modest little home at Shahidnagar, a mohalla across the Hari Masjid.

About 900 families live there cheek by jowl with no ventilation and no sunlight. One has to go through what seems an unending passage barely two-and-a-half-feet wide to reach Hafiza’s house. Her calm face and the sad look in her eyes tell the whole story of that fateful day of January 10 and the harrowing year after that. Adam’s mother, who suffered a paralytic attack four years after the incident due to stress and anxiety, still expects her son to return. Grey-haired, shrivelled and now 80 years old, she sits quietly and says blankly that he will come back though it is now 15 years since he "went from her hands", as the family puts it.

They waited all day on January 10, 1993 for Adam to return, but he didn’t. He was the only man in the house. The women — his mother, his wife and his sister Rukhaiya, who was then around 25 — did not come out as the situation was very tense. But the next day they went to the Rafi Ahmed Kidwai police station to ask for Adam. Hafiza, who has four sons and two daughters, all of whom were children at the time (the eldest being about 12), said, "The next day we went to the police station. They said he was in Bhoiwada jail. We were told women are not allowed in jails. They made me and my mother-in-law run around in circles but would not give us any information about my husband. Every day we would go and ask for information." Then, on January 25, about 55 people (all Muslims) who were arrested after the Hari Mosque firing even though they were the victims, were released from Bhoiwada jail. They said that Adam was not in the jail. Adam’s family grew even more worried and distraught. Hafiza, Roshan Bi and Rukhaiya again made the rounds of the Rafi Ahmed Kidwai police station. They made a complaint that Adam was missing. The police said that it would investigate the matter. They were uncooperative and vague.

The Syed ladies made the rounds of various police stations, from R.A. Kidwai Marg to Kala Chowkie and Cotton Green, but found no trace of Adam. They showed his photograph around. "My children were small. But we had no man to help us. We had to go ourselves and I went from hospital to hospital. I went to the morgues of J.J. Hospital and KEM to look for my husband. It was the first time I had ever seen a hospital, or even a morgue. But I didn’t get any information. I don’t know till today whether he is alive or dead. I even went to Yerwada Jail in Pune. There they told me to come the next day."

A year passed by as an unending, fruitless search. "I had to also fend for the family so I took up my husband’s work. Adam was a fish seller. I would sleep barely three hours a day. I would wake up at 3 am, cook the food, prepare tiffin for my children to take to school, keep their things ready for school and then, by 5.30 am go to the Ferry Wharf to collect the fish and come back to Sewri to sell it. At 1 pm I would come home, feed the children, and then go back at 5 pm till 9 pm to sell the rest of the fish. I would come home again, cook and put the children to bed. The money I earned helped me educate all my children. My eldest son, Shaukat, however, could not study much. He left his studies to help me. He sold slippers. But my other sons are graduates and one is still studying in college. My two girls are now married."

Rukhaiya, who was 25 years old when Adam disappeared, said, "Today we can talk about it. But at that time we cried all the time. We are three sisters and he was our only brother. The police were so callous. When Hafiza and I went to Yerawada they told us to get a letter from court and only then could we go into the jail to look for my brother." She says she can’t imagine what has happened to him. There is no trace of him. She said about eight years after the incident, one day a man called Ansari, who had also disappeared, was spotted in a dazed and almost incoherent condition at R.A. Kidwai Marg.

The people who saw him informed his wife and she and other members ran to see him. He turned out to be her husband. He said that he was kept in a kind of underground place which was reached by stairs. He was unable to say who left him on the road. Adam’s family asked him if he saw Adam there and he said yes. Then he also said that he was in the KEM Hospital.

"We realised then that he had become mentally unstable." He said the police used to inject him with something in his head and in his wrists. Rukhaiya said, "Something like this must have happened to my brother."

She brings out a small stamp-sized picture of Adam, the only one they have as the rest have gone as they took his pictures from police station to police station, hospital to hospital, jail to jail and morgue to morgue.

"We have no pictures left of him except this one, which is not clear." Even the case in court asking the court to direct the police to produce Adam went nowhere. "Every time the judge adjourned the case and it went on and on. Every date we had to go to the high court, spending time and money," said Rukhaiya, who has one son. Then, at the end of seven years, a person is presumed dead if he or she does not show up.

The government at the end of seven years gave Hafiza a cheque for Rs 1.70 lakhs. Rs 30,000 was taken as a bribe to process the papers.

Courts may give Sena a headache

Mumbai: The decision to set up a special court to provide justice to the victims of the 1992-93 riot cases and the implementation of the Srikrishna Commission report can be a headache for the Shiv Sena as seven Shiv Sena leaders figure in the commission’s report. The Shiv Sena has since the late 1990s been against the implementation of the Srikrishna report and now is in a mood to whip up a frenzy and polarise support for itself among the Hindus.

Senior Sena leader Subhash Desai said, "The Shiv Sena is very much prepared to appear in court as we have handled the Srikrishna Commission report, we have all the history and documents related to the matter. The law is on our side and, as per the law of the land, one person can be tried only once in court and the court itself has acquitted all our leaders, including Mr Bal Thackeray, in the matter.

Different courts have convicted over 100 people in the riot cases till now. There is no question of reopening the case again." There was a complaint against Mr Madhukar Sarpotdar under the Arms Act and he was acquitted during the trial. There were charges of rioting and provoking communal tension against Mr Bal Thackeray. The high court bench of Justice Majithia and Justice Dudhat in September 1994 ordered that there was no need to continue the case and Mr Thackeray was acquitted. The then Congress and NCP-led government had filed an affidavit saying the riots were not provoked by Mr Thackeray.

Shiv Sena spokesperson Sanjay Raut said, "The Shiv Sena is ready to face a court trial as it does not fear the courts. There are names of seven of our people in the report. If the government frames charges against them, it will have to produce the evidence too, and after a such a long time it is not possible to gather the evidence. According to me, it is just a plan of the government to appease the Muslims and the Shiv Sena is against that appeasement..."

It’s a government plan to disturb communal harmony in the state, otherwise they would not have raised this issue after such a long time." Sena MLA and Leader of the Opposition in Maharashtra Ramdas Kadam said, "We do not think that setting up of special courts will have any impact on us (Sena)." The opinion of Mr Prem Shukla, executive editor of the Hindi Saamna, was similar to that of Mr Kadam.

****

In all the cases where the Srikrishna Commission indicted police officials, the commission recommended strict action by the government. A list was prepared by the government for one of its affidavits, given to the Supreme Court.

Maharashtra home minister R.R. Patil, along with the police, is said to be preparing a list of 20 police officers and constables named in the report for alleged brutality and communal bias.

The fast track courts will deal with cases that are selected. Among them are:

* Bhagwan Trambakrao Lahane and R.D. Tyagi, both who were then in Dongri police station (PS), were described thus: "utterly trigger happy", "went on a rampage", "indiscriminate and callous", "guilty of excessive and unnecessary firing resulting in deaths of nine innocent Muslims in the Suleman Bakery incident". Tyagi has retired but Lahane was promoted and is an assistant commissioner of police.

* P.S. Wahule of Byculla PS. According to the Srikrishna report, his "conduct was extremely communal", he "refused to record complaints", "attempted to shield miscreants belonging to the Shiv Sena who looted and burnt down Ansari’s tailoring establishment." Wahule led the police party that barged into the tailoring establishment owned by Abdul Haq Ansari in Mazgaon and allegedly assaulted Ansari and his master cutter with an iron rod.

* Ashok Naik, Agripada PS. "Was arrested while indulging in rioting and violent activities". A departmental inquiry found him involved in riots and violent activity.

* Vidyadhar Raghunath Shelar, Subhash Salvi and Vishnu More of M.R.A. Marg PS. "Squarely responsible for virtually handing over Babu Abdul Sheikh to the mob, resulting in his being hacked to death along the Carnac Bridge." A departmental inquiry also found that "because of their conduct and negligence Sheikh was attacked and murdered".

* Nikhil Kapse of R.A.K. Marg PS. "Resorted to unprovoked and brutal firing at point blank range, assaulting the namazis at Hilal Masjid, killing seven Muslims, suppressed evidence, misled senior officers, fabricated records."

* Sanjay Gawade, Nagpada PS. "Was openly indulging in riots and violent activities while carrying a naked sword along with Shiv Sena activists."

* Arvind Ghadi, Shankar Pandurang Patil, Dhanaji Phadtare, Prakash Dukre, V.B. Shinge and Bhausaheb Gaikwad of Antop Hill PS. "Failed to protect the lives and properties of Muslims, allowed kidnapping of an 18-year-old girl and brutal murder of a handicapped person, communally biased against Muslims, actively supported Shiv Sena activists to terrorise and cripple Muslim residents of Patiksha Nagar."

* Ram Desai and U.B. Patankar of Byculla PS. "Conduct was extremely communal, refused to record complaints, attempts to shield miscreants belonging to Shiv Sena."

How police send Muslim youth to Bangladesh illegal ?

2008-09-27T19:26:00.001-07:00

How police send Muslim youth to Bangladesh illegal ?

Hyderabad 15: After failing on all fronts where the police hoped to get a clue in the Makkah Masjid bomb blast it now seems that the last attempt of police may prove to save the face of the police.

As per the latest details available with the Siasat Daily obtained from the highly placed sources in regard to the investigation of the blast case an Task Force Inspector attached to the Special Investigation Team (SIC) probing the Makkah Masjid case planted a Muslim youth who is identified as Abdul Sattar a resident of Ahmed nagar in the First Lancer area near Nasheman Hotel and reportedly sent him to neighboring country Bangladesh to gather information about the Mohammed Shahed @ Bilal and other youths allegedly owing allegiance with Harkat-Ul-Jehad-E-Islami.

Needless to mention here that the cost of going to Bangladesh through ‘Gardani’ technique that costs only 2000 Indian rupees.

Through this person is assisted by Border personal till the border then he is pushed into Bangladesh or any other neighboring country. But in this specific case Abdul Sattar managed to cross the Border after the occurrence of the 18th May Bomb blast at Makkah Masjid.
The highly placed sources told that Sattar reportedly stayed for more than ten days to find out the location of Shahed and other Hyderabadi youths who are alleged to be operating from Bangladesh the sources added. Further it has come to know that when he was returning to India from Bangladesh via Gardani style Border cross over but fate had something different for him and he was reportedly caught by the sleuths of the Border security personnel at Indo-Bangla border at petrapol 24 Parganas.

Sattar also believed to have under gone third degree treatment from the BSF personnel where he alleged to have said that he went to Bangladesh on the behest of the Andhra Pradesh Police (Special Investigation Cell) constituted to detect the blast case to collect the information about the Hyderabadi youths.

The BSF police on the insisting attitude of the Sattar they called up the Hyderabad City Police and informed the catching of the Muslim youth. On reaching information an Inspector of the Commissioners Task Force who is also attached with the Special Investigation Cell urgently left for West Bengal and taken Sattar into his custody and shifted him to Hyderabad few days ago.
Though this news came into light a slight bit late as the secrecy about this episode is being maintained very cautiously. But the said youth is languishing in the custody of the Special Investigation Cell. It has also come to know that Sattar is being thoroughly interrogated by the Task force team and for this purpose he has been kept at an undisclosed location on the city outskirts.

But what ever it may be it has come to know that police might legalize his detention by registering a case against him and there is information that his arrest might be confirmed in a day or two after extracting information from him. It has come to know that Sattar was acquitted in an attempt to murder case on Police officials that was filed in the Rajendra Nagar police station and subsequently he was discharged from the case.

Torture in Hyderabad:

2008-09-27T19:22:00.000-07:00

Torture in Hyderabad:

It was 3 September 2007. Abdul Rahim was just finishing dinner with his family when two persons in civilian clothes came and asked him to step out. They led him to an auto, and after a short journey pushed him into a car. Four others were there. He was blindfolded and taken to a police station.

They began interrogating him till the early hours of the morning. They wanted to know whether he had been involved in the twin blasts that had paralysed Hyderabad. They tied his hands, made him lie down and started hitting him on the soles of his feet with a belt. The pain was excruciating. They pulled his beard repeatedly, taking out tufts of hair. They asked him to give names of those who were with him in planning the bomb blasts in Hyderabad. They spoke filth against his religion and his family. The torture that carried on for three days in his case became secondary to the humiliation.

“I thought they were going to kill me, I thought they had killed the others. I was not allowed to sleep for three days and nights. Even now when I think of it I tremble with fear, I cannot sleep,” Abdul Rahim says as his old father, a former government employee, cries quietly beside him. His parents cannot forget the week after. “No one told us where he was, whether he was dead or alive, we only got to know when a journalist came and told us that our boy was in jail,” his father said. His mother remembers when she saw him, “His face was all swollen. He could not speak. I am a heart patient, I thought I would die.”

Abdul was produced before the magistrate after three days. He was in jail for five months and ten days until he was released on bail.

His life is ruined. He was the only bread earner of the family. He drove a rented autorickshaw. No one is willing to hire him now. He was engaged to be married, but the girl’s family backed out after the arrest. There is no money to pay the rent for the tiny two-room house. They are in deep debt. There is no furniture. There is a certain desolate look in his eyes, he is still in shock. He has to report before the courts twice a week. “It takes the entire day, I cannot even look for work, no one will allow me two days’ off a week,” he says quietly.

He has not been booked in the bomb blasts case. There is no evidence.

Mohammad Shakeel is not at home. He does not want to meet us. He is too scared, under grave threat. His paralysed father is sitting in the tenement, eyes wide, registering fear as he looks at us quietly. Shakeel’s mother, Ashabi speaks reluctantly. Two persons in civilian clothes picked up the boy. The family did not know for days where he was. Someone told them after a long time that he was in jail. He is out on bail now, without a job as no one wants to employ him. There is little food in the house for them to eat. What Ashabi did not tell us, even as tears trickled down her face, was that Shakeel was kept in police detention for 21 days without being produced before a magistrate. His hands were tied and he was hung from the ceiling. Heavy weights were placed on his knees, while hefty men pinned his shoulders down. He was given electric shocks on his temples, penis and chest. He fell unconscious repeatedly, but they would pull him out and after a short break resume the “treatment” again.

He has not been booked in the bomb blasts case. There is no evidence.

Arshad Ali Khan’s face has no expression. It is as if he is speaking about someone else, not about himself. But as he continues, his hands start trembling, and the horror of the days in detention is reflected in his eyes.

It was 2 September 2007. Two men banged on the door, came in and took him away. No one could protest. His father is paralysed and a heart patient. “Bahut ghabrahat ho rahi thi,” was the only sentence he spoke to us. Arshad’s mother Mehrunisa said they had no word of their son for two weeks or more. They heard he was in jail from another family, not from the police.

Arshad says they took him to a city office blindfolded, then to what is referred to by most of the boys as a “farmhouse” on the outskirts of Hyderabad. “In the day they would question me; at night they would drink and start beating me on the soles of my feet. They tied my hands and hung me for two to three minutes, I almost fainted with the pain. They would give electric shocks every day on different parts of my body. I became unconscious many times, and even later there were burn marks on my chest, thighs, near the ears. I could smell burning flesh. I heard screams from other boys in the building, they kept asking me to name others, to admit that I was involved,” he says in a voice devoid of emotion, face deadpan except for the eyes. He was taken for narco tests, twice. He does not know the results, but guesses they could get no evidence from these.

He has not been booked in the bomb blasts case. There is no evidence.

Maulana Abdul Aleem Islahi is a walking tragedy. Originally from Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh, he made Hyderabad his home decades ago. A learned man — his room is full of books — he is restrained in his dignity. There is an air of resignation around him, as he narrates the story but without a word of protest or acrimony.

It was 2004. His eldest son Mujahid had accompanied a well-known cleric of the locality — Maulana Nasiruddin who was on the watch-list of the Andhra and Gujarat police — to the police station. The Maulana was described as a bad element by the police — although the local people insist his only crime was his courage to protest against the atrocities committed by the police — and had been called to the police station. The Gujarat police was lying in wait and nabbed Nasiruddin. The young Islahi protested, and as the story in the streets of Hyderabad goes, one of the policemen took out his gun and shot the young man dead at point blank range. The police does not deny the death, but claims that Islahi tried to take the Maulana, along with others, out of the van. This is vehemently denied by all those aware of the incident, including another eyewitness who has been targeted by the police.

On 5 March 2008, Maulana Islahi was sitting in his little room from where he could see outside. His younger and only surviving son, an engineering student, Mohtasim was sitting with some friends outside. “They came in a car, they just picked him up, pushed him into the car and left. I ran out but they had disappeared. In the evening we went to the police station but they gave us no information,” the Maulana said. It was several days later that they were told he was in jail by an acquaintance, but while his sisters have been to meet him, his father cannot bear it and has decided not to go. Huma, Mohtasim’s sister, said she found him to be mentally distressed. He was tortured in police custody, as they repeatedly wanted him to confess to participating in the blasts. But what has become worse for a family that believed in educating their children and living a quiet and decent life, is that the police has been visiting the locality where they live and as Huma said, “They go to the families and say that Mohtasim has named you, and now everyone is very upset with us.”

This was not so in the beginning, as the family was very popular. In fact, after news of Mohtasim’s arrest broke, 30 women of the locality went to the police station to protest. They were lathicharged, arrested and detained for an entire night before they were produced before a magistrate the next morning and released. Two babies were also kept in detention with their mothers.

To protest is a crime. Ibrahim Ali Junaid had held a press conference along with others after the Mecca Masjid blast in Hyderabad where dozens had died in the attack, and at least six to seven persons had been killed by police firing. Hundreds of Muslim youth were detained. This placed him on the police watch list, although Junaid is a student of Unani medicine with a clean record.

On 3 September 2007, he had just returned from Delhi where he had gone to attend a university seminar. He went straight to the hostel to put his luggage. Two men, again in civilian clothes, emerged, tied his hands and pushed him into a car. “If you speak we will kill you,” they said as they blindfolded him. After a two-hour drive they reached a “farmhouse” and started

questioning him. He could hear the voices and screams of others. Late at night they stripped him and the torture began. “They started hitting me with a belt … and kept asking why I had held a press conference… They made me recite the Quran as they knew I was a Hafiz, and then hit me whenever I spoke. They beat me mercilessly at regular intervals and after a day started giving me electric shocks on my ears, temples, lips, private parts. I would become unconscious…” As Junaid spoke in a monotone, his mother, sitting beside him, shuddered. His father could barely contain his anger, but admitted his complete helplessness.

The police kept telling him to accept responsibility for the bomb blasts. “They pulled my legs wide open, placed weights on them, pressed down on my shoulders. I don’t know how I survived those days,” Junaid says. In six days there was blood in his urine, he was running temperature and “I knew if I died, they would put it down to an encounter”. He was then taken before the magistrate, and put in jail from where he has just been released on bail after just over five months. “One night they took us somewhere, blindfolded, and took us out and said say your prayers, we were sure we were going to be killed that night…”

He has not been booked in the bomb blasts case. There is no evidence.

Raeesuddin Khan’s crime was that he was witness to the murder of Mujahid Islahi, Maulana Islahi’s unfortunate son. On 31 August 2007 a large car with six persons came to his house. He was picked up, blindfolded and after about an hour’s drive they reached a building. His was the same story — five days of continuous beating, electric shocks. “I gave them names of maybe 100 persons, all I could think of to get away from the pain, but they carried on. I thought all the other boys were dead, they made me believe that. One night they took me out blindfolded, they asked me to say my prayers, I could hear shots being fired, I thought I was next…”

His mother, a widow, Zaheera Begum said she was beside herself with worry. She had no idea where her son was. Friends informed her that he was in jail many days after he had been taken away. The hair from his beard had all been pulled out, he was passing blood in his urine, she says. He was taken for narco tests, and that has now left him with a permanent headache and allergies that are being treated. He is suffering from memory loss. He was also taken to Delhi by the CBI. “They were very nice, very polite, they took me there and dropped me back,” he says. He looks haunted, his eyes are full of tears, more when another person tells us that his mother keeps very unwell now, has high blood sugar. “I am so scared,” her voice trembles, “for both my sons. They can pick them up any day.”

He has not been booked in the bomb blasts case. There is no evidence.

Iqbal Begum runs into the room breathless. “Where is he, have you found him?” she asks. Her eyes dull when she is told that she had been contacted for an interview, not because the contact person had found her son. She dissolves into tears, and takes out faded newspaper clippings as she tells her story. Her son Farhan had once been involved in some localised dispute over a mosque. The police had picked him up and kept him in custody for three days. He could not walk after the beatings, was put in jail for 15 days and then released on bail. A few days later, at 2 a.m. men came in civilian clothes when everyone was sleeping, and took Farhan away. He sold vegetables for a living. His father died a month after he was taken away. They have not seen the boy since.

There is terror in the localities targeted by the police. Sullen youth look at you and turn away. Families are reluctant to talk. After the twin blasts on 25 August 2007 the police rounded up over a hundred young men from the poor and predominantly Muslim localities of Hyderabad. A top police official admitted to “70”. Many were interrogated and beaten in police custody, and released without ever being brought before a magistrate. There is no record of this number. About 30 were formally arrested by the police after illegal custody and torture, six or seven are still in jail and the others have been released on bail. They all spent over five months in prison. They remain fearful of being picked up again. “What will we do, they might kill my boy now,” the families say as if in a chorus.

Civil rights activists in the city say that the accounts of torture under Rajashekhar Reddy’s government in Andhra Pradesh rival those emerging from the prisons in Iraq. The governments at the Centre and the state, despite numerous petitions and fact-finding reports, have not responded. In fact the story itself would not have penetrated the walls of the old city had it not been for an Urdu newspaper, Daily Siasat. The managing editor of the newspaper, Zaheeruddin Ali Khan said that they were convinced that the accounts were completely true, and without intending it to be so, the story became a campaign that angered the administration but did not elicit any action. The Police Commissioner at the time, Balwinder Singh, now cooling his heels in Delhi as he was transferred to get out of the heat, even called the editors to convince them that the police had a case, but did not succeed as the evidence otherwise was overwhelming. The English media ignored the story.

Civil rights activists took up the issue. Nirmala Gopalakrishnan, K. Anuradha, Mohammad Afzal formed a fact finding committee on the arrests after the twin bomb blasts in Hyderabad on 25 August 2007. They found, and the other civil rights activists in Hyderabad confirmed, that any number of petitions had been sent to the President of India, to the Governor of Andhra Pradesh, to the Chief Minister and the state Home Minister, to the National Human Rights Commission, to the state and Central minority commissions and to Congress president Sonia Gandhi. The young men arrested had also sent a letter to the authorities — including the Prime Minister and Mrs Sonia Gandhi — recounting their tales of horror and seeking redressal. Every Constitutional door has been knocked at, but the state government has managed to kill the story and protect its back.

The state minority commission on its own decided to send a team to inquire into the reports. Chairperson Yusuf Qureshi appointed leading advocate L. Ravichander and forensic expert Dr M. Reddy who visited the jail and met the young people. Mrs Gopalakrishnan and Mr Chander both told Covert that they were absolutely horrified at what they heard and saw. The advocate said that he found that the boys were speaking the truth as he spoke to them individually and then met their families. “The accounts were the same, and there was a ring of truth to all that they told us, they had been tortured,” he said. He saw marks on their bodies and was surprised to find that many of them had been sent for narco tests to Bangalore which he said “were illegal as the law does not permit you to give evidence against yourself”. A top police officer of the state who was directly involved in the arrests, but did not want to be quoted, admitted that the issue was in the Supreme Court and the evidence of narco analysis was not admissible in court. He said that the tests were carried out to ascertain whether any of those arrested knew more than they had revealed.

The state minorities commission submitted a report confirming the torture. After that Mr Qureshi has been completely marginalised by the state government. His staff has been taken away, many have not received their salaries, and he is just sitting back until his term expires in March next year. The National Minorities Commission also sent a team and interviewed the boys. The report notes the violations, but plays down the role of the Congress government. The activists’ fact finding committee found that every law had been violated by the state government and the police. Those arrested were not permitted to inform their family of their arrest, nor did the police inform their relatives within the stipulated 24 hours. They were not produced before the court or within the mandatory 24 hours of being picked up, with most reporting a delay of six to ten days. Many of those detained did not have charges booked against them, were kept in police custody and released after several days without being taken to court. Some of the detainees and suspects who have been released were reported as absconding by the police, with their families and friends pointing out to this correspondent that this was usually the precursor to an encounter death. Mohtasim Bilal, for instance, was reported absconding although he was with his family. The civil rights groups then arranged for him to be present at a press conference addressed by the well-known Ram Jethmalani in the city. It was only after this that the police arrested him, with his family pointing out that this was better than finding him dead one day.

Abdul Majid and Mohammad Shakeel were picked up on 31 August and 8 September 2007 respectively. The police announced their arrest only on 29 September at Kachiguda when they were produced in court. Abdul Majid continues to be in jail, and others who met him told the fact finding committee that he was subjected to terrible physical torture. His legs and hands were so swollen that the handcuffs could not be removed. He was vomiting blood. He was given electric shocks repeatedly, and one of the relatives of another family told Covert that the soles of his feet were literally hanging. He was punished for being the brother of a wanted youth, Shahid Bilal, who is reportedly absconding. Shakeel who was also tortured extensively is a friend of Majid. “I just can’t believe how well the government has covered this up and has taken no action,” Nirmala Gopalakrishnan said.

The police official insisted that they had identified “sleeper cells” and as a routine kept watch over the members. The boys who were arrested, he insisted, were members. Why did you not book them for the blasts? “We are looking for the RDX. Three kilograms were used in the blasts, we have to find the remaining. Once we find this we can get them all,” he said. Why were they tortured? That is their story, he said with not a trace of remorse. Presently most of them have been booked under charges such as conspiring in a graveyard and distributing anti-state CDs. A civil rights activist, Latif Mohammad Khan, who has been very active in petitioning the authorities and getting the boys released on bail, has come on the police watch list. Latif knows this, and the police officer confirmed it. “You must have met this Latif, he is HUJI,” he said. How do you know that? We have the evidence, was the expected reply. Civil rights activists recognise Latif as a conscientious man, pointing out that he has encouraged the boys to seek justice within the law — through the courts and petitions — and not outside it.

The activists point out that “there is urgent need to allay the sense of insecurity and fear that is growing in the Muslims, particularly the youth”. Mr Chander said that the police action and the government’s indifference were pushing the youth towards alienation. Meetings are being held by the different groups and concerned individuals to prevent this, but the Congress government remains indifferent and in a state of total denial.

Muslims are living in Jails more than Normal life Term. Normal life concludes 14 years.

2008-09-27T19:01:00.000-07:00

Muslims are living in Jails more than Normal life term. Normal life concludes 14 years.

Mohammed Abdul Khadeer who is a diabetic patient and has already spent more than 18 years in Jail, while a normal life term concludes in 14 years.

He has been arrested and sent to jail about 19 years ago after gunned down ACP Satayyah for instigating rioters to arson in Muslim Genocide riot in old city of Hyderabad.

The Government is kind enough to release him for 5 to 10 days in the month of Ramzan every year to celebrate Eid with his family members. On the other hand an MLA’s husband has been release in just 3 years in double murder case by violating all provisions of land laws, but the injustice have made in his case is an unsolved puzzle. More over the Central Government use to release Pakistani prisoners and vise-versa.

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE PRIME MINISTER OF INDIA

2008-09-16T00:29:00.000-07:00

Dear Dr. Manmohan Singh,The blasts in Delhi (September 12, 2008) are another in the series of tragic blasts in which scores of people have been killed. We strongly condemn the blasts and demand a proper, unbiased investigation into the same. We demand that the guilty be punished. At the same time it seems that our investigating agencies are ignoring some thing very crucial in the matters of investigating the acts of terror.

The acts of terror have been occurring and Home Ministry is watching helplessly. While the current investigation is totally focused around SIMI, many an alleged culprits have been put behind the bars, despite which now some unknown entity Indian Mujahideen seems to have been projected as being responsible for the current ones. At the same time another stark truth is being deliberately sidelined and undermined. And that relates to the blasts done by Bajrang Dal and Hindu Jagran Samiti. We fail to understand as to why the investigation authorities are turning a blind eye to some of the well established facts.

1. In a serious case of blasts in Nanded in April 2006 two Bajarang Dal workers died when making bombs. Similar incidents of bomb blasts were witnessed in many places around that time, Parabhani, Jalna and Aurangabad inMaharashtra. Most of these were in front of the mosques. The Nanded investigation 'leads' were not followed. On the contrary the investigation in that direction was not pursued at all. The attitude of police in this investigation has been totally lax. Social activists made the complaint about this to Human Rights commission. The commission summoned the Superintendent of police, Nanded, in its hearing held on 17th June. The SP failed to turn up for hearing! There seems to be a deliberate cover up of this important finding of Maharashtra Anti terrorist Squad. ATS did investigate the links of the dead with Bajrang Dal, an RSS affiliate. At the same time the injured were visited in the hospital by the top brass of local BJP and associates. Local BJP MP told the police not to harass those related to the culprits in the wake of the Bajrang Dal involvement in the bomb making. In Nanded, ATS also found fake moustache and pajama kurta, the idea being that the culprits will dress like a Muslim while doing these black deeds.

2. A bomb blast took place at the RSS office at Tenkasi, in the Tirunelveli District of Tamil Nadu on January 24. After a thorough investigation, the Tamilnadu Police had arrested 7 persons belonging to Sangh Parivar outfits. They had confessed that they indulged in this terror act to instigate the local Hindu population against the Muslims.

On further investigation, the Tamilnadu Police arrested Siva Alias Sivanandam, who is the General Secretary ofHindu Munnani at Kadayanallur, a neighbouring town of Tenkasi. Formed in 1980, Hindu Munnani is a frontal organisation of Sangh Parivar operating in Tamilnadu.

Siva, who has earlier worked in quarries in the neighboring state of Kerala had supplied the ammonium nitrate and other raw materials for preparing the bombs.

3. The bombs which exploded in Gadkari Rangayatan on 4th June 2008 injured seven people. Again MaharashtraAnti Terrorist Squad succeeded in nabbing the culprits. The culprits were part of Hindu Janjagaran Samiti (HJS), an outfit of Sanatana Ashram in Panvel. These culprits were also involved in other blasts, in Vashi, Panvel and Ratnagiri. We have not heard anything about the further tracing of this very important lead.

4. On 24th August, in Kanpur two Bajrang Dal workers died while making bombs. Rajiv alias Piyush Mishra and Bhupinder Singh were killed while making crude bombs on Sunday afternoon.

On 25th August, Monday, police recovered some crude hand grenades, lead oxide, red lead, potassium nitrate, bomb pins, timers and batteries from the spot, inside a hostel in Kalyanpur area of Kanpur, about 80 km from Lucknow. No further investigation, why?

Every time there is a bomb blast immediately the agencies and the media declare that it is done by some Muslim organization without any proof. Hundreds of innocent young boys are picked up, what follows are illegal detentions, torture, arrests, harassment of families, forcing the families and victims to sign blank papers. For years these helpless victims are tortured in jails, denied legal aid, even lawyers who try and fight their cases are attacked openly in courts. Their images tarnished for life time. If they are lucky they get let off after years as neither the agencies or the police have any proof against them. The cacophony of stricter laws rises so that a police can extract a confession by third degree torture and present that as evidence. Through this systematic vilification campaign the process of demonization of minorities continued unabated.

If we look at the timing of the terror attacks it is very clear that one and only one political outfit is gaining from it and that is Sangh. With their eyes on the central government their agenda of polarizing the voter is going ahead successfully.

On the other hand there are constant attacks on minorities on one pretext or another. Orissa thousands of Christians have been attacked, rendered homeless, their homes ransacked and looted and burnt down, churches attacked and even orphanages are not left alone.

Karnataka a similar picture is emerging. We have personally briefed very senior people in the government and the Congress party about the Karnataka situation and that it might explode but nothing was done and we have seen what has happened yesterday.

While we write to you now, the police are firing at Muslims in Yakutpura in Vadodara. Yesterday during the Ganpati procession a local dargah was broken down and shops of Muslims looted and ransacked. Already one boy has died and many are injured.
Last few days the only Muslim village Nandepeda in the Dangs, Gujarat has been attacked, ransacked. Villagers have been beaten up brutally including women and children. All men have fled to the jungles. The police not only took away all the goods but before going they poured kerosene into the eatable good so that they could not eat anything too. A proposed VHP rally today was stopped after spending 4 hours on the phone and pressuring various police departments.

UPA had formed the National Integration Council under tremendous pressure. The first agenda papers which were prepared, if you remember, were highly communal and objectionable. A number of us had raised it during the meeting and the Home Minister had replied' treat them as scrap' in your presence. Probably the Home Minister realized that people like us were too uncomfortable to have in the NIC, who would raise these questions. The NIC was never convened again. It was supposed to meet every six months.

The country unfortunately has been given on a platter to the Sangh and the government looks helplessly in providing security to ordinary citizens whether they are victims of terror attacks or victims of the constant attacks by the Sangh Parivar's various outfits.

We hope you will intervene and question why are such clear cases of involvement of RSS affiliates in terror attacks being ignored. It seems the investigating authorities deliberately want to cover up the role of RSS affiliates in these acts of terror. Can the real truth behind the dastardly acts come out without properly investigating these incidents, where the culprits' involvement is very clear? We urge upon you to instruct the investigating authorities to pursue the investigation in an unbiased, honest and professional manner. The life of innocent citizens is at stake and such irresponsible cover will definitely prevent the real truth from coming out. For the sake of fairness, honesty and the values of our constitution, we need to pursue these cases in their logical direction.

Can we look forward to you, Mr. Prime Minister to make your Government to rise above partisan attitude and unravel the truth behind the blasts which are rocking the country in a painful way?

Sincerely

Shabnam Hashmi, Member, National Integration Council
Ram Puniyani, Social Activist, and writer

Then They Came For Christians

2008-09-10T11:39:00.000-07:00

Orissa is witnessing unprecedented violence against the tiny Christian minority. On August 23, 2008, Swami Laxmananand along with his four followers was killed, probably by a group of Maoists. Immediately, anti-Christian violence began on big scale. The way it began it seemed as if preparations for it were well afoot. It was systematic and widespread. It sounded as if preparation was already there, just the pretext was being waited for. So far many innocent Christians have been killed, wounded and rendered homeless apart from many Churches having been torched. The RSS combine, VHP-Adivasi Kalyan Ashram-Bajarang Dal, allege that Swami was killed by Christians, or there is collusion between Maoists and Christians. It is unlikely that there is any such alliance between the two. Any way, what is important is that the crime of murder of Swami must be properly investigated and guilty must be punished as per the law of the land.

Just to recall anti Christian tirade was also launched in December 2007, around Christmas time. That time also the pretext was that Christians have beaten up Swami and so this ‘revenge’. For RSS combine launching such bouts of violence by now is becoming a child’s play. Search for a pretext, launch your well oiled machinery for the communal agenda, communalize the society along religious lines and strengthen your political base seems to be its trajectory. The similar phenomenon was observed in Gujarat, after the burning of Sabarmati coach S 6 at Godhra. Modi announced that it has been done by local Muslims. There was no need to wait for the proper investigation, no need to follow the norm of railway board that every such event must be investigated, and tirade was launched with full vigor, and split in the society along religious lines was brought in ensuring BJP coming back to power. This victory of BJP was despite the decline of popularity of BJP. Anti incumbency was nullified and Modi returned to power to further his agenda. Power of polarizing the society by communal violence was at display at its worst.

This, by now is the standard technique, spread canards, myths, biases against minorities, look for pretext and go for the kill under the tolerating eyes of communalized state apparatus. If BJP is in power or is an ally in the seat of power, the job is easier. Anti Christian violence went on higher gear in the same year in which BJP came to power in the Center in 1996. The pretext was that Christian missionaries are converting the gullible Adivasis by force, fraud and allurement. This incitement was skillfully utilized by Adivasis Kalyan Ashram, VHP and Bajrang dal, and the violence started going up in intensity over the years. The most ghastly of this was seen in the burning alive of Pastor Graham Stains along with his two innocent sons, aged 11 and 7 years. This was immediately followed by the murder of Fr. Arul Das. Also Sheikh Rahman was killed on the charges of trading in cows for slaughter. Anti Christian atmosphere was built up and as this was more in the remote places where Adivasis do not have easy access to law, police etc, anyway there efficacy in helping minorities from the onslaught of RSS combine is also doubtful by now, the process has been going on and on. The violence kept on simmering and kept taking intense forms around the Christmas times. In a way a new Christmas ritual of burning churches and beating up Christians around Christmas time became a sort of annual event. It is immaterial that the number of Christians is miniscule in Indian society, it is immaterial that Christian missionaries are working in India from first century A.D. itself, it is immaterial that the despite the allegations from RSS combine, the population of Christians as per the census figures has been declining constantly. In the face of these facts the argument proffered was that since the converts to Christianity don’t want to loose their privileges that don’t declare their true religion and are crypto Christians. The simple point is that Adivasis, where the missionary work is maximum, don’t loose such privileges after conversion. Gobbles must be turning in his grave with his followers surpassing him many times over!

In it not a mere coincidence that maximum violence in Adivasi areas has been seen in the poorest regions. Dangs in Gujarat is the poorest district of Gujarat, and Orissa is amongst the poorest states of the country. The main reason for violence against Christians is to ensure that the welfare, educational services offered by them do not reach the Adivasis and that they remain poor and illiterate, that the status quo in these areas prevails so that the democratic space for these wretched of the society is blocked by the religiosity cultivated through Swamis. We saw two processes of co-option and one political process of intimidation in these regions. Through Swamis, Laxmananad (Orissa), Assemanand (Dangs) and followers of Asaram bapu in Jhabua area, they did the cooption work, Gharvapasi, conversion in to Hinduism. Through mega processes like Shabri Kumbh in Dangs, Hindu Sangams in other Adivasi areas, an intimidating atmosphere has been created to draw them to RSS fold. The other process is the political one. This is the building up of mechanism where by Dara Singh’s, and his clones are ready waiting for pretexts to pounce upon the social fabric of unity. The violence is made to look as spontaneous and is a part of a process of revenge. It is neither, it is well planned un-folding of RSS agenda. Even Wadhva Commission, pointed out that there was no conversion activity by Pastor Stains. The civic rights groups have pointed out that the violence has political foundations and has nothing to do with religion or conversion. A Peoples tribunal headed by retired Justice Usha also warned about the preparedness of the communal organizations for violence,

The case of Orissa was specifically investigated by India Peoples Tribunal, led by Justice K.K.Usha (retired) of Kerala High court in 2006 (Communalism in Orissa). This tribunal forewarns about the shape of things to come. ” The tribunal assessed the spread of communal organizations in Orissa, which has been accompanied by a series of small and large events and some riots…such violations are utilized to generate the threat and reality of greater violence, and build an infrastructure of fear and intimidation.” It further notes that minorities are being grossly ill treated; there is gross inaction of the state Govt to take action. Outlining the mechanism of the communalization, it points out, “The report also describes in considerable detail how the cadre of majoritarian communal organizations is indoctrinated in hatred and violence against other communities it holds to be inherently inferior. If such communalization is undertaken in Orissa, it is indicative of the future of the nation… the signs are truly ominous for India’s democratic future.” (p 70)

In all the Adivasis areas, a dangerous situation, and occasionally an apparent calm prevail. While swami Laxmananand’s killers deserve the punishment, Swami’s followers are spreading hate in these areas and vitiating the atmosphere. One can also see the communalization of state apparatus and BJP protecting its marauding mobs either by pulling the strings from the seats of power or by spreading the canards against the weaker sections of society. Interestingly as pointed out above, the December 2007 violence was launched on the pretext that Christians have beaten up the Swami! We do need to look back and check the activities of those spreading hate in the name of religion. While the Christian sects are dime a dozen, all are not in the business of proselytization. Few of them must be indulging in wrong practices, but surely law of the land can take care of those not following it. Permitting violence by the state machinery tantamount to violation of the oath taken by those in power, and they should to be suspended form the seats of power. And if they are not able to protect the innocent citizens of their state, why should they continue to rule? The question is which political force is above suspicion and honest enough to abide by the laws of Indian constitution? The question also arises, is the state bureaucracy and police honest enough to protect the minorities? Time to introspect and set the things right at deeper level of governance and politics.

WRITTEN BY RAM PUNIYANI

Terrorism, Communal Violence And Police

2008-09-04T18:20:00.000-07:00

The role of police in democratic society is very different from that of police in colonial society. However, it is 61 years now that India became independent and there is no change in the role of police a wee bit. Today our police have become even more colonial in its attitude. The British colonial rulers had enacted the police an act in 1861 to use the police for suppression of people’s movement and to terrorize colonized people. Our police too is terrorizing innocent people fighting for their rights.

Though human rights are really very central to functioning of democracy, and, human dignity even more important for functioning of any secular democratic set up, irrespective of caste, creed or color. Yet our police are highly caste conscious and communal in attitude with few honorable exception. Over and above all this corruption has deeply seeped into the force. Also, our IPS officers are totally subservient to political bosses who use them for their own political interests. They are even ready to kill in false encounters innocent people at the instances of political bosses without any compunction as we saw in Gujarat.

I am writing this article because of gross misuse of office by the police in many cases of arrest of innocent people after bomb explosions and open cases of partisanship in communal violence in recent riots. It is my considered opinion that if ruling authorities do not take these cases of police excesses, it will have serious consequences and would create serious problems. There is no sense of fairness and respect for law the way police has been working in India in almost all the states.
First I would refer to the public hearing of the victims of police excesses in the name of ’solving’ the bomb blast cases. The organizers of public hearing Anhad, Human Rights Law Network and PEACE, Delhi had constituted a jury comprising distinguished people. Justice S.N.Bhargava (retired Chief Justice, Sikkim High Court), Justice Sardar Ali Khan, retired High Court Judge, Asghar Ali Engineer, K.G.Kannabiran (National president, PUCL), Prashant Bhushan, Advocate Supreme Court, Dr. Ram Puniyani (retired professor IIT, Mumbai) Prof. Rooprekha Verma (retired Vice Chancellor, Lucknow University, Mr. Kingsukh Nag, Editor Times of India and Lalit Surjan, Editor Deshbandhu, Raipur. This was indeed very distinguished jury and cases of police excesses and torture we heard were really very disturbing.

Since there were distinguished judges and an eminent lawyer on the panel well conversant with law they cross examined the victims and satisfied themselves. Every case appeared to be of false arrests and torture by police for confession. The interim observations of the jury were that the testimonies showed that a large number of innocent young Muslims have been and are being victimized by the police on the charge of being involved in various terrorist acts across the country. This is particularly in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan, though not limited to these states.

The panel of jury also observed that “In most cases, the persons picked up are not shown to be arrested by the police until many days after their arrest in gross violations of the law. Their families are also not informed about their arrest. In many cases they have been tortured in police custody and made to ‘confess’ and sign blank papers. The police has been often humiliating Muslim detainees on the ground of their religion. The testimonies show widespread communalization of the police across states in the country.”

The jury also observed that in most of these cases, the Courts are routines allowing police remand and not granting bail, merely on the police statements that they are required for further investigations. They do not examine whether there is any evidence against the accused. Unfortunately, the media too uncritically publicizes the charge and allegations leveled by the police. This has resulted in the destruction of the lives and reputation of a large number of persons so picked up by the police who have later been found to be innocent.

This is alienating the community besides allowing real culprits to escape and it has grave consequence in the sense that bomb explosions continue as real culprits are never nabbed. The communal discrimination is also very obvious when persons belonging to Sangh Parivar like VHP or Bajrang Dal are found making bombs, they are either not arrested or if arrested, easily released on bail. Though Bajrang Dal and VHP cadres have been found involved in number of violent activities, the political set-up headed by the Congress, has never thought of banning these organizations.

One can say it is becoming world -wide phenomenon as Muslims are being treated like this even in USA, UK etc. Though it is true but that cannot be an excuse for the police of a secular democratic country like India to behave in this lawless manner. On top of it the Sangh Parivar is demanding re-imposing draconic laws like the POTA which will prove to be an absolute disaster. In this law self-confession is treated as valid proof and we all know how the police obtain such ‘confessions’. If such laws are ever brought the innocent citizens who are tortured to obtain confession will have no legal remedy and police will run amok.

It is high time the Central Government gives serious thought to such mal-functioning of the police and lawlessness in this force which is supposed to be guardian of law. It may be too late. And if it is true (though by means proved) that bomb explosions in Ahmedabad or earlier blasts in train in Mumbai were acts of revenge, one can imagine the consequences of such unlawful acts of police in states above named. Not only that real culprits will escape for failure of police to nab real culprits and finding easy solutions by arresting innocent people, but also those tortured by the police and harassed may seek their own revenge. In any case, even if that does not happen, it does not bode well for future of our democracy.

Police And Communal Riots

The partisan behavior of police in communal riots is a well-known phenomenon. The government has never taken serious steps to remedy the situation. I have myself investigated several communal riots and found the police behavior towards Muslims totally unacceptable. What happened recently in Digras and Pusad towns of Yewatmal district of Vidarbha is an hair raising story of police behavior towards Muslims.

In fact these riots were provoked by members of Sangh Parivar after some Muslim youth attacked some shops of Hindus after a copy of the Qur’an was found on the road with shoes kept on it. The Sangh Parivar took out procession shouting provocative slogans and police never tried to stop them. The Parivar members attacked Muslim shops and communal violence broke out. Before that many Muslims had gathered outside Jama’ Masjid Digras and were quite excited.
But Sheher Qazi Syed Bashiruddin pacified them and asked them to disperse peacefully. He saved a bad situation from worsening. But when Sangh Parivar people attacked Muslim shops some Muslim boys from Gauripara and Sambhajinagar came out with swords but were stopped by the police on the bridge on Dhavda River. And then the police launched an offensive on Gavdipada and Sambhajinagar where there are 80 per cent Muslims.

They crashed into Muslim houses and looted everything there and even smashed TV sets fridges and everything that there was in their houses. They even smashed drinking water pots and disconnected water connection to these two areas. It is Hindu neighbor who provided drinking water to these Muslims. From one house the police took away 80,000 rupees which a poor man had saved for his daughter’s marriage.

The police smashed Skoda vehicle of Noor Mohammad who is ex-president of Digras Municipality. Besides that they smashed many other vehicles etc. belonging to Muslims. This police operation was ordered by SP Police Shri, Shivaji Rao Bokhade and boasted before Mr. Suresh Khairnar, a human rights activist who had gone there for investigation that I have taught them (Muslims) a proper lesson and for coming 10 years they dare not raise their head again.
What is more shocking is that RAF and SRP people crashed into the house of Sheher Qazi who had pacified the Muslim crowd and disperse peacefully and beat up his brother who was dumb and smashed his sewing machine and struck blows to his son Maulana Zafar and broke his hand. The Muslims of Digras said there is no problem between Hindus and Muslims but between Police and Muslims. Hindus actually helped us and took care of us.

Chief Minister Deshmukh was made aware of all this by a delegation of Muslims from Digras but he took no action at all and today (i.e. 30th August) he went for a function to Yewatmahal but did not bother to go to Digras which is in that district despite knowing fully well what the police did there. As pointed out before police is the most lawless force in our country. I am simply horrified by all this.

The role of police in Orissa has been equally shameful. It stood by when Bajrang Dal and VHP hoodlums attacked Christians and looted or burnt their properties. Not only that the Police remained mere spectators when these hoodlums did all this when curfew was in force. Our police force is highly communalized and these prejudices become powerful block in preventing any violation of law. Our secular democracy is indeed is in grave danger at the hands of the police force more than the communalists themselves.

I had seen all this during Jabalpur riots in 1961 how brutally police had behaved with poor Muslims there and how PAV had looted Muslim houses. It was then that I had resolved to fight against communalism and devote my life for inter-religious harmony. And after 47 years same thing is happening in our country. Did I achieve anything?

Terrifying Testimonies

2008-09-04T17:50:00.000-07:00

For several months now, almost no week passes without the media reporting about 'dreaded Muslim fundamentalists' being picked up by the police and allegedly confessing to being involved in bomb blasts or plots to engineer violence across India.

It is not my argument that all of these reports are cooked-up and dished-out propaganda. Some of these stories must be true, and those behind such acts must be caught and punished.
But, the fact remains, many of these stories circulating in the media are wholly fabricated, and these are being manufactured and highlighted for a particular motive: to fuel anti-Muslim passions and, thereby, justify various forms of discrimination and oppression—even murder—of hapless Muslim citizens who, far from having anything to do with terrorism, are victims of terror—of agencies of the state, especially the police and Hindutva terror outfits.

America's 'global war on terror' has provided a convenient cover to the Hindutva lobby and to fiercely anti-Muslim elements within the Indian state machinery to launch a concerted campaign of terror against Muslims.

Large numbers of Muslims in various parts of India continue to languish in jails on trumped-up terror charges, suffering brutal torture as well as routine insults to their religion by police officials. Meanwhile, Hindu terrorists, often in league with the police and the state machinery, are allowed to run riot, unleashing violence and bloodshed on a frightening scale, while the state, the police and the courts take no firm action against them.

Bomb blasts that are now occurring with frightening frequency, whose perpetrators remain unknown, are automatically blamed on Muslims, while some of these might possibly be engineered by Hindutva outfits or by elements within the state apparatus, or even by foreign intelligence agencies like the CIA or the Israeli Mossad who have a vested interest in demonizing Muslims and thereby driving India closer into the deadly American-Israeli embrace.

That, in brief, was what numerous social activists as well as dozens of Muslim victims of police and state terror testified to at a public hearing on brutalities against Muslims in the name of countering 'terrorism' recently organised in Hyderabad by a group of noted human rights' activists.

Going by their depositions and the verdict of the jury of eminent social activists, journalists and retired judges, it appears that powerful elements within the state apparatus are deeply implicated, along with Hindu terrorist groups, in a witch-hunt of India's Muslim citizens.

27 year-old Yakoob Khan from Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, was arrested at the age of 17, accused of being involved in the Coimbatore blasts in 1998, a charge that he vehemently denies.
'On the day of the blast I attended class at the Industrial Training Institute where I was enrolled, and when I was returning home I heard about the blasts'. In the wake of the blasts, the police went on a rampage, indiscriminately picking up Muslim youth. Some days later, Yakoob found himself in prison, where he was to spend almost the next ten years, much of it in solitary confinement in a small cage-like cell. 'I was accused of being in possession of explosive material, and of being associated with the Islamic group Al-Ummah, although I had never even heard its name.' In addition to routine torture, while in jail he was often abused for his religion.

'I would be beaten up if I wanted to say namaz. My torturers would tell me to face them while praying, rather than the Kaaba. They tore my Quran, and while beating me they would scream "Bharat Mata ki Jai"'. 'They ruined ten precious years of my life, my youth, falsely branding me as a terrorist', he says.

Yakoob Khan's friend, 34 year-old Shiv Kumar, alias Abdul Hamid, is a Hindu convert to Islam. He eked out as livelihood selling old newspapers and utensils for recycling. He was accused of being involved in the Coimbatore blasts, a charge that he denies. The police forced him to sign a blank piece of paper which they later filled out themselves, threatening him that if he refused to do so they would arrest his family as well.

He was remanded to the Coimbatore jail on the basis of this forced 'confession' and his repeated applications for bails were rejected. Because he was the sole earner in his family, his wife was forced to beg in order to survive. He was finally acquitted only recently, after almost ten years in incarceration. 'I was mercilessly tortured in prison. I was constantly told that if I had not become a Muslim and had remained a Hindu I would not have been beaten like this', he says.
Shabbir Masiulllah Ansari was picked up by the Mumbai Crime Branch in August 2006, but he was soon released on bail for 'lack of evidence'.

Yet, he was charged anew for being allegedly the 'mastermind' of the Malegaon mosque blasts, while, it is said, that at the time the blasts took place he was actually in police custody. He continues to languish in jail and has suffered routine torture, including acid being thrown on his private parts. In the course of torture he was coerced into making a forced confession, but he later retracted this in court.

Maulana Muhammad Zahid is originally from Malegaon. Some two years ago, at the time of the Malegaon bomb blast, he was in Phul Savangi, a village 500 km away from Malegaon, where he used to lead the prayers in a mosque. The police implicated him in the blast, although his relatives insist he is innocent.

When he was produced before the magistrate in Mumbai Esplanade Court, he gave a statement listing the torture that was done to him and also the false statement on which the police had taken his signature. The magistrate ignored his plea and asked for the police produced statement and accepted that as evidence. He still languishes in prison.

Faisal Attaur Shaikh and Muzammil Attaur Rehman Shaikh are among the thirteen Muslims charged for the 11 July 2006 Bombay local train blasts. The police accused Faisal of being a commander of Lashkar-e Tayyeba and of setting off the blast.

They also claimed to have recovered maps of Mumbai and some CDS from Muzammil. In October 2006, 11 out of the 13 accused in the case gave their confession, but later retracted it in the sessions' court. It is alleged that almost all the accused were subjected to brutal torture, which forced them to confess to crimes they said they had not committed. It is claimed that 11 out of the 13 accused could not endure the torture and finally agreed to whatever story the police fabricated. This is why their confession stands retracted.

33 year-old Kalim Ahmed Karimi used to manage a small radio repair business in Ahmedabad. On 3rd April, 2003 he had gone out to get some medicines for his pregnant wife who was unwell.
The police picked him up and he never came back. Although Kalim was arrested on the 3rd April from Ahmedabad, the CBI states that they arrested him on the 26th of April in Andhra Pradesh. He was charged with being allegedly involved in the Tiffin Bomb Blast case, the Haren Pandya murder case and a 'jihadi' conspiracy. Thereafter, he was sentenced to 14 years imprisonment for the Haren Pandya murder case and to 10 years in the Tiffin Bomb Blast case.

Says his 70 year-old father, Habib Karimi, 'My son is innocent. Officials of the crime branch picked me up for questioning. Under duress, I was forced to sign some blank papers that they presented me with.

They told me that I should not contact any lawyer and that they had men keeping an eye on me. I was also told not to forget that they had my signatures on blank sheets. My son has been tortured brutally and he has been forced to sign a confession. He and some others have narrated the experience of torture and forced confessions before the POTA Judge Sonia Gokani.'
Junaid is a final year student at Unani Medical College, Hyderabad, and president of the student union. He was picked up on the 3rd of September 2007 while returning to his home. He was produced before the magistrate on 8th of September 2007. Police claim that he was apprehended at Nampally railway station on the 8th of September.

He was accused of conspiring against the state, which he vehemently denied. The argument given by the police was that some literature was found in his possession. While in custody he was subjected to heavy electric shocks, including on his private parts, and was coerced into making a forced confession.

During his interrogation he was constantly rebuked for having shouted slogans against police violence. They asked him why he raised questions regarding the Sohrabuddin fake encounter and why he attended a conference against it. They even asked him why Muslims have so many children.

For two days he was not given anything to eat. His face was kept covered in a black cloth throughout this ordeal. A shoe was stuffed in his mouth and he was told to read the Quran in that condition. In order to further humiliate him he was forced to shout 'Jai Shri Ram'.
24 year-old Aftab Alam Ansari, the only bread-earner in his 10-member lower middle class family, and an employee of the Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation, was picked up by the police and taken to Lucknow.

'I was badly tortured with iron rods by drunken policemen who accused me of being a Bangladeshi. I was forced to declare that my name was actually Altaf Muletar and that I was responsible for the bombings in Sankat Mochan Mandir and the Courts in Lucknow. Of course I had nothing whatsoever to do with these.'

Aftab was then sent to the civil jail in Lucknow where he was stripped and was imprisoned for twenty two days. 'I was accused of being the area commander of the Harkat ul-Jihad al-Islami, although I had never even heard of this outfit. My interrogators heaped abuses on Muslims and Islam.'

'They are targeting us just because we are Muslims', Aftab says. 'They want to falsely implicate us in terror cases so that our image gets tarnished and people start hating Muslims.

' Like many other innocent Muslim youths who have been picked up and brutally tortured by interrogating agencies and then released for lack of any evidence, Aftab received no compensation for the enormous amount of money his family spent on securing his release. Nor has the state compensated him in any way for the damage to his health caused by the torture in prison. Nor has he received any sort of apology.

Scores more Muslim men and women testified at this public hearing, narrating the harrowing brutalities that they or their relatives have been subjected to, being, so they insisted, unfairly blamed for various terror acts.

Predictably, though, the so-called mainstream Indian media took little notice of the hearing, the first of its kind in the country. Nor, for their part, did major political parties and state authorities. As Ghadr, the popular cultural activist from Andhra Pradesh who addressed the gathering, rightly put it, 'To expect anything else from the media and the establishment is folly. The answer lies not in simply narrating our woes but initiating a mass movement against this sort of oppression.'

Imran (17), only bread earner of his family, killed pointblank by Indore police

2008-08-25T03:39:00.000-07:00

By Md. Ali, TwoCircles.net,

When Mehrun Nisa bade Imran goodbye to work she never knew that next time instead of receiving her son, she would get his dead body. According to Imran’s family, he was killed by two policemen at point blank around 11am on 3rd July 2008.

Imran, a 17-year-old boy and a resident of Hina Colony in Khujrana, a Muslim ghetto in Indore, was working as a painter near his home. On the day when there emerged a disturbing noise from some mobs, the contractor told him to go home.

It was the day when the Hindutva group Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) had given a call for "Bharat Bandh" against the withdrawal of the forest land to the Amaranth Shrine Board by the Jammu and Kashmir Government.

Imran was told by his contractor to go home because at that time the VHP activists have allegedly entered some Muslim dominated areas and enforced the "Bandh" leading to a clash between them and the Muslims.

Because of the instigation and provocation of the Muslims by the VHP and the biased attitude of the police the backlash later on took the form of full-fledged riots.

On his return from work Imran was with his younger brother Shahrukh. Both were called by the accused policemen. They took the elder of the two, Imran, and dragged him on the road first and then inserted the gun inside his mouth and shot, leading to his death on the spot.

Shahrukh (right) carries the body of his elder brother

Abdul Rafeeq, father of Imran, talked to TwoCircles.net about the difficulties that his family is facing since Imran's murder.

He said that the family got this news at 1 pm. Imran's mother out of desperation and panic went to the police station but the policemen threw rocks at her and told her to go home because they don't have the body of her son. They visited many hospitals to find their dead son but could find his body on the next day.

Abdul Rafiq informed TwoCircles.net that initially he was being given Imran's dead body without its postmortem, but he refused and insisted on the medical report after which the concerned authorities conducted autopsy of Imran's body.

Imran belongs to a very poor family. He was the only earning hand of the family of nine. His father who used to drive vehicles in local area is uanable to work because of some problems in his spinal cord since last two years. In Imran's absence, says Abdul Rafiq, the family does not have sufficient food even to feed the relative who are visiting to console the family.

Abdul Rafiq couldn't control himself and broke down on the phone describing the body of his son and how mercilessly he was murdered by the people who are supposed to be the protector of citizens.

How poor Imran's family is and how many problems they are facing can be assessed by what his father had to say: “Now no one can bring Imran back but only if I am provided with any job or something so that the family of eight could survive."

There are various questions which need to be raised as far as this case is concerned.

TwoCircles.net got to know that the FIR of the case has been registered but there has not been any mention of the two policemen who murdered Imran mercilessly. Although there has been a witness, Shahrukh, of Imran's murder and who can identify the accused but the report has been registered against the "anonymous” culprits.

Imran's father said that he is a poor person without any political and financial strength and it is questionable that anybody would dare to raise this matter when the culprit is the administration itself.

When the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) delegation visited riot-hit areas in Indore two days ago, a delegation of People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) met the NCM team. It put up the case of Imran among other cases before the NCM.

The NCM team told the delegation that although it does not have any constitutional power to punish anyone but it has noted down the case separately. It will treat the case as a special case because Imran was shot at point blank and the police appear to be involved in the issue.

The delegation appealed to NCM that Imran’s family should be provided with support and security. Sharukh, who is the witness in this case, is a living threat to the police and the administration. It may attempt to harm him.

NCM chairperson Mohamed Shafi Qureshi told the delegation that in the meeting of the full bench of the Commision in Delhi, it will decide what to do with the case, and whether the eyewitnesses in Imran's case need to be called to Delhi.

The eyewitnesses in other cases are turning hostile because of the threat and pressure on them by the administration. So Shafi Qureshi instructed the SP and DM to provide them with security.

But is police capable of protecting witnesses to its own involvement of the killings of the innocent?

TwoCircles.net contacted the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) and asked about the future steps that the PUCL team is planning to take in Imran murder case.

PUCL team said that one has to take every step in this case cautiously, because the police is the direct culprit in the case.

It first first of of all wants to read the postmortem report of Imran's body, and then it will consult the legal experts on how to take up the case.

That Imran's family and all the victims of the Indore riots get justice will, to a large extent, depend on the attitude of the BJP government and the local administration towards the case.

The real issue at stake here is justice, be it the case of Imran's murder or the killing of Anwar Patel and the Sindhi Khen Chand Mafija.

It becomes important because there have been various proposals by many people that we should forgive the police persons who "unconsciously made some mistakes".

They argue that punishing the police would amount to discourage their morale because after all they managed to control the riots and bring peace in the riot torn areas. The Peace Committees are filled with representatives of the political parties prominently BJP and the Congress.

Although it is really debatable that to what extent the family of Imran, even at the risk of their lives, would go to fight against the inhumanities and brutalities of the administration committed on the name of "bringing peace" and "controlling the riots", one thing is very much clear. That only the collective support of the civil society throughout the country, timely implementation of the recommendation of the National Commission for the Minorities along with the proper representation by the media can help the victims of the Indore riots including the family of Imran.

http://www.twocircles.net/2008jul17/imran_17_only_bread_earner_his_family_killed_pointblank_indore_police.html#comment-4851

Atrocities Committed Against Minorities in the Name of Fighting Terrorism

2008-08-25T03:29:00.000-07:00

The global fight against terrorism has veered more around witch hunting rather than curbing terrorism. This has turned out to be a battle where people feel more insecure than ever before. Their liberty and freedom have often been taken away to meet the challenge posed by terrorists. This is true about most of the world today and India is no exception.

The security-centric world has been empowering State and robbing citizen of not only freedom but also rendering him more insecure. He is now at the mercy of the State and his consent for harsher laws is being taken for granted. This is at such a great scale that any individual in most societies can be taken as suspect. An inhospitable climate has been created where electronic door frames, metal detectors, surveillance cameras, frisking, eves dropping, snooping and spying are rampant.

Yet so much empowered State always demands more from citizens in its fight against terrorism. One result of this is that many actions on the part of the State go unquestioned. Citizenry has to be with the State to save itself from terror though this remains undiminished to prove neo-conservatives right and push ahead their main agenda -- globalisation.This is the backdrop that has been thrust upon not only India but also most of the impoverished third world.

Yet the local leaderships have come to kowtowing the twin-processes of fighting terror and offering their resources, manpower, know-how, skills, freedom, independence and sovereignty to be breached as per the demands and terms of globalisation. And these are turning out to be so urgent as to unleash one act of terror after the other.

The pace of this is so mesmerising as to hardly let people to figure out anything except to believe the State version of incidents of terror and watch mutely law going through motions that have now become stereotyped and foregone. Only people from one community are arrested, only organisations of one sort are blamed and motives too similar are rattled most of the times.

Facts like members of all communities dieing, including of the one being blamed for the act, or the particular community targeting its own place of worship simply go unquestioned.

One of the recent cases has been the case of Mecca Masjid blast in Hyderabad where State's and police wont have always been to truss up minority community youth, torture and humiliate them to the extent of extracting 'confessions' howsoever far fetched they may sound to the lawmen or laymen.

It is not that this has not been so before and after the Hyderabad incident or has been confined to this Muslim dominated town alone. In towns after towns and states after states in such incidents Muslims have faced the ire of the State as a matter of rule rather than exception whether charges against them could stand in court or fall through despite the climate generally vitiated to their detriment through constant rattling of their misdeeds, maligning their ways, castigating their faith whether consciously, sub-consciously, or unconsciously.

Not long ago, Aftab Ali Ansari, an employee of West Bengal government was picked up by CID branch of West Bengal Police from Kolkata, handed over to U P police and framed as one of the main accused behind the series of bomb blasts that rocked a number of court premises in U P. Aftab was tortured for days before not only did the court set him free but West Bengal chief minister had to accede to his demand for compensation.

Aftab's case is only one among hundreds such unfortunate incidents, a trend where police indiscriminately picks up innocent youth from minority community on mere basis of suspicion or to brand them as terrorists. This is despite the fact that in so many cases charges against people so arrested remain far from being proved Each time there is a bomb blast, the long arms of the Indian State reach out to pick up scapegoats to cover up their incompetence in providing security to its citizens.

After each bomb blast or surprise violent act, arrests are made, organisations named but the police and investigative agencies have not been able to prove their claims in most such cases. The people arrested continue to languish in jails or suffer other kinds of victimisation. More often, the real culprits remain at bay and the threat remains undiminished. Umpteen such cases can be cited here, but we would prefer to hear the accounts of those who underwent similar trauma so the truth behind the fight against terror can be laid bare.

An Independent People's Tribunal will set off this process, where a select jury of distinguished persons with unimpeachable integrity will hear testimonies of people drawn from not only Hyderabad but across the country who underwent arrest and interrogation by the police at the behest of State and its prejudiced and misplaced policies at one level and calculated to keep the process of globalisation at another.

Anhad, Human Rights Law Network and Peace in collaboration with collaboration with APCLC( Andhra Pradesh), Aman Samudaya (Gujarat), AVHRS (Gujarat), BMMA, Civil Liberties Monitoring Committee (Andhra Pradesh), PUCL (Karnataka), PUCL (Rajasthan), Human Rights Forum ( Andhra Pradesh) , PUHR (UP), Quami Mahaz (Gujarat), Sandarbh (MP), Siasat (Andhra Pradesh) & Asmita (Andhra Pradesh) are organising a people's tribunal to document the atrocities committed on innocent people especially from the minority community in the name of fighting terrorism by the state.

Victims or their close relatives from over 10 states will depose before the tribunal. Human Right activists and lawyers fighting the cases for the innocent victims will also depose before the tribunal. The report of the tribunal will be published within two months after the Tribunal is over. The names which have already been confirmed for the jury include: Asghar Ali Engineer, Justice SN Bhargava, Justice Sardar Ali, KG Kannabiran, Kingshug Nag, Lalit Surjan, Prashant Bhushan, Professor Hargopal, Ram Puniyani, Rooprekha Verma and VN Rai.

Senior experts who have worked on the issue will speak each morning. They include: Jyotirmaya Sharma, Zafar Agha, Kavita Srivastava, Ajit Sahi and Suresh Khairnar. The Tribunal Proceedings will begin on August 22, 2008 at 3pm . On August 23 & 24 the Tribunal will work from 9 am to 7pm. The venue for the Tribunal is Siasat Auditorium, Jawaharlal Nehru Road, Abids, Hyderabad On August 24th at 8pm we are organising an evening of Sufi Music. We have invited Dhruv Sangari to perform from Delhi. Dhruv Sangari is a talented vocal singer and has been working professionally since 1999.

His repertoire includes Persian and Arabic, Punjabi, Hindi and Urdu poetry. For years during his college vacations Dhruv travelled to Lahore to learn singing from the famous Sufi singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. This is the first ever People's Tribunal which is documenting cases of people who have been falsely implicated by the State as terrorists or said to have supported their activities.

Terrorising minorities is no way to tackle terror

2008-08-25T03:18:00.000-07:00

Torturing people belonging to a particular community in the name of investigating terror cases will never put an end to terrorism, the People’s Tribunal said on sunday.

At the end of its three-day meeting, the jury of the tribunal expressed dismay at the alleged harassment of people belonging to the Muslim community and made several interim recommendations after recording depositions and statements of over 40 people from across the country.

Speaking to reporters later, civil rights leader K G Kannabiran said that suppressing the minority community would not put an end to terror. "The police committed excesses against rural youths in the State branding them extremists and killed many of them in fake encounters. But Naxalism has survived," he pointed out.

And retired justice Sardar Ali Khan observed that an "undeclared Emergency" had been imposed on the Muslim community. "People from the community are being tortured in the name of investigation. They must be compensated for the trauma they have undergone," he said.

The jury noted that persons picked up were not produced in court. They were being forced to confess to the "crime" and sign blank papers.

The courts were allowing police to take suspects into custody and were not granting bail to them, while the media was publishing the allegations levelled against them.

The jury recommended that the National and State Human Rights Commissions, as well as the State Minority Commissions, should take up such issues suo motu and engage their own agenciesto find the truth. It also felt that the courts should not grant police or judicial custody routinely but look into the evidence against the accused.

Criminal laws should be amended so that it would be obligatory on part of courts to award compensation to innocent victims who were acquitted due to lack of evidence. The number of trial courts should be increased to expedite such cases.

The Tribunal was organised by ‘Act Now for Harmony and Democracy’ (ANHAD) and ‘Human Rights Law Network’ (HRLN). Several civil rights activists, academics, judicial luminaries and mediapersons participated in the tribunal.