Bajrang Dal workers armed with trishuls (tridents), travelling to Ayodhya on board the Sabarmati Express this morning, let loose a reign of terror upon dozens of helpless Muslim passengers, burqa-clad women and innocent children. They also targeted the people waiting at the platform, forcing them to shout slogans of Jai Shri Ram.
A few even declared themselves to be Hindus in order to escape their wrath.According to eyewitnesses, close to 2000 trishul carrying Bajrang Dal workers, on board the Sabarmati Express coming from the direction of Lucknow, began indulging in these activities from the Daryabad Station.
Any one identified as a Muslim, on the train, was mercilessly attacked with trishuls and beaten with iron rods. Even women and innocent children were not spared. Burqas were pulled off, women were beaten with iron rods and were dragged, people waiting at the platform were also similarly targeted.
This continued between the Daryabad and Rudauli Stations. According to an eyewitness, a youth who protested against this barbarism was thrown off the train between the Patranga and Rojagaon Stations. Several women, badly wounded and covered in blood, jumped off the train as it pulled into Rudauli around 8 a.m.
The Bajrang Dal activists also got off the train and started attacking those whom they identified as Muslims from among those present at the platform.Ata Mohammed from Takia Khairanpur waiting to catch a train to Allahabad was badly beaten, some others were forced to shout Jai Shri Ram some escaped by declaring that they were Hindus. 50-year-old Mohd. Absar lives near the station. He was grabbed as he stepped out of his house, his long beard was rudely pulled before he was repeatedly stabbed with trishuls.
Another man from the Rudauli Police Station area who happened to be at the station was badly beaten with iron rods. Local residents rang up the police.By the time the Bhelsar Police station chief, arrived at the station the train had left and the injured were being rushed to the hospitals. No report was registered at the Police station since the officer-in-charge was unavailable.
The injured have no idea why they were attacked.Rumours are rife. The people are petrified; respected Hindus and Muslims of the area have condemned the shameful attack, Muslims religious leaders have appealed for peace and requested that there be no retaliation.
Thursday, January 11, 2007
# Maulana Naseeruddin released on bail
Maulana Naseeruddin released on bail
Hyderabad: Maulana Mohammed Naseeruddin, a prominent religious leader, The leader of Tehrik Tahfuz Shariul Islam (Movement for the Protection of Islamic Symbols, which was founded after the Quran burning incident in Kanpur to mobilise the Muslims to act and react for the protection of Muslim Ummah) who was arrested on the suspected links with Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and Lashkar-e-Toiba was released on bail on an order of AP high court.
He and seven others were arrested on suspected links to SIMI and Lashkar-e-Toiba and their alleged involvement in an attack on a temple in Hyderabad last August. The Muslim community and other organizations protested against their arrest.
A case under POTA is also filed against Maulana Naseeruddin in Gujarat pertaining to the murder of former Gujarat minister Haren Pandya. The Gujarat police wanted his custody and approached the city Metropolitan Magistrate here to shift him to Gujarat. But the magistrate rejected their pleas on the ground that the high court had already ordered his release. After his release Maulana Naseeruddin said that he was not afraid of going to Gujarat.
Hyderabad: Maulana Mohammed Naseeruddin, a prominent religious leader, The leader of Tehrik Tahfuz Shariul Islam (Movement for the Protection of Islamic Symbols, which was founded after the Quran burning incident in Kanpur to mobilise the Muslims to act and react for the protection of Muslim Ummah) who was arrested on the suspected links with Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and Lashkar-e-Toiba was released on bail on an order of AP high court.
He and seven others were arrested on suspected links to SIMI and Lashkar-e-Toiba and their alleged involvement in an attack on a temple in Hyderabad last August. The Muslim community and other organizations protested against their arrest.
A case under POTA is also filed against Maulana Naseeruddin in Gujarat pertaining to the murder of former Gujarat minister Haren Pandya. The Gujarat police wanted his custody and approached the city Metropolitan Magistrate here to shift him to Gujarat. But the magistrate rejected their pleas on the ground that the high court had already ordered his release. After his release Maulana Naseeruddin said that he was not afraid of going to Gujarat.
# Against SIMI
The case of the government against SIMI is based on thin ice
The last few months saw Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) a lot in the news with references to the faceless Intelligence Bureau’s leaked “information” that “dreaded terrorists” are a part of SIMI or that “dreaded terrorists” were apprehended and they were “ex-SIMI cadres”. One wonders why no one questioned the press as to why all of a sudden, after February 2006, SIMI started appearing in the news. The reason is quite obvious. SIMI was banned for the third time on 8 February 2006 and the ban notification itself said that “there is no violent incident involving SIMI since 2004”. The government needed to first condemn SIMI in the eyes of the general public with the active aid and abetment of the mainstream media including "respectable" news papers and television channels who have carried on a vicious campaign against SIMI. Even before the Tribunal constituted to decide the correctness of the ban imposed by the government could arrive at a decision (expected before 7 Augsut 2006), SIMI was totally demonized in the eyes of the general public and the media trial of SIMI was over. All incidents that took place in the meantime like the hoax attack on the headquarters of RSS at Nagpur, the Aurangabad arms haul, the Mumbai blasts were immediately blamed on SIMI without a shred of evidence whatsoever.
So one would assume that since this government and its agencies, which are ready to blame SIMI for all that is wrong in the country, must've had much to say against SIMI before the Justice B.N.Chaturvedi Tribunal hearing the case of the government to ban. Even in the course of hearings before the Tribunal, most newspapers were misreporting the proceedings. It would be interesting to see why the government had to resort to a media war rather than fight its case before the specially constituted tribunal. This was the case of the Government before the Tribunal:
The ban notification was issued by the Joint Secretary, Home Ministry, Mr BA Coutinho who stated before the Tribunal that it was his decision to ban SIMI. The ban notification and the background note stated that SIMI deserved to be banned for clandestine activities and links with 20-odd organizations through whom SIMI was allegedly operating. The background note clearly says that there was no violent incident in which SIMI was involved in the last 2–3 years. Coutinho, who was the main witness of the Government, stated before the Tribunal that the Government was not concerned with the period prior to the previous ban, that is 27 Sept 2003, and the period subsequent to the present ban, i.e., 8 Feb 2006. He also admitted that there was no action taken regarding the several allegations made in the notification against SIMI. The note mentioned that the erstwhile president of SIMI [Shahid Badr Falahi] was training Muslim youth in the use of lathis and in karate and judo. However, he said that the government despite having “information” about all this, did not register a single crime though they felt that such incidents amounted to crimes. This obviously casts a doubt on the truth of the allegation itself. If they knew that the former president of SIMI was training persons in judo and karate then what was the difficulty in prosecuting him for it? It is another matter that training in judo, karate and lathis is no crime in this country. There is no action taken by the Government with regard to a 19-page note issued by the government in support of the ban.
When asked if the Government’s case was contained in the notification and the note, Coutinho stated that its case was in ‘addition’ to the note and notification contained in “secret files” which could not be shown to SIMI as the Government claimed “privilege” on the said files.
The note in support of the notification according to him was not the “only” material based on which Mr Coutinho sought the ban. Thus the government was not even willing to disclose the basis of the ban to the banned organization! Five large “secret” files were submitted in sealed envelopes to the Tribunal. The note which supports the ban and the notification in support of the note don’t refer to any “secret” material. The case of the Government was that these five files and a VCD containing a movie were the “secret material”. At the instance of the tribunal, however, the movie was shown. It turned out to be a movie titled ‘Jehad-e Hindustan’ which had clips of violence against Muslims from Gujarat obviously lifted from the many documentary films made on the Gujarat carnage in 2002 as also clips of violence against Palestine by Israel and clips of the demolition of the Babri Masjid etc. Any person who is reasonably computer-literate could have used existing digital footage to put together such a film. The voiceover was either songs or vitriolic speeches, the substance of which was difficult to decipher. None of it was in English, Hindi or any other language which any of the 34 government witnesses understood.
The star witness of the government Mr Coutinho did not even know what the substance of the voiceover was. He did not have a transcript. He admitted that the VCD was of a very poor quality and it was difficult to decipher its contents. He could not show the connection between that VCD and SIMI in any manner. He also did not disclose who it was seized from. He also fished out several Urdu magazines which he claimed were found circulating in the market and stated that they were published by SIMI. He said that he did not know their contents or who published them or whether they were yet available in the market and did not know why they were not banned if publishing them amounted to crimes. In fact, in all those magazines the full details of the printer, editor and publisher were given, yet he did not even know about those details! To add to that, he “quoted” from his secret files and admitted that even the secret files did not say that the magazines belonged to SIMI or had any connection with SIMI.
To prove its case against SIMI, the government cited several cases under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act registered between 1998 – 2001. Is it not surprising that SIMI has been in existence sine 1977 and had close to 24,000 members, a central office at Delhi and about 10 zonal offices, and several other offices with its activities known to all in civil society. All of a sudden it turned “criminal” and “terrorist” after the NDA regime with the BJP in the driver’s seat came to power? In about 1998, the government of the day started registering cases systematically against SIMI’s members and on 27 September 2001, it banned SIMI for the first time. Most members of SIMI especially office-bearers were picked up in the night of the 26-27th September itself and put behind bars. All kinds of false cases were registered during the next 5 – 10 days against most persons who were associated with SIMI.
Most of these cases did not reach even the trial state and the government later refused to give sanction to prosecute. Several have resulted in acquittals due to the inconsistency of the statements of police officers themselves. After those cases no fresh cases were registered with any reference to SIMI or to any crimes under the Unlawful Activities Act till much after April 2006. The government had no evidence to offer by way of activities of SIMI during the entire period extending from 27 Sept 2003 to 27 Sept 2005. It was the Government’s case in the words of their star witness Mr Coutinho that the present ban was a “fresh” ban. That it was based on the material for the period 27 Sept 2003 to 27 Sept 2005 or even 8 Feb 2006 (though technically SIMI could have had legitimate activities during the period of 27 Sept 2005 to 8 Feb 2006 as there was no ban operating then). However, after the ban was imposed on 8 Feb 2006 in four "crimes" cited in evidence, SIMI has been mentioned. No proof, however, has been placed to show the connection of those accused with SIMI. In fact, with regard to a case registered in Aurangabad against one Amir, who is supposed to have “confessed” that he is a member of SIMI. Way back on 9 May 2001 when he had been involved in some crime, SIMI had clarified in ‘Lokmat Times’ that Amir was not a member of SIMI. The newspaper clipping was filed by SIMI before the Tribunal and the government could not dispute it.
Mr Coutinho specifically stated that the Aurangabad crime of May 2006 was not relevant and not taken into consideration while imposing the ban. Even the rest of the cases were grossly motivated. In Khandwa there were altercations between two communities on 12 April 2006 on the occasion of Id Milad. Several FIRs were registered and are probably forgotten by now. However, four days later, on 16 April 2006, another FIR was registered calling the clashes of the 12th of that month as a “conspiracy by SIMI” and several persons from far-off Jalgaon and Kota etc including young women, were arrested for this "crime". The house of the erstwhile president of SIMI Shahid Badr was also raided in the night of 5 May 2006 even as he was attending the hearing before the Tribunal in Delhi.
That being the case, the government at the end of the day relied only on the “Secret Files” as they had no real evidence to offer in support of the ban notification. The so-called “cases" against SIMI during the relevant period of 27 Sept 2003 to 27 Sept 2005 are the most shocking. None of them have a mention either of SIMI or of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act. In particular, they are Crimes Nos. 882/2004, 632/2004, 618/2004, 101/2004 (all of Andhra Pradesh), none of which mentioned SIMI/ Students Islamic Movement of India nor had crimes under Section 10,11, and 13 of the Unlawful Activities Act or any crime of cession or cessation. In fact, the first three were cases in connection with protests by the Muslim community angered by the false implication of the 54-year-old Maulana Naseeruddin. In one of the crimes, the first accused is the local MLA. In another case, a local youth who was protesting, was shot in cold blood by the Gujarat police party then in Hyderabad. The last crime is a protest by citizens of Hyderabad against the visit of George Bush to Hyderabad.! The government has shown that it is willing to cite anything against SIMI in its desperate attempt to ban it. In Crime No. 40/2005 (Special Cell Delhi), the chargesheets did not have any mention of SIMI. As also in crime no 16/2003 (Gujarat) which is also of this period, the chargesheet does not mention SIMI.
The Supreme Court in Mohinder Singh Gill vs Chief Election Commissioner AIR 1978 SC 851. para 8. State of UP vs Lalai Singh Yadav (1976) 4 SCC 213 at paras 6,8,9,10,15,17; Harnam Das versus State of UP (1962) 2 SCR 487. paras 11-13) has clearly held that the decision of the government should speak for itself and stand on its own. It cannot be buttressed by affidavits filed later neither can material, that was not in contemplation of the government at the point of time it made up its mind, be taken into consideration. These cases further say that the court has to asses the case of the government based on the evidence it offers in support of the case and cannot rely on other material. In other words, the court cannot substitute its decision for that of the Government. Surely, therefore, on Coutinho’s admission, the material that relates to the period prior to 27 Sept 2003 and after 8 Feb. 2006 cannot be taken into consideration. The government, even as per the decision of the Supreme Court in Sodhi Sukhdev Singh versus State of Punjab (1961) 2 SCR 371. @ 383, 384, 388 – 393 and 411, cannot take into consideration the “secret files” unless it files an affidavit explaining the reason it cannot disclose the contents of the document, the nature of the document and what injury to public interest would be if the same was disclosed to the banned association. In short, en masse “privilege” without any classification of the documents is not permissible.
If the Government has its way, it would like the Tribunal to decide the ban on SIMI solely on the basis of the “Secret Files” without disclosing any of its contents to SIMI or its counsel. If such a procedure were to be adopted, there would be no need to have a hearing. The tribunal can decide the case on its own without any reference to SIMI because, anyway, all the “evidence” is so secret that it cannot be shown to SIMI or its counsel. It is, of course, beyond one'es comprehension as to what is so secret about the files or evidence against SIMI. If one is to go by the VCD, then it is obvious that the government does not wish to disclose the files as they will only expose the weakness of the Government’s case! In the case of the ban on RSS (which is the only case in Indian history where a Tribunal constituted to adjudicate a ban has lifted the ban), the tribunal of Justice P.K. Bahri refused to look into ‘secret files’ which the government did not wish to disclose to the banned association on the ground that when valuable fundamental rights of the association were being curbed by the ban, the adjudication of the correctness of the ban ought not to be done on the basis of secret files.
The alternative ground that the government tried to base its case on, is that the two judgments of the previous two tribunals are relevant for the purposes of the present tribunal. They deal with different periods and they have both blindly accepted the case of the government. For example, the Judgement of the Tribunal of 2003 blindly accepted the case of the government and even went to the extent of saying that if SIMI could mobilize funds for putting up a defence before the tribunal it certainly must exist! The 2001 tribunal said in its judgment that confessions though not acceptable under the Indian Evidence Act can be used by the tribunal! The correctness of the judgments are at large before the Supreme Court (2001 judgment) and the High Court (2003 judgment) and their facts do not pertain to the period in question. Yet the government in the absence of any other evidence is seeking to rely on them. If an organization which is supposed to remain banned for two years is again banned after the expiry of the two years on the basis of the previous judgment banning it, then there will be no end to the number of years for which it can be banned for the same old reasons.
The government also tried to make much of the language of SIMI’s constitution. This constitution has been around since 1977 and no one objected to it till the BJP came to power and decided to ban SIMI in 2001. Why then is the Government so hell-bent upon banning SIMI? It's not an organization that is underground, its activities were out in the open, known to all and its representatives have through lawyers contested every ban imposed by the Government. No organization, which has terrorist and cessationist objectives and does not recognize the Indian constitution and sovereignty, has ever appeared before the tribunal adjudicating the ban. SIMI is obviously a soft target for the Government to show to the majority community that it is not appeasing Muslims. The government has chosen a legitimate and progressive Muslim organization to perpetrate its policy of gagging Muslims on the ground that its is extremist. There is nothing in Indian laws to call an organisation "extremist" merely because it has an open religious composition.
The government has missed the point that having such religious organisation overground is in fact an insulation against the youth turning to terrorist and clandestine activities. Won't such ban result in the Muslim community of this country getting further alienated and wondering if anything that is "Muslim" will not be tolerated by the government of the day even if it is legitimate, over-the-ground and in the public sphere? It is an understatement to say that the Government has done a great disservice to the Muslim community and the country by banning SIMI.
As the hearings before the tribunal were going on, several persons who were earlier with SIMI prior to the 2001 ban, were “picked up”. They were referred to as “dreaded terrorists.” “Cell phones” and “magazines” were “recovered” from them. The witch hunt became stronger as the case of the Government before the Tribunal grew weaker. SIMI’s erstwhile members were unable to get a single news item putting forth their point of view published even in respectable newspapers with stated “secular and leftist” credentials. It certainly has ruined the faith of the Muslim community in the Government and the fairness of the Indian polity.(To appear in The Milli Gazette's print edition of 16-31 August 2006)
There is no case against SIMI
The Government of India, Ministry of Home Affairs by notification dated8.2.2006 has banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) for the third time. SIMI was first banned on 27th September, 2001 immediately after the bombing of twin towers of the World Trade Center at New York, USA on 11th September, 2001. SIMI remained banned from September 27, 2001 to September
27, 2003 during which period several prosecutions were launched against its erstwhile members for crimes such as putting up posters, making speeches, putting up stickers etc. SIMI's name was also dragged into several prosecutions under the provisions of Terrorist And Disruptive Activities Prevention Act (TADA) or the Maharashtra Control of Organized Crime Act(MCOCA) or even the Unlawful Activities Provisions Act 1967 of persons who were not even members of SIMI but however, the Government alleged that they have been members of SIMI. In fact the erstwhile president of SIMI Shahid Badr Falahi, against whom 7 cases have been registered for putting up posters and giving speeches has already been acquitted in two. Despite the fact that it is the Central Government's case that they have not registered a single crime against any member of SIMI after May 2003, they have yet banned SIMI for the third time on 8.2.2006. In fact, the second ban of SIMI dated 27.9.2003 came to an end on 27.9.2005.
Therefore SIMI was in existence between 28th September, 2005 and 7th February, 2006 but it was unable to function in any manner because of the fact that all its offices were yet sealed, most of its members were demoralized or had crossed the age of 30 years which automatically disentitled them to continue as a member of SIMI, as SIMI has an age limit of 30 years for membership and due to lack of offices and as all its accounts were frozen, some of the erstwhile members also had to fight the criminal cases foisted against them by the State. No persons would of course be willing to take up membership of SIMI fearing harassment and prosecution by the Government. In the background note to the ban, not a single instance of any activity of any sort has been mentioned for the period 28.9.2005 to 7.2.2006.
In this background, the 8th February, 2006 notification has been passed by the Central Government notifying the ban on SIMI under Section 3(1) of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act but also imposing an immediate ban under Section 3(3) proviso of the said Act. According to the judgment of the Supreme Court of India in the case of Mohd. Jafar vs. Union of India 1994 Supp. 2 SCC 1, for an immediate ban to be imposed, the reasons should be distinct and different from the reasons for the ban itself. To cite an example, if the stated objectives of an organization are secessionist or unlawful in any manner, it could be banned under Section 3(1) and the ban will become operative if after hearing the case of the Central Government and the organization proposed to be banned, the Tribunal constituted to adjudicate the ban comes to the conclusion that the organization is such that it deserves to be banned. However when an immediate ban is imposed, the ban comes into effect immediately even before the adjudication is completed. For such a ban to be imposed, apart from the organizations' stated objectives, goals and aims being illegal if the organization is also involved in the violent secessionist anti-national activities it merits an immediate ban. Such special reasons would have to be cited by the Central Government to impose an immediate ban upon the organization in addition to the reasons for the ban itself. Such grounds further should not pertain to stale incidents but should pertain to incidents, which immediately precede the ban. In the case of SIMI, on all three occasions an immediate ban has been imposed and on none of the occasions were special reasons given for imposing immediate ban. By the notification dated 8.2.2006, immediate ban has been imposed though not a single instance of so called unlawful acts have been cited subsequent to May 2005. It is therefore surprising as to how an immediate ban has been imposed.
The ban notification which itself shows that there is no violent incident involving SIMI since 2004 yet says that SIMI has the potential to indulge in illegal activities. The reasons given for the ban are that SIMI if not banned would,
(i) Continue their subversive activities and reorganise its activists who are still absconding.
(ii) Disrupt the secular fabric of the Country by polluting the minds of the people by creating communal disharmony.
(iii) Propagate anti-national sentiments.
(iv) Escalate secessionism by supporting militancy.
Apart from making vague allegations as above without reference to any specific instances, the ban notification alleges that SIMI is involved in 'clandestine' activities or that it has secret links with militant organizations like Jaish-e-Mohd and Lakshar-e-Tiaba. No specific incidents of any crimes have been cited though numerous organizations have been named in the notification claiming that SIMI is involved with them or functioning through them in a pseudonymous fashion. Most of such organizations named in the background note to the notification either do not even exist and if they do, they have not been banned and no crime has been registered with regard to the functioning of these organizations. Some of them are respectable organizations such as Tamil Nadu Muslim Munetra Khazhagam which took part in the electoral process as alliance partner in the Democratic Progressive Alliance of which DMK and Congress in Tamil Nadu are members. TMMK participated in the electoral process both for Parliamentary and State Legislature elections. The President of the TMMK has represented the minority community before the United Nations' Council for Human Rights 9th Session of the United Nations Working Group on Minorities conducted by the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva in May 2003 and also met the Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh on 6th December, 2004 as a leader of a delegation from Tamil Nadu.
This being the case, the Government has to prove before 8th August, 2006, before the Tribunal constituted and headed by Justice B. N. Chaturvedi of the Hon'ble High Court of Delhi that the Government has a case against SIMI to confirm its ban. The Tribunal is traveling all over India to examine the witnesses being produced by the Government of India in the form of police officers and the SIMI is permitted to cross examine them. The Government has so far produced 3 witnesses in Maharashtra, one in Kerala and one in Tamil Nadu. None of these witnesses in their examination or cross examination have confirmed anything that has been said in the background note. All these are public documents. However, wherever witnesses do not have an answer in the allegations made by them they conveniently claim that the same are based on 'intelligence reports' and that they would not like to disclose such intelligence reports.
In fact, it is the erstwhile National Democratic Alliance which banned SIMI in September, 2001 and September, 2003. The Tribunals appointed to look into the previous bans (Justice S. K. Aggarwal in 2001 and Justice R. C. Chopra in 2003) confirmed the ban on SIMI on the basis of the statements of Government witnesses and called the statements of the erstwhile President of SIMI as a self-serving and also stated that the SIMI had the wherewithal to defend itself before the Tribunal and therefore obviously it meant that it existed. The fact that SIMI defended itself before the Tribunal was itself held against it. The challenge to the confirmation of the ban by the first Tribunal in 2001 is pending before the Supreme Court and the challenge to the decision of the second Tribunal is pending before the High Court of Delhi. In fact, SIMI activists and their Lawyers who appeared before 2001 and 2003 Tribunals claim that they were not even allowed to properly cross examine the witnesses, most of their questions were disallowed, evidence of witness of Government were given to them at the last minute and they were not given enough time to prepare for cross examination. In one instance during the adjudication of the 2003 ban, the venue and dates of hearing of the Tribunal in Gujarat was not clear to the local counsel as a result of which he could not appear during the sitting of the Tribunal. Taking advantage of the absence of representation by SIMI at the hearing, the most important witness against the SIMI who was the Joint Secretary of Government based in Delhi was flown to Ahmedabad and was examined and his affidavit was accepted without cross examination. He was not even supposed to depose in Gujarat. A writ petition moved by SIMI saying that they were not even aware of the time and place of the sitting of the Tribunal and therefore were unable to cross examine the witness and in any event that witness (Joint Secretary to Government of India) was supposed to be examined in Delhi and so his examination in Ahmedabad was deliberately done to not to give them the opportunity to cross examine him, had to be withdrawn as the High Court of Delhi was disinclined to entertain the same.
SIMI is one of the few organizations though religious and devoutly Islamic but has been over the ground and in existence in civil society. Even the ban document of 8.2.2006 does not accuse SIMI or its activities of any violent incident. Parallels can be drawn with organizations such as All India Catholic University Foundation (AICUF), which like the SIMI is involved in educational, cultural, religious and philanthropic activities. The stated objectives of the AICUF include following the catholic religion. SIMI has been praised for its philanthropic service after the earthquake in Gujarat, which it executed without collection of a cent of foreign funds. It clearly seems to be a soft target for the Government to show the majority community that the Government is not going slow on Muslim organizations. The Congress Government by banning it seems to be making a point that it is not going soft on Islamic fundamentalism and is using SIMI as a scapegoat to establish its aims.
It is also clear that a war is being carried out in the media against SIMI. After each hearing the affidavit of the Government is widely publicized in the news paper reports though no correspondent from any newspaper attends any of the hearings to acquaint themselves with the proceedings and to find out if the statements of the Government were able to withstand the test of the cross examination. Not a single Press person ever attended these hearings but very promptly the case of the government against SIMI finds mention in all leading newspapers. In Aurangabad and Nagpur crimes as late as May 2006 and the recent bombing of the Rashtriya Swamsewak Sangh (RSS) in Nagpur are being blamed on SIMI. There is no doubt that these are the crimes which are required to be dealt with severely under the provisions of the existing law. But it is only due to the fact that the government has absolutely no basis to support its ban on SIMI that subsequently events like the bombing of the RSS office or the recovery of arms from one Mohammed Amir Shakeel Ahmed are being blamed on SIMI. It is being said that these persons particularly Mohammed Amir Shakeel Ahmed is a part of SIMI. SIMI had clarified way back on 9th May, 2001 that this person Mohammed Amir Shakeel Ahmed had nothing to do with SIMI. However, the Press continues to report that he is a part of SIMI obviously at the instance of the Government Agencies. A sustained and concerted effort is being made to seek to reinforce these false impressions in the minds of the public that SIMI is a terrorist organization. This obviously will lead to interference with the judicial process of the Tribunal. The Supreme Court of India, the High Courts of various States and many Courts all over the world have held that press reports, movies, Television reports trying to show accused persons / defendants as guilty while they are being tried by judicial forum, certainly amounts to interference of justice and contempt of court because there is clear and present danger to the valuable right of the person to defend himself. Even if the Tribunal is not supposed to be influenced by the references in the newspapers but after an impression is being created in the minds of the public that SIMI is a terrorist organization by the so-called respectable newspapers and thereafter if the Tribunal holds otherwise for the lack of evidence, the said judgment of the Tribunal will be viewed with disrespect and suspicion by the citizens of this country. After the concerted and consistent media reports against SIMI especially after the ban was made and that too in the partisan manner by the newspapers without taking into consideration what transpires in the hearing but merely reproducing the affidavits of the government in the daily news papers, certainly amount to interference with the courts of justice. The ban being in the nature of a fetter on the right to association, right to religion and right to freedom of expression no useful purpose will be served if time and again associations are banned and not allowed to exist. This kind of an attitude on the part of the government will certainly lead to alienation of minority organizations from the mainstream. Very few organizations which have been banned under the Unlawful Activities Provisions Act have even cared to appear and challenge the ban before the Tribunal. They have simply refrained from appearing before the Tribunal adjudicating the correctness of the ban and the bans were confirmed. SIMI is one of the few organizations which has been appearing, leading evidence and contesting the ban through judicial process. However every ban imposed against any organization in the history of India has always been confirmed by the Tribunal appointed to look into the ban except in the case of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh whose ban was lifted by the Tribunal appointed under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.
Given the fact that SIMI is a democratic organization with no motives or activities which are a threat to sovereignty of the country and that it has had no activities for the last five years, and no activist of SIMI has been found to be guilty for pursuing illegal activities for and on behalf of SIMI surely the government will not be helping the case of communal harmony by banning such an organization and singling it out for discrimination. Today SIMI has no members, no offices and no activities to speak for the last five years yet it stands banned. However, within a short period i. e., by the 7th August 2006 the fate of SIMI will be decided by the Justice B. N. Chaturvedi Tribunal.
The last few months saw Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) a lot in the news with references to the faceless Intelligence Bureau’s leaked “information” that “dreaded terrorists” are a part of SIMI or that “dreaded terrorists” were apprehended and they were “ex-SIMI cadres”. One wonders why no one questioned the press as to why all of a sudden, after February 2006, SIMI started appearing in the news. The reason is quite obvious. SIMI was banned for the third time on 8 February 2006 and the ban notification itself said that “there is no violent incident involving SIMI since 2004”. The government needed to first condemn SIMI in the eyes of the general public with the active aid and abetment of the mainstream media including "respectable" news papers and television channels who have carried on a vicious campaign against SIMI. Even before the Tribunal constituted to decide the correctness of the ban imposed by the government could arrive at a decision (expected before 7 Augsut 2006), SIMI was totally demonized in the eyes of the general public and the media trial of SIMI was over. All incidents that took place in the meantime like the hoax attack on the headquarters of RSS at Nagpur, the Aurangabad arms haul, the Mumbai blasts were immediately blamed on SIMI without a shred of evidence whatsoever.
So one would assume that since this government and its agencies, which are ready to blame SIMI for all that is wrong in the country, must've had much to say against SIMI before the Justice B.N.Chaturvedi Tribunal hearing the case of the government to ban. Even in the course of hearings before the Tribunal, most newspapers were misreporting the proceedings. It would be interesting to see why the government had to resort to a media war rather than fight its case before the specially constituted tribunal. This was the case of the Government before the Tribunal:
The ban notification was issued by the Joint Secretary, Home Ministry, Mr BA Coutinho who stated before the Tribunal that it was his decision to ban SIMI. The ban notification and the background note stated that SIMI deserved to be banned for clandestine activities and links with 20-odd organizations through whom SIMI was allegedly operating. The background note clearly says that there was no violent incident in which SIMI was involved in the last 2–3 years. Coutinho, who was the main witness of the Government, stated before the Tribunal that the Government was not concerned with the period prior to the previous ban, that is 27 Sept 2003, and the period subsequent to the present ban, i.e., 8 Feb 2006. He also admitted that there was no action taken regarding the several allegations made in the notification against SIMI. The note mentioned that the erstwhile president of SIMI [Shahid Badr Falahi] was training Muslim youth in the use of lathis and in karate and judo. However, he said that the government despite having “information” about all this, did not register a single crime though they felt that such incidents amounted to crimes. This obviously casts a doubt on the truth of the allegation itself. If they knew that the former president of SIMI was training persons in judo and karate then what was the difficulty in prosecuting him for it? It is another matter that training in judo, karate and lathis is no crime in this country. There is no action taken by the Government with regard to a 19-page note issued by the government in support of the ban.
When asked if the Government’s case was contained in the notification and the note, Coutinho stated that its case was in ‘addition’ to the note and notification contained in “secret files” which could not be shown to SIMI as the Government claimed “privilege” on the said files.
The note in support of the notification according to him was not the “only” material based on which Mr Coutinho sought the ban. Thus the government was not even willing to disclose the basis of the ban to the banned organization! Five large “secret” files were submitted in sealed envelopes to the Tribunal. The note which supports the ban and the notification in support of the note don’t refer to any “secret” material. The case of the Government was that these five files and a VCD containing a movie were the “secret material”. At the instance of the tribunal, however, the movie was shown. It turned out to be a movie titled ‘Jehad-e Hindustan’ which had clips of violence against Muslims from Gujarat obviously lifted from the many documentary films made on the Gujarat carnage in 2002 as also clips of violence against Palestine by Israel and clips of the demolition of the Babri Masjid etc. Any person who is reasonably computer-literate could have used existing digital footage to put together such a film. The voiceover was either songs or vitriolic speeches, the substance of which was difficult to decipher. None of it was in English, Hindi or any other language which any of the 34 government witnesses understood.
The star witness of the government Mr Coutinho did not even know what the substance of the voiceover was. He did not have a transcript. He admitted that the VCD was of a very poor quality and it was difficult to decipher its contents. He could not show the connection between that VCD and SIMI in any manner. He also did not disclose who it was seized from. He also fished out several Urdu magazines which he claimed were found circulating in the market and stated that they were published by SIMI. He said that he did not know their contents or who published them or whether they were yet available in the market and did not know why they were not banned if publishing them amounted to crimes. In fact, in all those magazines the full details of the printer, editor and publisher were given, yet he did not even know about those details! To add to that, he “quoted” from his secret files and admitted that even the secret files did not say that the magazines belonged to SIMI or had any connection with SIMI.
To prove its case against SIMI, the government cited several cases under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act registered between 1998 – 2001. Is it not surprising that SIMI has been in existence sine 1977 and had close to 24,000 members, a central office at Delhi and about 10 zonal offices, and several other offices with its activities known to all in civil society. All of a sudden it turned “criminal” and “terrorist” after the NDA regime with the BJP in the driver’s seat came to power? In about 1998, the government of the day started registering cases systematically against SIMI’s members and on 27 September 2001, it banned SIMI for the first time. Most members of SIMI especially office-bearers were picked up in the night of the 26-27th September itself and put behind bars. All kinds of false cases were registered during the next 5 – 10 days against most persons who were associated with SIMI.
Most of these cases did not reach even the trial state and the government later refused to give sanction to prosecute. Several have resulted in acquittals due to the inconsistency of the statements of police officers themselves. After those cases no fresh cases were registered with any reference to SIMI or to any crimes under the Unlawful Activities Act till much after April 2006. The government had no evidence to offer by way of activities of SIMI during the entire period extending from 27 Sept 2003 to 27 Sept 2005. It was the Government’s case in the words of their star witness Mr Coutinho that the present ban was a “fresh” ban. That it was based on the material for the period 27 Sept 2003 to 27 Sept 2005 or even 8 Feb 2006 (though technically SIMI could have had legitimate activities during the period of 27 Sept 2005 to 8 Feb 2006 as there was no ban operating then). However, after the ban was imposed on 8 Feb 2006 in four "crimes" cited in evidence, SIMI has been mentioned. No proof, however, has been placed to show the connection of those accused with SIMI. In fact, with regard to a case registered in Aurangabad against one Amir, who is supposed to have “confessed” that he is a member of SIMI. Way back on 9 May 2001 when he had been involved in some crime, SIMI had clarified in ‘Lokmat Times’ that Amir was not a member of SIMI. The newspaper clipping was filed by SIMI before the Tribunal and the government could not dispute it.
Mr Coutinho specifically stated that the Aurangabad crime of May 2006 was not relevant and not taken into consideration while imposing the ban. Even the rest of the cases were grossly motivated. In Khandwa there were altercations between two communities on 12 April 2006 on the occasion of Id Milad. Several FIRs were registered and are probably forgotten by now. However, four days later, on 16 April 2006, another FIR was registered calling the clashes of the 12th of that month as a “conspiracy by SIMI” and several persons from far-off Jalgaon and Kota etc including young women, were arrested for this "crime". The house of the erstwhile president of SIMI Shahid Badr was also raided in the night of 5 May 2006 even as he was attending the hearing before the Tribunal in Delhi.
That being the case, the government at the end of the day relied only on the “Secret Files” as they had no real evidence to offer in support of the ban notification. The so-called “cases" against SIMI during the relevant period of 27 Sept 2003 to 27 Sept 2005 are the most shocking. None of them have a mention either of SIMI or of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act. In particular, they are Crimes Nos. 882/2004, 632/2004, 618/2004, 101/2004 (all of Andhra Pradesh), none of which mentioned SIMI/ Students Islamic Movement of India nor had crimes under Section 10,11, and 13 of the Unlawful Activities Act or any crime of cession or cessation. In fact, the first three were cases in connection with protests by the Muslim community angered by the false implication of the 54-year-old Maulana Naseeruddin. In one of the crimes, the first accused is the local MLA. In another case, a local youth who was protesting, was shot in cold blood by the Gujarat police party then in Hyderabad. The last crime is a protest by citizens of Hyderabad against the visit of George Bush to Hyderabad.! The government has shown that it is willing to cite anything against SIMI in its desperate attempt to ban it. In Crime No. 40/2005 (Special Cell Delhi), the chargesheets did not have any mention of SIMI. As also in crime no 16/2003 (Gujarat) which is also of this period, the chargesheet does not mention SIMI.
The Supreme Court in Mohinder Singh Gill vs Chief Election Commissioner AIR 1978 SC 851. para 8. State of UP vs Lalai Singh Yadav (1976) 4 SCC 213 at paras 6,8,9,10,15,17; Harnam Das versus State of UP (1962) 2 SCR 487. paras 11-13) has clearly held that the decision of the government should speak for itself and stand on its own. It cannot be buttressed by affidavits filed later neither can material, that was not in contemplation of the government at the point of time it made up its mind, be taken into consideration. These cases further say that the court has to asses the case of the government based on the evidence it offers in support of the case and cannot rely on other material. In other words, the court cannot substitute its decision for that of the Government. Surely, therefore, on Coutinho’s admission, the material that relates to the period prior to 27 Sept 2003 and after 8 Feb. 2006 cannot be taken into consideration. The government, even as per the decision of the Supreme Court in Sodhi Sukhdev Singh versus State of Punjab (1961) 2 SCR 371. @ 383, 384, 388 – 393 and 411, cannot take into consideration the “secret files” unless it files an affidavit explaining the reason it cannot disclose the contents of the document, the nature of the document and what injury to public interest would be if the same was disclosed to the banned association. In short, en masse “privilege” without any classification of the documents is not permissible.
If the Government has its way, it would like the Tribunal to decide the ban on SIMI solely on the basis of the “Secret Files” without disclosing any of its contents to SIMI or its counsel. If such a procedure were to be adopted, there would be no need to have a hearing. The tribunal can decide the case on its own without any reference to SIMI because, anyway, all the “evidence” is so secret that it cannot be shown to SIMI or its counsel. It is, of course, beyond one'es comprehension as to what is so secret about the files or evidence against SIMI. If one is to go by the VCD, then it is obvious that the government does not wish to disclose the files as they will only expose the weakness of the Government’s case! In the case of the ban on RSS (which is the only case in Indian history where a Tribunal constituted to adjudicate a ban has lifted the ban), the tribunal of Justice P.K. Bahri refused to look into ‘secret files’ which the government did not wish to disclose to the banned association on the ground that when valuable fundamental rights of the association were being curbed by the ban, the adjudication of the correctness of the ban ought not to be done on the basis of secret files.
The alternative ground that the government tried to base its case on, is that the two judgments of the previous two tribunals are relevant for the purposes of the present tribunal. They deal with different periods and they have both blindly accepted the case of the government. For example, the Judgement of the Tribunal of 2003 blindly accepted the case of the government and even went to the extent of saying that if SIMI could mobilize funds for putting up a defence before the tribunal it certainly must exist! The 2001 tribunal said in its judgment that confessions though not acceptable under the Indian Evidence Act can be used by the tribunal! The correctness of the judgments are at large before the Supreme Court (2001 judgment) and the High Court (2003 judgment) and their facts do not pertain to the period in question. Yet the government in the absence of any other evidence is seeking to rely on them. If an organization which is supposed to remain banned for two years is again banned after the expiry of the two years on the basis of the previous judgment banning it, then there will be no end to the number of years for which it can be banned for the same old reasons.
The government also tried to make much of the language of SIMI’s constitution. This constitution has been around since 1977 and no one objected to it till the BJP came to power and decided to ban SIMI in 2001. Why then is the Government so hell-bent upon banning SIMI? It's not an organization that is underground, its activities were out in the open, known to all and its representatives have through lawyers contested every ban imposed by the Government. No organization, which has terrorist and cessationist objectives and does not recognize the Indian constitution and sovereignty, has ever appeared before the tribunal adjudicating the ban. SIMI is obviously a soft target for the Government to show to the majority community that it is not appeasing Muslims. The government has chosen a legitimate and progressive Muslim organization to perpetrate its policy of gagging Muslims on the ground that its is extremist. There is nothing in Indian laws to call an organisation "extremist" merely because it has an open religious composition.
The government has missed the point that having such religious organisation overground is in fact an insulation against the youth turning to terrorist and clandestine activities. Won't such ban result in the Muslim community of this country getting further alienated and wondering if anything that is "Muslim" will not be tolerated by the government of the day even if it is legitimate, over-the-ground and in the public sphere? It is an understatement to say that the Government has done a great disservice to the Muslim community and the country by banning SIMI.
As the hearings before the tribunal were going on, several persons who were earlier with SIMI prior to the 2001 ban, were “picked up”. They were referred to as “dreaded terrorists.” “Cell phones” and “magazines” were “recovered” from them. The witch hunt became stronger as the case of the Government before the Tribunal grew weaker. SIMI’s erstwhile members were unable to get a single news item putting forth their point of view published even in respectable newspapers with stated “secular and leftist” credentials. It certainly has ruined the faith of the Muslim community in the Government and the fairness of the Indian polity.(To appear in The Milli Gazette's print edition of 16-31 August 2006)
There is no case against SIMI
The Government of India, Ministry of Home Affairs by notification dated8.2.2006 has banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) for the third time. SIMI was first banned on 27th September, 2001 immediately after the bombing of twin towers of the World Trade Center at New York, USA on 11th September, 2001. SIMI remained banned from September 27, 2001 to September
27, 2003 during which period several prosecutions were launched against its erstwhile members for crimes such as putting up posters, making speeches, putting up stickers etc. SIMI's name was also dragged into several prosecutions under the provisions of Terrorist And Disruptive Activities Prevention Act (TADA) or the Maharashtra Control of Organized Crime Act(MCOCA) or even the Unlawful Activities Provisions Act 1967 of persons who were not even members of SIMI but however, the Government alleged that they have been members of SIMI. In fact the erstwhile president of SIMI Shahid Badr Falahi, against whom 7 cases have been registered for putting up posters and giving speeches has already been acquitted in two. Despite the fact that it is the Central Government's case that they have not registered a single crime against any member of SIMI after May 2003, they have yet banned SIMI for the third time on 8.2.2006. In fact, the second ban of SIMI dated 27.9.2003 came to an end on 27.9.2005.
Therefore SIMI was in existence between 28th September, 2005 and 7th February, 2006 but it was unable to function in any manner because of the fact that all its offices were yet sealed, most of its members were demoralized or had crossed the age of 30 years which automatically disentitled them to continue as a member of SIMI, as SIMI has an age limit of 30 years for membership and due to lack of offices and as all its accounts were frozen, some of the erstwhile members also had to fight the criminal cases foisted against them by the State. No persons would of course be willing to take up membership of SIMI fearing harassment and prosecution by the Government. In the background note to the ban, not a single instance of any activity of any sort has been mentioned for the period 28.9.2005 to 7.2.2006.
In this background, the 8th February, 2006 notification has been passed by the Central Government notifying the ban on SIMI under Section 3(1) of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act but also imposing an immediate ban under Section 3(3) proviso of the said Act. According to the judgment of the Supreme Court of India in the case of Mohd. Jafar vs. Union of India 1994 Supp. 2 SCC 1, for an immediate ban to be imposed, the reasons should be distinct and different from the reasons for the ban itself. To cite an example, if the stated objectives of an organization are secessionist or unlawful in any manner, it could be banned under Section 3(1) and the ban will become operative if after hearing the case of the Central Government and the organization proposed to be banned, the Tribunal constituted to adjudicate the ban comes to the conclusion that the organization is such that it deserves to be banned. However when an immediate ban is imposed, the ban comes into effect immediately even before the adjudication is completed. For such a ban to be imposed, apart from the organizations' stated objectives, goals and aims being illegal if the organization is also involved in the violent secessionist anti-national activities it merits an immediate ban. Such special reasons would have to be cited by the Central Government to impose an immediate ban upon the organization in addition to the reasons for the ban itself. Such grounds further should not pertain to stale incidents but should pertain to incidents, which immediately precede the ban. In the case of SIMI, on all three occasions an immediate ban has been imposed and on none of the occasions were special reasons given for imposing immediate ban. By the notification dated 8.2.2006, immediate ban has been imposed though not a single instance of so called unlawful acts have been cited subsequent to May 2005. It is therefore surprising as to how an immediate ban has been imposed.
The ban notification which itself shows that there is no violent incident involving SIMI since 2004 yet says that SIMI has the potential to indulge in illegal activities. The reasons given for the ban are that SIMI if not banned would,
(i) Continue their subversive activities and reorganise its activists who are still absconding.
(ii) Disrupt the secular fabric of the Country by polluting the minds of the people by creating communal disharmony.
(iii) Propagate anti-national sentiments.
(iv) Escalate secessionism by supporting militancy.
Apart from making vague allegations as above without reference to any specific instances, the ban notification alleges that SIMI is involved in 'clandestine' activities or that it has secret links with militant organizations like Jaish-e-Mohd and Lakshar-e-Tiaba. No specific incidents of any crimes have been cited though numerous organizations have been named in the notification claiming that SIMI is involved with them or functioning through them in a pseudonymous fashion. Most of such organizations named in the background note to the notification either do not even exist and if they do, they have not been banned and no crime has been registered with regard to the functioning of these organizations. Some of them are respectable organizations such as Tamil Nadu Muslim Munetra Khazhagam which took part in the electoral process as alliance partner in the Democratic Progressive Alliance of which DMK and Congress in Tamil Nadu are members. TMMK participated in the electoral process both for Parliamentary and State Legislature elections. The President of the TMMK has represented the minority community before the United Nations' Council for Human Rights 9th Session of the United Nations Working Group on Minorities conducted by the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva in May 2003 and also met the Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh on 6th December, 2004 as a leader of a delegation from Tamil Nadu.
This being the case, the Government has to prove before 8th August, 2006, before the Tribunal constituted and headed by Justice B. N. Chaturvedi of the Hon'ble High Court of Delhi that the Government has a case against SIMI to confirm its ban. The Tribunal is traveling all over India to examine the witnesses being produced by the Government of India in the form of police officers and the SIMI is permitted to cross examine them. The Government has so far produced 3 witnesses in Maharashtra, one in Kerala and one in Tamil Nadu. None of these witnesses in their examination or cross examination have confirmed anything that has been said in the background note. All these are public documents. However, wherever witnesses do not have an answer in the allegations made by them they conveniently claim that the same are based on 'intelligence reports' and that they would not like to disclose such intelligence reports.
In fact, it is the erstwhile National Democratic Alliance which banned SIMI in September, 2001 and September, 2003. The Tribunals appointed to look into the previous bans (Justice S. K. Aggarwal in 2001 and Justice R. C. Chopra in 2003) confirmed the ban on SIMI on the basis of the statements of Government witnesses and called the statements of the erstwhile President of SIMI as a self-serving and also stated that the SIMI had the wherewithal to defend itself before the Tribunal and therefore obviously it meant that it existed. The fact that SIMI defended itself before the Tribunal was itself held against it. The challenge to the confirmation of the ban by the first Tribunal in 2001 is pending before the Supreme Court and the challenge to the decision of the second Tribunal is pending before the High Court of Delhi. In fact, SIMI activists and their Lawyers who appeared before 2001 and 2003 Tribunals claim that they were not even allowed to properly cross examine the witnesses, most of their questions were disallowed, evidence of witness of Government were given to them at the last minute and they were not given enough time to prepare for cross examination. In one instance during the adjudication of the 2003 ban, the venue and dates of hearing of the Tribunal in Gujarat was not clear to the local counsel as a result of which he could not appear during the sitting of the Tribunal. Taking advantage of the absence of representation by SIMI at the hearing, the most important witness against the SIMI who was the Joint Secretary of Government based in Delhi was flown to Ahmedabad and was examined and his affidavit was accepted without cross examination. He was not even supposed to depose in Gujarat. A writ petition moved by SIMI saying that they were not even aware of the time and place of the sitting of the Tribunal and therefore were unable to cross examine the witness and in any event that witness (Joint Secretary to Government of India) was supposed to be examined in Delhi and so his examination in Ahmedabad was deliberately done to not to give them the opportunity to cross examine him, had to be withdrawn as the High Court of Delhi was disinclined to entertain the same.
SIMI is one of the few organizations though religious and devoutly Islamic but has been over the ground and in existence in civil society. Even the ban document of 8.2.2006 does not accuse SIMI or its activities of any violent incident. Parallels can be drawn with organizations such as All India Catholic University Foundation (AICUF), which like the SIMI is involved in educational, cultural, religious and philanthropic activities. The stated objectives of the AICUF include following the catholic religion. SIMI has been praised for its philanthropic service after the earthquake in Gujarat, which it executed without collection of a cent of foreign funds. It clearly seems to be a soft target for the Government to show the majority community that the Government is not going slow on Muslim organizations. The Congress Government by banning it seems to be making a point that it is not going soft on Islamic fundamentalism and is using SIMI as a scapegoat to establish its aims.
It is also clear that a war is being carried out in the media against SIMI. After each hearing the affidavit of the Government is widely publicized in the news paper reports though no correspondent from any newspaper attends any of the hearings to acquaint themselves with the proceedings and to find out if the statements of the Government were able to withstand the test of the cross examination. Not a single Press person ever attended these hearings but very promptly the case of the government against SIMI finds mention in all leading newspapers. In Aurangabad and Nagpur crimes as late as May 2006 and the recent bombing of the Rashtriya Swamsewak Sangh (RSS) in Nagpur are being blamed on SIMI. There is no doubt that these are the crimes which are required to be dealt with severely under the provisions of the existing law. But it is only due to the fact that the government has absolutely no basis to support its ban on SIMI that subsequently events like the bombing of the RSS office or the recovery of arms from one Mohammed Amir Shakeel Ahmed are being blamed on SIMI. It is being said that these persons particularly Mohammed Amir Shakeel Ahmed is a part of SIMI. SIMI had clarified way back on 9th May, 2001 that this person Mohammed Amir Shakeel Ahmed had nothing to do with SIMI. However, the Press continues to report that he is a part of SIMI obviously at the instance of the Government Agencies. A sustained and concerted effort is being made to seek to reinforce these false impressions in the minds of the public that SIMI is a terrorist organization. This obviously will lead to interference with the judicial process of the Tribunal. The Supreme Court of India, the High Courts of various States and many Courts all over the world have held that press reports, movies, Television reports trying to show accused persons / defendants as guilty while they are being tried by judicial forum, certainly amounts to interference of justice and contempt of court because there is clear and present danger to the valuable right of the person to defend himself. Even if the Tribunal is not supposed to be influenced by the references in the newspapers but after an impression is being created in the minds of the public that SIMI is a terrorist organization by the so-called respectable newspapers and thereafter if the Tribunal holds otherwise for the lack of evidence, the said judgment of the Tribunal will be viewed with disrespect and suspicion by the citizens of this country. After the concerted and consistent media reports against SIMI especially after the ban was made and that too in the partisan manner by the newspapers without taking into consideration what transpires in the hearing but merely reproducing the affidavits of the government in the daily news papers, certainly amount to interference with the courts of justice. The ban being in the nature of a fetter on the right to association, right to religion and right to freedom of expression no useful purpose will be served if time and again associations are banned and not allowed to exist. This kind of an attitude on the part of the government will certainly lead to alienation of minority organizations from the mainstream. Very few organizations which have been banned under the Unlawful Activities Provisions Act have even cared to appear and challenge the ban before the Tribunal. They have simply refrained from appearing before the Tribunal adjudicating the correctness of the ban and the bans were confirmed. SIMI is one of the few organizations which has been appearing, leading evidence and contesting the ban through judicial process. However every ban imposed against any organization in the history of India has always been confirmed by the Tribunal appointed to look into the ban except in the case of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh whose ban was lifted by the Tribunal appointed under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.
Given the fact that SIMI is a democratic organization with no motives or activities which are a threat to sovereignty of the country and that it has had no activities for the last five years, and no activist of SIMI has been found to be guilty for pursuing illegal activities for and on behalf of SIMI surely the government will not be helping the case of communal harmony by banning such an organization and singling it out for discrimination. Today SIMI has no members, no offices and no activities to speak for the last five years yet it stands banned. However, within a short period i. e., by the 7th August 2006 the fate of SIMI will be decided by the Justice B. N. Chaturvedi Tribunal.
# How They Crush Mangalore's Muslims
How They Crush Mangalore's Muslims
An independent citizens’ fact-finding team discovers that attacks on Muslims in coastal Karnataka routinely go unreported. And now, police atrocities are also being overlooked. These are excerpts from the team’s report
Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy was unrepentant about the state police’s style of violence-management in Mangalore, when he defiantly said, “Were they to dream of such violence?” In coastal Karnataka, the police could most certainly have foreseen communal violence if they had just been alert on duty. That wasn’t the problem. In fact, during the violence in Mangalore, the police were either lost in daydreams in the face of daylight looting and atrocities, or were inflicting nightmares on unsuspecting Muslims in the middle of the night.
The Press has always suppressed the fact of violence against Muslims throughout the coastal belt: but, this time around, they suppressed police atrocities too; the non-bjp parties too have maintained complete silence. This is a new development in the bloody history of coastal Karnataka’s communal violence. The administration, the police, and the media had never before worked unanimously and in tandem.
From what we saw in the violence-affected areas, wherever the Muslims had taken to destruction, it was as a response to the violence inflicted on them.
AT BAJPE
The Mangalore violence during the first week of October 2006 erupted in Bajpe, on the outskirts of the city. On October 3, a Sharada procession was scheduled and was to pass the Bajpe Masjid. Some Muslims told police about their objections to one tableau. The police and bjp mla Krishna Palemar, who was there, requested the organisers to remove that particular tableau. But the request went unheeded. Nor did they oblige to an altered request that the tableau should not pass in front of the masjid. Therefore, police stopped the procession. The organisers chose to place the Sharada idol in the middle of the road, in defiance.
What was this tableau all about? It was claimed that it was the tableau of Bappa Beary worshipping Sharada Matha, and that there wasn’t anything here that would insult Muslims. The popular legend, that was invoked, has it that Goddess Durga Parameshwari gave darshan to Beary, a rich Muslim merchant, in his dream. Legend has it that he erected a temple for her. There is also a popular Yakshagana narrative based on this legend. These days, the narrative presents Bappa Beary as a clown and the Bajpe tableau had a similar visual. The Muslim contention was that the man in the tableau portrayed a pitiable maulvi rather than Beary. However, the Muslims did not pick up a quarrel.
As the unchanged procession was allowed to proceed, seven Muslim and two Hindu shops were looted by a 1,000-strong mob. Mohammed Hanif of Top Collections incurred the highest losses: his Ramzan collection worth Rs 15 lakh was looted. Even as the looting was on, there were at least 200 policemen including the sp and the dcp stationed there. The next morning, the newspapers reported that the Muslims had objected to a symbol of communal amity and had stalled the procession!
AT ULLAL
Unlike Bajpe where the police were silent, they turned into beasts in Ullal on the outskirts of Mangalore. In the afternoon of the bandh called by Sri Rama Sene on October 6, three Hindu shops on the road to Ullal were set on fire. As there was stoning and rioting in two areas nearby, the police took it to be the handiwork of Ullal’s Muslims. They covered their faces and broke into Muslim houses when most men were away at the masjid.. They robbed these people and beat up women and children. Nearly 70 Muslims of Ullal — most of them boys — were arrested and shifted to Mangalore, and two days later they were charged with criminal cases and moved to Bellary jail.
AT BUNDER
Bunder is a “Muslim area” with a substantial number of Hindus. But it is considered a communally sensitive area, for reasons of planted prejudice. On the midnight of October 8, police broke into Muslim houses, mouthed obscenities against Bearies, and arrested the men. There were communal disturbances in Bunder earlier, but the police hadn’t broken into Muslim houses like this time. More importantly, Bunder was completely calm. The Muslims we met asked us: “With three continuous days of curfew, where would our children run? Would they be asleep at home if they were involved in rioting elsewhere?” The one solace, if it is one, was that the police here didn’t loot, as in Ullal.
AT GOODINA BALI
On October 13, there were four mild explosions near the BC Road Bus Stand that slightly damaged shop windows. Two people were stabbed. Next morning, the coastal press reported it as if it were a terrorist plot. Soon, the police swung into action and broke into Muslim houses at the nearby Goodina Bali and arrested 20 men, most of whom were either beedi-rollers or coolies.
The same police had slept when, on October 5, the Bajrang Dal had forced a bandh in the district. In broad daylight, 11 Muslim shops were looted and that too barely 100 metres from the police station. This loot and destruction was designated a “communal riot,” by the media.
Soon after the Babri Masjid demolition in 1992, Muslim houses and shops were looted in several places of coastal Karnataka. Since then, there has been a systematic Hindutva brigade-led attack on Muslims — in Puttur (1997), Suratkal (1998-9), Kundapur (2002), Adi Udupi (2005) — and Protestant Christians. It is now routine for the Hindutva brigade to co-opt the media, raise an alarm that Hinduism is in danger, and then attack Muslims with redoubled bestiality.
AT FAISAL NAGARA-VEERANAGARA
Veeranagara and Faisal Nagara are two settlements on Mangalore’s outer edge on the bank of Nethravathi river. This stretch was formerly called Kodange. In Faisal Nagara, Muslims are a majority with a substantial number of Hindu households while in Veeranagara, Hindus are a majority.
On October 6, Muslim youths stoned some Hindu houses at Faisal Nagara. The mob broke into four Hindu houses and damaged them. In one house, a middle-aged man and his son were beaten up. We visited the house, but couldn’t see any symptoms of systematic destruction. The same evening, the police forcibly shifted 30 Hindu families of Faisal Nagara to a camp in adjacent Veeranagara. While doing so, they told people that they could stay at their own risk.
Nearly 150 people have returned to their homes after staying three days in the camp. All of them we spoke to categorically said that they would not have gone but for police pressure, and that they perceived no threat.
Though this shifting of Hindus to Veeranagara was due to police irresponsibility, it gave the media a golden chance to fan communal hatred as it showed “the terrified Hindus” at the Veeranagara camp.
At Veeranagara, a shop that belonged to Abdul Khader (of Faisal Nagara), was attacked. Khader lodged a police complaint, naming some looters but none were arrested. Instead, his second son Pervez was arrested and taken to Bellary jail. When Fathima, wife of Khader’s first son, questioned the police, a policeman tried to molest her.
TWO INCIDENTS, TWO POSSIBILITIES
Hasanabba belongs to Maanur village of Bantwal Taluk. Of the nearly 20 households here, five belong to Muslims. A well-to-do beedi contractor, Hasanabba has employed nearly 120 people and all of them are non-Muslim women. He had earned the villagers’ respect by getting the local youth employment as well. But that didn’t matter on October 6 when 20 youth marched into Hasanabba’s house. As soon as he opened the door, he was struck on the head by a stone.
Sensing danger, he immediately closed the door.
Hasanabba called his friend and lawyer Ramesh Upadhyaya, a bjp man. As soon as Upadhyaya came to the spot, the mob fled. Next day, the village elders expressed their sympathies to Hasanabba. He pleaded with them, “These boys are your children. Please take them to the village temple, let them promise to your God that they won’t repeat this in future.” None of the elders responded. Unwillingly Hasanabba lodged a police complaint and named the culprits. But they still continue to be at large.
We saw a ray of hope at Perlagudde at Veeranagara. At the entrance here, there is only one Muslim household, surrounded by dalit households. Khalid lives here with his two elder sisters. On October 6, when he was returning from the masjid, three sword-wielding men stabbed him. When we met Khalid at the hospital, he named those who attacked him. Next day a group surrounded his house, stoned it and were about to set fire. Then, 70-year-old Kalyani and other neighbours — all dalits — scared the group away. At the courtyard of Khalid’s house, this is what Kalyani told us, “They have done no wrong to anyone. If someone says we will set fire to his house, how can we sit quiet?"
An independent citizens’ fact-finding team discovers that attacks on Muslims in coastal Karnataka routinely go unreported. And now, police atrocities are also being overlooked. These are excerpts from the team’s report
Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy was unrepentant about the state police’s style of violence-management in Mangalore, when he defiantly said, “Were they to dream of such violence?” In coastal Karnataka, the police could most certainly have foreseen communal violence if they had just been alert on duty. That wasn’t the problem. In fact, during the violence in Mangalore, the police were either lost in daydreams in the face of daylight looting and atrocities, or were inflicting nightmares on unsuspecting Muslims in the middle of the night.
The Press has always suppressed the fact of violence against Muslims throughout the coastal belt: but, this time around, they suppressed police atrocities too; the non-bjp parties too have maintained complete silence. This is a new development in the bloody history of coastal Karnataka’s communal violence. The administration, the police, and the media had never before worked unanimously and in tandem.
From what we saw in the violence-affected areas, wherever the Muslims had taken to destruction, it was as a response to the violence inflicted on them.
AT BAJPE
The Mangalore violence during the first week of October 2006 erupted in Bajpe, on the outskirts of the city. On October 3, a Sharada procession was scheduled and was to pass the Bajpe Masjid. Some Muslims told police about their objections to one tableau. The police and bjp mla Krishna Palemar, who was there, requested the organisers to remove that particular tableau. But the request went unheeded. Nor did they oblige to an altered request that the tableau should not pass in front of the masjid. Therefore, police stopped the procession. The organisers chose to place the Sharada idol in the middle of the road, in defiance.
What was this tableau all about? It was claimed that it was the tableau of Bappa Beary worshipping Sharada Matha, and that there wasn’t anything here that would insult Muslims. The popular legend, that was invoked, has it that Goddess Durga Parameshwari gave darshan to Beary, a rich Muslim merchant, in his dream. Legend has it that he erected a temple for her. There is also a popular Yakshagana narrative based on this legend. These days, the narrative presents Bappa Beary as a clown and the Bajpe tableau had a similar visual. The Muslim contention was that the man in the tableau portrayed a pitiable maulvi rather than Beary. However, the Muslims did not pick up a quarrel.
As the unchanged procession was allowed to proceed, seven Muslim and two Hindu shops were looted by a 1,000-strong mob. Mohammed Hanif of Top Collections incurred the highest losses: his Ramzan collection worth Rs 15 lakh was looted. Even as the looting was on, there were at least 200 policemen including the sp and the dcp stationed there. The next morning, the newspapers reported that the Muslims had objected to a symbol of communal amity and had stalled the procession!
AT ULLAL
Unlike Bajpe where the police were silent, they turned into beasts in Ullal on the outskirts of Mangalore. In the afternoon of the bandh called by Sri Rama Sene on October 6, three Hindu shops on the road to Ullal were set on fire. As there was stoning and rioting in two areas nearby, the police took it to be the handiwork of Ullal’s Muslims. They covered their faces and broke into Muslim houses when most men were away at the masjid.. They robbed these people and beat up women and children. Nearly 70 Muslims of Ullal — most of them boys — were arrested and shifted to Mangalore, and two days later they were charged with criminal cases and moved to Bellary jail.
AT BUNDER
Bunder is a “Muslim area” with a substantial number of Hindus. But it is considered a communally sensitive area, for reasons of planted prejudice. On the midnight of October 8, police broke into Muslim houses, mouthed obscenities against Bearies, and arrested the men. There were communal disturbances in Bunder earlier, but the police hadn’t broken into Muslim houses like this time. More importantly, Bunder was completely calm. The Muslims we met asked us: “With three continuous days of curfew, where would our children run? Would they be asleep at home if they were involved in rioting elsewhere?” The one solace, if it is one, was that the police here didn’t loot, as in Ullal.
AT GOODINA BALI
On October 13, there were four mild explosions near the BC Road Bus Stand that slightly damaged shop windows. Two people were stabbed. Next morning, the coastal press reported it as if it were a terrorist plot. Soon, the police swung into action and broke into Muslim houses at the nearby Goodina Bali and arrested 20 men, most of whom were either beedi-rollers or coolies.
The same police had slept when, on October 5, the Bajrang Dal had forced a bandh in the district. In broad daylight, 11 Muslim shops were looted and that too barely 100 metres from the police station. This loot and destruction was designated a “communal riot,” by the media.
Soon after the Babri Masjid demolition in 1992, Muslim houses and shops were looted in several places of coastal Karnataka. Since then, there has been a systematic Hindutva brigade-led attack on Muslims — in Puttur (1997), Suratkal (1998-9), Kundapur (2002), Adi Udupi (2005) — and Protestant Christians. It is now routine for the Hindutva brigade to co-opt the media, raise an alarm that Hinduism is in danger, and then attack Muslims with redoubled bestiality.
AT FAISAL NAGARA-VEERANAGARA
Veeranagara and Faisal Nagara are two settlements on Mangalore’s outer edge on the bank of Nethravathi river. This stretch was formerly called Kodange. In Faisal Nagara, Muslims are a majority with a substantial number of Hindu households while in Veeranagara, Hindus are a majority.
On October 6, Muslim youths stoned some Hindu houses at Faisal Nagara. The mob broke into four Hindu houses and damaged them. In one house, a middle-aged man and his son were beaten up. We visited the house, but couldn’t see any symptoms of systematic destruction. The same evening, the police forcibly shifted 30 Hindu families of Faisal Nagara to a camp in adjacent Veeranagara. While doing so, they told people that they could stay at their own risk.
Nearly 150 people have returned to their homes after staying three days in the camp. All of them we spoke to categorically said that they would not have gone but for police pressure, and that they perceived no threat.
Though this shifting of Hindus to Veeranagara was due to police irresponsibility, it gave the media a golden chance to fan communal hatred as it showed “the terrified Hindus” at the Veeranagara camp.
At Veeranagara, a shop that belonged to Abdul Khader (of Faisal Nagara), was attacked. Khader lodged a police complaint, naming some looters but none were arrested. Instead, his second son Pervez was arrested and taken to Bellary jail. When Fathima, wife of Khader’s first son, questioned the police, a policeman tried to molest her.
TWO INCIDENTS, TWO POSSIBILITIES
Hasanabba belongs to Maanur village of Bantwal Taluk. Of the nearly 20 households here, five belong to Muslims. A well-to-do beedi contractor, Hasanabba has employed nearly 120 people and all of them are non-Muslim women. He had earned the villagers’ respect by getting the local youth employment as well. But that didn’t matter on October 6 when 20 youth marched into Hasanabba’s house. As soon as he opened the door, he was struck on the head by a stone.
Sensing danger, he immediately closed the door.
Hasanabba called his friend and lawyer Ramesh Upadhyaya, a bjp man. As soon as Upadhyaya came to the spot, the mob fled. Next day, the village elders expressed their sympathies to Hasanabba. He pleaded with them, “These boys are your children. Please take them to the village temple, let them promise to your God that they won’t repeat this in future.” None of the elders responded. Unwillingly Hasanabba lodged a police complaint and named the culprits. But they still continue to be at large.
We saw a ray of hope at Perlagudde at Veeranagara. At the entrance here, there is only one Muslim household, surrounded by dalit households. Khalid lives here with his two elder sisters. On October 6, when he was returning from the masjid, three sword-wielding men stabbed him. When we met Khalid at the hospital, he named those who attacked him. Next day a group surrounded his house, stoned it and were about to set fire. Then, 70-year-old Kalyani and other neighbours — all dalits — scared the group away. At the courtyard of Khalid’s house, this is what Kalyani told us, “They have done no wrong to anyone. If someone says we will set fire to his house, how can we sit quiet?"
# How They Crush Mangalore's Muslims
How They Crush Mangalore's Muslims
An independent citizens’ fact-finding team discovers that attacks on Muslims in coastal Karnataka routinely go unreported. And now, police atrocities are also being overlooked. These are excerpts from the team’s report
Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy was unrepentant about the state police’s style of violence-management in Mangalore, when he defiantly said, “Were they to dream of such violence?” In coastal Karnataka, the police could most certainly have foreseen communal violence if they had just been alert on duty. That wasn’t the problem. In fact, during the violence in Mangalore, the police were either lost in daydreams in the face of daylight looting and atrocities, or were inflicting nightmares on unsuspecting Muslims in the middle of the night.
The Press has always suppressed the fact of violence against Muslims throughout the coastal belt: but, this time around, they suppressed police atrocities too; the non-bjp parties too have maintained complete silence. This is a new development in the bloody history of coastal Karnataka’s communal violence. The administration, the police, and the media had never before worked unanimously and in tandem.
From what we saw in the violence-affected areas, wherever the Muslims had taken to destruction, it was as a response to the violence inflicted on them.
AT BAJPE
The Mangalore violence during the first week of October 2006 erupted in Bajpe, on the outskirts of the city. On October 3, a Sharada procession was scheduled and was to pass the Bajpe Masjid. Some Muslims told police about their objections to one tableau. The police and bjp mla Krishna Palemar, who was there, requested the organisers to remove that particular tableau. But the request went unheeded. Nor did they oblige to an altered request that the tableau should not pass in front of the masjid. Therefore, police stopped the procession. The organisers chose to place the Sharada idol in the middle of the road, in defiance.
What was this tableau all about? It was claimed that it was the tableau of Bappa Beary worshipping Sharada Matha, and that there wasn’t anything here that would insult Muslims. The popular legend, that was invoked, has it that Goddess Durga Parameshwari gave darshan to Beary, a rich Muslim merchant, in his dream. Legend has it that he erected a temple for her. There is also a popular Yakshagana narrative based on this legend. These days, the narrative presents Bappa Beary as a clown and the Bajpe tableau had a similar visual. The Muslim contention was that the man in the tableau portrayed a pitiable maulvi rather than Beary. However, the Muslims did not pick up a quarrel.
As the unchanged procession was allowed to proceed, seven Muslim and two Hindu shops were looted by a 1,000-strong mob. Mohammed Hanif of Top Collections incurred the highest losses: his Ramzan collection worth Rs 15 lakh was looted. Even as the looting was on, there were at least 200 policemen including the sp and the dcp stationed there. The next morning, the newspapers reported that the Muslims had objected to a symbol of communal amity and had stalled the procession!
AT ULLAL
Unlike Bajpe where the police were silent, they turned into beasts in Ullal on the outskirts of Mangalore. In the afternoon of the bandh called by Sri Rama Sene on October 6, three Hindu shops on the road to Ullal were set on fire. As there was stoning and rioting in two areas nearby, the police took it to be the handiwork of Ullal’s Muslims. They covered their faces and broke into Muslim houses when most men were away at the masjid.. They robbed these people and beat up women and children. Nearly 70 Muslims of Ullal — most of them boys — were arrested and shifted to Mangalore, and two days later they were charged with criminal cases and moved to Bellary jail.
AT BUNDER
Bunder is a “Muslim area” with a substantial number of Hindus. But it is considered a communally sensitive area, for reasons of planted prejudice. On the midnight of October 8, police broke into Muslim houses, mouthed obscenities against Bearies, and arrested the men. There were communal disturbances in Bunder earlier, but the police hadn’t broken into Muslim houses like this time. More importantly, Bunder was completely calm. The Muslims we met asked us: “With three continuous days of curfew, where would our children run? Would they be asleep at home if they were involved in rioting elsewhere?” The one solace, if it is one, was that the police here didn’t loot, as in Ullal.
AT GOODINA BALI
On October 13, there were four mild explosions near the BC Road Bus Stand that slightly damaged shop windows. Two people were stabbed. Next morning, the coastal press reported it as if it were a terrorist plot. Soon, the police swung into action and broke into Muslim houses at the nearby Goodina Bali and arrested 20 men, most of whom were either beedi-rollers or coolies.
The same police had slept when, on October 5, the Bajrang Dal had forced a bandh in the district. In broad daylight, 11 Muslim shops were looted and that too barely 100 metres from the police station. This loot and destruction was designated a “communal riot,” by the media.
Soon after the Babri Masjid demolition in 1992, Muslim houses and shops were looted in several places of coastal Karnataka. Since then, there has been a systematic Hindutva brigade-led attack on Muslims — in Puttur (1997), Suratkal (1998-9), Kundapur (2002), Adi Udupi (2005) — and Protestant Christians. It is now routine for the Hindutva brigade to co-opt the media, raise an alarm that Hinduism is in danger, and then attack Muslims with redoubled bestiality.
AT FAISAL NAGARA-VEERANAGARA
Veeranagara and Faisal Nagara are two settlements on Mangalore’s outer edge on the bank of Nethravathi river. This stretch was formerly called Kodange. In Faisal Nagara, Muslims are a majority with a substantial number of Hindu households while in Veeranagara, Hindus are a majority.
On October 6, Muslim youths stoned some Hindu houses at Faisal Nagara. The mob broke into four Hindu houses and damaged them. In one house, a middle-aged man and his son were beaten up. We visited the house, but couldn’t see any symptoms of systematic destruction. The same evening, the police forcibly shifted 30 Hindu families of Faisal Nagara to a camp in adjacent Veeranagara. While doing so, they told people that they could stay at their own risk.
Nearly 150 people have returned to their homes after staying three days in the camp. All of them we spoke to categorically said that they would not have gone but for police pressure, and that they perceived no threat.
Though this shifting of Hindus to Veeranagara was due to police irresponsibility, it gave the media a golden chance to fan communal hatred as it showed “the terrified Hindus” at the Veeranagara camp.
At Veeranagara, a shop that belonged to Abdul Khader (of Faisal Nagara), was attacked. Khader lodged a police complaint, naming some looters but none were arrested. Instead, his second son Pervez was arrested and taken to Bellary jail. When Fathima, wife of Khader’s first son, questioned the police, a policeman tried to molest her.
TWO INCIDENTS, TWO POSSIBILITIES
Hasanabba belongs to Maanur village of Bantwal Taluk. Of the nearly 20 households here, five belong to Muslims. A well-to-do beedi contractor, Hasanabba has employed nearly 120 people and all of them are non-Muslim women. He had earned the villagers’ respect by getting the local youth employment as well. But that didn’t matter on October 6 when 20 youth marched into Hasanabba’s house. As soon as he opened the door, he was struck on the head by a stone.
Sensing danger, he immediately closed the door.
Hasanabba called his friend and lawyer Ramesh Upadhyaya, a bjp man. As soon as Upadhyaya came to the spot, the mob fled. Next day, the village elders expressed their sympathies to Hasanabba. He pleaded with them, “These boys are your children. Please take them to the village temple, let them promise to your God that they won’t repeat this in future.” None of the elders responded. Unwillingly Hasanabba lodged a police complaint and named the culprits. But they still continue to be at large.
We saw a ray of hope at Perlagudde at Veeranagara. At the entrance here, there is only one Muslim household, surrounded by dalit households. Khalid lives here with his two elder sisters. On October 6, when he was returning from the masjid, three sword-wielding men stabbed him. When we met Khalid at the hospital, he named those who attacked him. Next day a group surrounded his house, stoned it and were about to set fire. Then, 70-year-old Kalyani and other neighbours — all dalits — scared the group away. At the courtyard of Khalid’s house, this is what Kalyani told us, “They have done no wrong to anyone. If someone says we will set fire to his house, how can we sit quiet?"
An independent citizens’ fact-finding team discovers that attacks on Muslims in coastal Karnataka routinely go unreported. And now, police atrocities are also being overlooked. These are excerpts from the team’s report
Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy was unrepentant about the state police’s style of violence-management in Mangalore, when he defiantly said, “Were they to dream of such violence?” In coastal Karnataka, the police could most certainly have foreseen communal violence if they had just been alert on duty. That wasn’t the problem. In fact, during the violence in Mangalore, the police were either lost in daydreams in the face of daylight looting and atrocities, or were inflicting nightmares on unsuspecting Muslims in the middle of the night.
The Press has always suppressed the fact of violence against Muslims throughout the coastal belt: but, this time around, they suppressed police atrocities too; the non-bjp parties too have maintained complete silence. This is a new development in the bloody history of coastal Karnataka’s communal violence. The administration, the police, and the media had never before worked unanimously and in tandem.
From what we saw in the violence-affected areas, wherever the Muslims had taken to destruction, it was as a response to the violence inflicted on them.
AT BAJPE
The Mangalore violence during the first week of October 2006 erupted in Bajpe, on the outskirts of the city. On October 3, a Sharada procession was scheduled and was to pass the Bajpe Masjid. Some Muslims told police about their objections to one tableau. The police and bjp mla Krishna Palemar, who was there, requested the organisers to remove that particular tableau. But the request went unheeded. Nor did they oblige to an altered request that the tableau should not pass in front of the masjid. Therefore, police stopped the procession. The organisers chose to place the Sharada idol in the middle of the road, in defiance.
What was this tableau all about? It was claimed that it was the tableau of Bappa Beary worshipping Sharada Matha, and that there wasn’t anything here that would insult Muslims. The popular legend, that was invoked, has it that Goddess Durga Parameshwari gave darshan to Beary, a rich Muslim merchant, in his dream. Legend has it that he erected a temple for her. There is also a popular Yakshagana narrative based on this legend. These days, the narrative presents Bappa Beary as a clown and the Bajpe tableau had a similar visual. The Muslim contention was that the man in the tableau portrayed a pitiable maulvi rather than Beary. However, the Muslims did not pick up a quarrel.
As the unchanged procession was allowed to proceed, seven Muslim and two Hindu shops were looted by a 1,000-strong mob. Mohammed Hanif of Top Collections incurred the highest losses: his Ramzan collection worth Rs 15 lakh was looted. Even as the looting was on, there were at least 200 policemen including the sp and the dcp stationed there. The next morning, the newspapers reported that the Muslims had objected to a symbol of communal amity and had stalled the procession!
AT ULLAL
Unlike Bajpe where the police were silent, they turned into beasts in Ullal on the outskirts of Mangalore. In the afternoon of the bandh called by Sri Rama Sene on October 6, three Hindu shops on the road to Ullal were set on fire. As there was stoning and rioting in two areas nearby, the police took it to be the handiwork of Ullal’s Muslims. They covered their faces and broke into Muslim houses when most men were away at the masjid.. They robbed these people and beat up women and children. Nearly 70 Muslims of Ullal — most of them boys — were arrested and shifted to Mangalore, and two days later they were charged with criminal cases and moved to Bellary jail.
AT BUNDER
Bunder is a “Muslim area” with a substantial number of Hindus. But it is considered a communally sensitive area, for reasons of planted prejudice. On the midnight of October 8, police broke into Muslim houses, mouthed obscenities against Bearies, and arrested the men. There were communal disturbances in Bunder earlier, but the police hadn’t broken into Muslim houses like this time. More importantly, Bunder was completely calm. The Muslims we met asked us: “With three continuous days of curfew, where would our children run? Would they be asleep at home if they were involved in rioting elsewhere?” The one solace, if it is one, was that the police here didn’t loot, as in Ullal.
AT GOODINA BALI
On October 13, there were four mild explosions near the BC Road Bus Stand that slightly damaged shop windows. Two people were stabbed. Next morning, the coastal press reported it as if it were a terrorist plot. Soon, the police swung into action and broke into Muslim houses at the nearby Goodina Bali and arrested 20 men, most of whom were either beedi-rollers or coolies.
The same police had slept when, on October 5, the Bajrang Dal had forced a bandh in the district. In broad daylight, 11 Muslim shops were looted and that too barely 100 metres from the police station. This loot and destruction was designated a “communal riot,” by the media.
Soon after the Babri Masjid demolition in 1992, Muslim houses and shops were looted in several places of coastal Karnataka. Since then, there has been a systematic Hindutva brigade-led attack on Muslims — in Puttur (1997), Suratkal (1998-9), Kundapur (2002), Adi Udupi (2005) — and Protestant Christians. It is now routine for the Hindutva brigade to co-opt the media, raise an alarm that Hinduism is in danger, and then attack Muslims with redoubled bestiality.
AT FAISAL NAGARA-VEERANAGARA
Veeranagara and Faisal Nagara are two settlements on Mangalore’s outer edge on the bank of Nethravathi river. This stretch was formerly called Kodange. In Faisal Nagara, Muslims are a majority with a substantial number of Hindu households while in Veeranagara, Hindus are a majority.
On October 6, Muslim youths stoned some Hindu houses at Faisal Nagara. The mob broke into four Hindu houses and damaged them. In one house, a middle-aged man and his son were beaten up. We visited the house, but couldn’t see any symptoms of systematic destruction. The same evening, the police forcibly shifted 30 Hindu families of Faisal Nagara to a camp in adjacent Veeranagara. While doing so, they told people that they could stay at their own risk.
Nearly 150 people have returned to their homes after staying three days in the camp. All of them we spoke to categorically said that they would not have gone but for police pressure, and that they perceived no threat.
Though this shifting of Hindus to Veeranagara was due to police irresponsibility, it gave the media a golden chance to fan communal hatred as it showed “the terrified Hindus” at the Veeranagara camp.
At Veeranagara, a shop that belonged to Abdul Khader (of Faisal Nagara), was attacked. Khader lodged a police complaint, naming some looters but none were arrested. Instead, his second son Pervez was arrested and taken to Bellary jail. When Fathima, wife of Khader’s first son, questioned the police, a policeman tried to molest her.
TWO INCIDENTS, TWO POSSIBILITIES
Hasanabba belongs to Maanur village of Bantwal Taluk. Of the nearly 20 households here, five belong to Muslims. A well-to-do beedi contractor, Hasanabba has employed nearly 120 people and all of them are non-Muslim women. He had earned the villagers’ respect by getting the local youth employment as well. But that didn’t matter on October 6 when 20 youth marched into Hasanabba’s house. As soon as he opened the door, he was struck on the head by a stone.
Sensing danger, he immediately closed the door.
Hasanabba called his friend and lawyer Ramesh Upadhyaya, a bjp man. As soon as Upadhyaya came to the spot, the mob fled. Next day, the village elders expressed their sympathies to Hasanabba. He pleaded with them, “These boys are your children. Please take them to the village temple, let them promise to your God that they won’t repeat this in future.” None of the elders responded. Unwillingly Hasanabba lodged a police complaint and named the culprits. But they still continue to be at large.
We saw a ray of hope at Perlagudde at Veeranagara. At the entrance here, there is only one Muslim household, surrounded by dalit households. Khalid lives here with his two elder sisters. On October 6, when he was returning from the masjid, three sword-wielding men stabbed him. When we met Khalid at the hospital, he named those who attacked him. Next day a group surrounded his house, stoned it and were about to set fire. Then, 70-year-old Kalyani and other neighbours — all dalits — scared the group away. At the courtyard of Khalid’s house, this is what Kalyani told us, “They have done no wrong to anyone. If someone says we will set fire to his house, how can we sit quiet?"
# Malegaon bomb blasts: Time for a fresh probe
Malegaon bomb blasts: Time for a fresh probe
Malegaon - a predominantly a Muslim populated town - which had once carved out a niche for itself because of its powerloom industry, is today seething with anger. A town and its people which had decisively defeated the gameplan of the fanatics - who had planned that bomb blasts on the day of the Shab-e-Barat would definitely provoke a communal conflagaration - are today finding that they have been cheated by the ruling elite.
If the aftermath of the bomb blasts on Shab-e-Barat the town had witnessed many communal harmony rallies, today one notices perceptible change in the ambience. If earlier the anger of the Muslim community was directed against the unknown terrorists who had conspired to kill innocents, today the communalised police machinery has also become an important target of the people's ire.
And it was not surprising that an unusual type of sit-in on the streets of Malegaon on the 10 th Novemeber largely went unnoticed. As reported by this paper, " Protesters donned same kind of hoods which police places on the heads of arrested criminals. Protesters also wore black bands around their arms in a show of protest against official attempts to portray the victims as terrorists."
The unique sit-in was part of the ongoing protest campaign by the townspeople. In fact, the city observed a complete bandh on the 14 th November as part of its protest against the attitude of the police and authorities. It was a day when Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Vilasrao Deshmukh, came to visit the town to lay the foundation stone of a hospital. And the key demands of this bandh were the "investigations into the blasts be handed over the the Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI)" , Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) should be removed from the cases filed against the arrested youths, report of the Patel Commission must be released and its recommendations put into action, and a financial package must be announced to develop Malegaon and its powerloom industry. (Ref :The Milli Gazette, 1-15 December 2006)
It need not be repeated that all the demands raised by the minority community, with due help from human rights organisations, have fallen on deaf ears. As of now, it is for everyone to see that tragedy of Malegaon continues unabated.
Gone are the days when the needle of suspicion was pointed towards extremist Hindutva organisations like Bajrang Dal by the Prime Minister himself. Gone are the days when enough RDX was recovered from many Hindutva sympathisers from the adjoining, areas and the police just decided to gloss over such clues.
The state's law and order machinery has hurriedly reached a conclusion that members of SIMI, a banned organisation of Muslim students, carried out the blasts with the intention to create religious animosity between Hindus and Muslims.
Interestingly, the media has duly noted the unusual hurry shown by the Maharashtra police. It feels that the it is ‘aimed at stalling the transfer of the September 8 Malegaon blasts to the CBI. According to the Indian Express Mumbai, November 27: In a move believed to be aimed at stalling the transfer of the September 8 Malegaon blasts case to the CBI, the Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) today claimed it had cracked the case. Interestingly, on October 30, it had made the same claim and at today’s press conference, presided over by DGP, Dr P S Pasricha, it had little more to offer by way of detail.
"We have successfully detected the Malegaon serial blasts case, and have arrested eight men, all of them former SIMI members. We are on the lookout for eight others," said Pasricha. He, however, refused to confirm whether Pakistan, its intelligence agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the Lashkar-e-Toiba or any other terrorist outfit was behind the blasts. (CBI in mind, ATS claims it cracked Malegaon blasts (Indian Express : Posted online: Tuesday, November 28, 2006 at 0000)
The Maharashtra police is well aware that if an outside agency, which could be construed as impartial, takes up the case, then the one-sided role of the Maharashtra police can come under scanner, and it will have to do lot of explaining. From day one, there have been allegations that the police has not remained even-handed while dealing with the case. Apart from providing lax security at the time of the Shab-e-Barat celebrations, it is also alleged that it did not follow some vital clues. Human rights activists, who had the opportunity to interact with the local senior police officials, have also discovered how biased they have been towards the minority community.
A fact-finding team consisting of Justice (retired) Hosbet Suresh, Prof. Shekhar Sonalkar, Jatin Desai, Suresh Khairnar and Nandini Chavan visited Malegaon on October 1-2, 2006 and met cross section of the people including top police officials. Its enquiry report, "Concerned Citizen’s Inquiry Report of Malegaon Bomb-blasts" concludes with the obserevation. "The police appears quite sluggish in its investigation as compared to its action role after Bombay bomb blast. After our discussion with police officer Shri Rajvardhan, it appears that the police is convinced that Bomb blast was carried out by Muslims (with the involvement of SIMI).
The police is not taking seriously the allegations by the Muslim leaders of Malegaon that some Hindu organizations could have been involved. Mr. Rajvardhan, said that more than 300 Hindus were interrogated but it is being done rather secretively, if it’s at all being done. He fears that if he actively pursues Hindu organizations in this respect, there will be backlash by Hindus and Communal Harmony, which the police is trying hard to maintain, will be disturbed and, again, Muslims will suffer. We did not have hard evidence to interrogate Militant Hindu organizations. But when it comes to Muslims, it seems police has no such fear and they are detaining some Muslims for interrogation, especially those who have SIMI past. But those detained so far are poor Muslim powerloom workers. Muslim leaders want to know why police is not arresting the main brain behind it, why is it arresting poor unknown power loom workers. The police, on the other hand, says that how can we reach the main brain without interrogating those through whom this work was done.
In one of his perceptive write-ups "Malegaon blasts —partisan approach and biased police" leading secular activist Asghar Ali Engineer tells us :"..[I]n case of Malegaon it appeared, as the police is hardly interested in catching the culprits. Most of the human rights activists and Muslim leaders from Malegaon felt that the bombs could have been planted by some extremist Hindu organisations like the Bajrang Dal."
The Malegaon Muslim leaders maintain that in Nanded in the month of April 2006, before Malegaon blasts, there was explosion in the house of an RSS activist, Laxman Rajkondwar, in which two persons were killed, one of whom was Laxman Rajkondwar’s son, Naresh
Rajkondwar. Also, in Ahmednagar, some bomb shells and 195 Kgs. RDX was caught from one Shankar Shelke’s shop on 16th September. The shop owner committed suicide the next day. Then, more than 300 Kgs of ammonium nitrate, timers and fusers were caught from the house of a Sarpanch of a village few kilometres from Aurangabad.
Many activists and Muslim leaders urged upon the government and police authorities in Maharashtra to investigate the connection between Malegaon explosions and these incidents, but the police and the ATS authorities turned a deaf ear. The ATS and district police had prejudged the whole issue, and was connecting these blasts to Mumbai train blasts and were looking for ISI connection.
There was no headway until recently, when the police started arresting some labourers from Malegaon and then they arrested two Unani doctors, alleging they have Pakistani connection. There is no doubt police is highly biased in investigating Malegaon bomb blasts, as if it has an inbuilt bias against Muslims in investigation."
Engineer further adds: "Malegaon Muslim leaders also say that though so much RDX, ammonium nitrate and fusers, timers etc. were caught from some Hindu shops and houses, police is not prepared to look into this aspect and interrogate these persons in connection with Malegaon blasts. I met the S.P. Rural of Nashik district who is in charge of bomb blast investigation in Malegaon and had detailed discussion with him. It was quite clear that he also had same approach that it is work of some Muslims and there is no possibility of any Hindu being involved.
His logic was that Malegaon city is a Muslim majority area and no Hindu will dare do it in Muslim majority area. It was strange logic indeed. It is just Malegaon that is Muslim majority area, not even district. Along with rural areas, it is Hindus who are in majority and then what about the district, state and country? He also argued that if a Hindu had done it he would have tried to inflict maximum loss of life and would have planted bomb at night when many more people gather.
But the time bombs went off on 8th September (1-30 P.M.) was also a peak time as thousands of Muslims go for prayer on Friday, especially on Shab-e-Barat and, if loud speakers had not stopped for few minutes, thousands of Muslims would have come out of the mosque and damage would have been much greater. There was no explanation for this. The Muslim leaders also told us that bombs were kept on two cycles, which were bought from a shop in Malegaon and buyers’ sketches were prepared by the police.
However, Muslim leaders say, police has made no efforts so far to arrest those two persons whose sketches were prepared, and instead arrested Nurul Huda and others. What happened to those two persons who bought cycles? Who were they? Can the police jump to the final conclusion as to who the culprits are without first tracing those whose sketches were prepared? Police has no answer.
The Malegaon Muslims are very perturbed that why police is not interrogating extremist Hindus and why is it after some Muslims from Malegaon? Has the police completely written off the possibility of some extremist Hindus being involved? Rajwardhan, S.P. Police, told us that he has interrogated some Hindus but he is not prepared to disclose their names? Why? When the police interrogates Muslims their names are publicised through the media. Nurul Huda was detained and his name was publicised in the media. But so far no Hindu who was interrogated or detained has come out in the media. Why keep these names under wrap?
We feel that no Muslim, much less from Malegaon itself, would keep bombs in a mosque, that too on Friday and a holy festival. When I asked Shri Rajwardhan why should a Muslim keep bombs to kill Muslims on such a day of festivity, his reply was that they intended to cause Hindu-Muslim riot. Again, if Hindu-Muslim riot takes place, it is Muslims who will heavily suffer as the past riots in Malegaon clearly show. Why then Muslims from Malegaon itself should do something to cause Hindu-Muslim riots? Perhaps he was suggesting that ISI of Pakistan was interested in inciting Hindu-Muslim riots."In her writeup, Jyoti Punwani, political commentator similarly raises questions about the one-sided approach of the police. (The Times of India, 22 November 2006, "Victims of Terror").
"..After the Malegaon arrests, astute Muslims are wondering whether the Indian government is trying the US tactic of pitting Muslim sects against one another. The Ahle-Hadees obey the Qur’an strictly; their women wear the much-maligned naqab.
Tearing it off, throwing it on the faces of male relatives who are the accused, trampling it under foot, and threatening that this would happen to all the women in the family, what could be the consequences of such action by the police on the victims and the community?
A substantial number of SIMI and Ahle-Hadees followers are educated. At least five of those arrested, and many of those "picked up" (for questioning, often for days, with no record of their detention), are professionals.
First-timers at police stations, they initially felt incredulous and indignant, and finally helpless and bitter at the way they, their parents and their religion have been humiliated, for no "crime" other than being related to a SIMI member, or being active members of a mainstream Muslim sect.
Have such tactics been used to investigate another blast in April, where two Bajrang Dal boys died while making bombs inside an RSS activist’s house in Nanded? How widespread were the links of that conspiracy, given that fake beards and moustaches were found at the site? The ATS has been uncharacteristically discreet here.
If having once been a member of SIMI makes you a terror suspect, what does that make members of the Bajrang Dal, which openly instigates violence against minority Indians? What is certainly suspect is the July 11 investigation."
Looking back, we are not yet clear about the whereabouts of the two people who purchased the two cycles in Malegaon which were used in the bomb blast. In the initial stages of the investigation, police had released sketches of the two persons who were from some Hindi speaking area. Even a layperson may tell that they would be able to shed more light on the conspiracy which went into making it.
The conspiracy of silence maintained by the police over the recovery of bomb shells and 195 kg RDX from some Shankar Shelke's shop on 16 th September, and the strange facts around this affair, are baffling. This man, who’s godown had stocked this was found dead the next day and an employee of his was absconding. Similarly the recovery of more than 300 Kgs of ammonium nitrate, timers and fusers from the house of a Sarpanch of a village few Kilometres from Aurangabad has also also gone unnoticed.
Any justice loving person would agree that there is an urgent need that the whole investigation is handed over to some central agency like CBI, so that we are able to reach the kernel of truth. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has, of late, been talking about the need to rectify the injustice which the polity has done towards the minority community. It is time that he shows his sincerity by asking the CBI to take up the probe.
Malegaon - a predominantly a Muslim populated town - which had once carved out a niche for itself because of its powerloom industry, is today seething with anger. A town and its people which had decisively defeated the gameplan of the fanatics - who had planned that bomb blasts on the day of the Shab-e-Barat would definitely provoke a communal conflagaration - are today finding that they have been cheated by the ruling elite.
If the aftermath of the bomb blasts on Shab-e-Barat the town had witnessed many communal harmony rallies, today one notices perceptible change in the ambience. If earlier the anger of the Muslim community was directed against the unknown terrorists who had conspired to kill innocents, today the communalised police machinery has also become an important target of the people's ire.
And it was not surprising that an unusual type of sit-in on the streets of Malegaon on the 10 th Novemeber largely went unnoticed. As reported by this paper, " Protesters donned same kind of hoods which police places on the heads of arrested criminals. Protesters also wore black bands around their arms in a show of protest against official attempts to portray the victims as terrorists."
The unique sit-in was part of the ongoing protest campaign by the townspeople. In fact, the city observed a complete bandh on the 14 th November as part of its protest against the attitude of the police and authorities. It was a day when Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Vilasrao Deshmukh, came to visit the town to lay the foundation stone of a hospital. And the key demands of this bandh were the "investigations into the blasts be handed over the the Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI)" , Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) should be removed from the cases filed against the arrested youths, report of the Patel Commission must be released and its recommendations put into action, and a financial package must be announced to develop Malegaon and its powerloom industry. (Ref :The Milli Gazette, 1-15 December 2006)
It need not be repeated that all the demands raised by the minority community, with due help from human rights organisations, have fallen on deaf ears. As of now, it is for everyone to see that tragedy of Malegaon continues unabated.
Gone are the days when the needle of suspicion was pointed towards extremist Hindutva organisations like Bajrang Dal by the Prime Minister himself. Gone are the days when enough RDX was recovered from many Hindutva sympathisers from the adjoining, areas and the police just decided to gloss over such clues.
The state's law and order machinery has hurriedly reached a conclusion that members of SIMI, a banned organisation of Muslim students, carried out the blasts with the intention to create religious animosity between Hindus and Muslims.
Interestingly, the media has duly noted the unusual hurry shown by the Maharashtra police. It feels that the it is ‘aimed at stalling the transfer of the September 8 Malegaon blasts to the CBI. According to the Indian Express Mumbai, November 27: In a move believed to be aimed at stalling the transfer of the September 8 Malegaon blasts case to the CBI, the Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) today claimed it had cracked the case. Interestingly, on October 30, it had made the same claim and at today’s press conference, presided over by DGP, Dr P S Pasricha, it had little more to offer by way of detail.
"We have successfully detected the Malegaon serial blasts case, and have arrested eight men, all of them former SIMI members. We are on the lookout for eight others," said Pasricha. He, however, refused to confirm whether Pakistan, its intelligence agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the Lashkar-e-Toiba or any other terrorist outfit was behind the blasts. (CBI in mind, ATS claims it cracked Malegaon blasts (Indian Express : Posted online: Tuesday, November 28, 2006 at 0000)
The Maharashtra police is well aware that if an outside agency, which could be construed as impartial, takes up the case, then the one-sided role of the Maharashtra police can come under scanner, and it will have to do lot of explaining. From day one, there have been allegations that the police has not remained even-handed while dealing with the case. Apart from providing lax security at the time of the Shab-e-Barat celebrations, it is also alleged that it did not follow some vital clues. Human rights activists, who had the opportunity to interact with the local senior police officials, have also discovered how biased they have been towards the minority community.
A fact-finding team consisting of Justice (retired) Hosbet Suresh, Prof. Shekhar Sonalkar, Jatin Desai, Suresh Khairnar and Nandini Chavan visited Malegaon on October 1-2, 2006 and met cross section of the people including top police officials. Its enquiry report, "Concerned Citizen’s Inquiry Report of Malegaon Bomb-blasts" concludes with the obserevation. "The police appears quite sluggish in its investigation as compared to its action role after Bombay bomb blast. After our discussion with police officer Shri Rajvardhan, it appears that the police is convinced that Bomb blast was carried out by Muslims (with the involvement of SIMI).
The police is not taking seriously the allegations by the Muslim leaders of Malegaon that some Hindu organizations could have been involved. Mr. Rajvardhan, said that more than 300 Hindus were interrogated but it is being done rather secretively, if it’s at all being done. He fears that if he actively pursues Hindu organizations in this respect, there will be backlash by Hindus and Communal Harmony, which the police is trying hard to maintain, will be disturbed and, again, Muslims will suffer. We did not have hard evidence to interrogate Militant Hindu organizations. But when it comes to Muslims, it seems police has no such fear and they are detaining some Muslims for interrogation, especially those who have SIMI past. But those detained so far are poor Muslim powerloom workers. Muslim leaders want to know why police is not arresting the main brain behind it, why is it arresting poor unknown power loom workers. The police, on the other hand, says that how can we reach the main brain without interrogating those through whom this work was done.
In one of his perceptive write-ups "Malegaon blasts —partisan approach and biased police" leading secular activist Asghar Ali Engineer tells us :"..[I]n case of Malegaon it appeared, as the police is hardly interested in catching the culprits. Most of the human rights activists and Muslim leaders from Malegaon felt that the bombs could have been planted by some extremist Hindu organisations like the Bajrang Dal."
The Malegaon Muslim leaders maintain that in Nanded in the month of April 2006, before Malegaon blasts, there was explosion in the house of an RSS activist, Laxman Rajkondwar, in which two persons were killed, one of whom was Laxman Rajkondwar’s son, Naresh
Rajkondwar. Also, in Ahmednagar, some bomb shells and 195 Kgs. RDX was caught from one Shankar Shelke’s shop on 16th September. The shop owner committed suicide the next day. Then, more than 300 Kgs of ammonium nitrate, timers and fusers were caught from the house of a Sarpanch of a village few kilometres from Aurangabad.
Many activists and Muslim leaders urged upon the government and police authorities in Maharashtra to investigate the connection between Malegaon explosions and these incidents, but the police and the ATS authorities turned a deaf ear. The ATS and district police had prejudged the whole issue, and was connecting these blasts to Mumbai train blasts and were looking for ISI connection.
There was no headway until recently, when the police started arresting some labourers from Malegaon and then they arrested two Unani doctors, alleging they have Pakistani connection. There is no doubt police is highly biased in investigating Malegaon bomb blasts, as if it has an inbuilt bias against Muslims in investigation."
Engineer further adds: "Malegaon Muslim leaders also say that though so much RDX, ammonium nitrate and fusers, timers etc. were caught from some Hindu shops and houses, police is not prepared to look into this aspect and interrogate these persons in connection with Malegaon blasts. I met the S.P. Rural of Nashik district who is in charge of bomb blast investigation in Malegaon and had detailed discussion with him. It was quite clear that he also had same approach that it is work of some Muslims and there is no possibility of any Hindu being involved.
His logic was that Malegaon city is a Muslim majority area and no Hindu will dare do it in Muslim majority area. It was strange logic indeed. It is just Malegaon that is Muslim majority area, not even district. Along with rural areas, it is Hindus who are in majority and then what about the district, state and country? He also argued that if a Hindu had done it he would have tried to inflict maximum loss of life and would have planted bomb at night when many more people gather.
But the time bombs went off on 8th September (1-30 P.M.) was also a peak time as thousands of Muslims go for prayer on Friday, especially on Shab-e-Barat and, if loud speakers had not stopped for few minutes, thousands of Muslims would have come out of the mosque and damage would have been much greater. There was no explanation for this. The Muslim leaders also told us that bombs were kept on two cycles, which were bought from a shop in Malegaon and buyers’ sketches were prepared by the police.
However, Muslim leaders say, police has made no efforts so far to arrest those two persons whose sketches were prepared, and instead arrested Nurul Huda and others. What happened to those two persons who bought cycles? Who were they? Can the police jump to the final conclusion as to who the culprits are without first tracing those whose sketches were prepared? Police has no answer.
The Malegaon Muslims are very perturbed that why police is not interrogating extremist Hindus and why is it after some Muslims from Malegaon? Has the police completely written off the possibility of some extremist Hindus being involved? Rajwardhan, S.P. Police, told us that he has interrogated some Hindus but he is not prepared to disclose their names? Why? When the police interrogates Muslims their names are publicised through the media. Nurul Huda was detained and his name was publicised in the media. But so far no Hindu who was interrogated or detained has come out in the media. Why keep these names under wrap?
We feel that no Muslim, much less from Malegaon itself, would keep bombs in a mosque, that too on Friday and a holy festival. When I asked Shri Rajwardhan why should a Muslim keep bombs to kill Muslims on such a day of festivity, his reply was that they intended to cause Hindu-Muslim riot. Again, if Hindu-Muslim riot takes place, it is Muslims who will heavily suffer as the past riots in Malegaon clearly show. Why then Muslims from Malegaon itself should do something to cause Hindu-Muslim riots? Perhaps he was suggesting that ISI of Pakistan was interested in inciting Hindu-Muslim riots."In her writeup, Jyoti Punwani, political commentator similarly raises questions about the one-sided approach of the police. (The Times of India, 22 November 2006, "Victims of Terror").
"..After the Malegaon arrests, astute Muslims are wondering whether the Indian government is trying the US tactic of pitting Muslim sects against one another. The Ahle-Hadees obey the Qur’an strictly; their women wear the much-maligned naqab.
Tearing it off, throwing it on the faces of male relatives who are the accused, trampling it under foot, and threatening that this would happen to all the women in the family, what could be the consequences of such action by the police on the victims and the community?
A substantial number of SIMI and Ahle-Hadees followers are educated. At least five of those arrested, and many of those "picked up" (for questioning, often for days, with no record of their detention), are professionals.
First-timers at police stations, they initially felt incredulous and indignant, and finally helpless and bitter at the way they, their parents and their religion have been humiliated, for no "crime" other than being related to a SIMI member, or being active members of a mainstream Muslim sect.
Have such tactics been used to investigate another blast in April, where two Bajrang Dal boys died while making bombs inside an RSS activist’s house in Nanded? How widespread were the links of that conspiracy, given that fake beards and moustaches were found at the site? The ATS has been uncharacteristically discreet here.
If having once been a member of SIMI makes you a terror suspect, what does that make members of the Bajrang Dal, which openly instigates violence against minority Indians? What is certainly suspect is the July 11 investigation."
Looking back, we are not yet clear about the whereabouts of the two people who purchased the two cycles in Malegaon which were used in the bomb blast. In the initial stages of the investigation, police had released sketches of the two persons who were from some Hindi speaking area. Even a layperson may tell that they would be able to shed more light on the conspiracy which went into making it.
The conspiracy of silence maintained by the police over the recovery of bomb shells and 195 kg RDX from some Shankar Shelke's shop on 16 th September, and the strange facts around this affair, are baffling. This man, who’s godown had stocked this was found dead the next day and an employee of his was absconding. Similarly the recovery of more than 300 Kgs of ammonium nitrate, timers and fusers from the house of a Sarpanch of a village few Kilometres from Aurangabad has also also gone unnoticed.
Any justice loving person would agree that there is an urgent need that the whole investigation is handed over to some central agency like CBI, so that we are able to reach the kernel of truth. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has, of late, been talking about the need to rectify the injustice which the polity has done towards the minority community. It is time that he shows his sincerity by asking the CBI to take up the probe.
# Summarised Sachar Report on Status of Indian Muslims
Summarised Sachar Report on Status of Indian Muslims
Report of the Prime Minister’s High Level Committee (headed by Justice Rajindar Sachar) on Social, Economic and Educational Status of theMuslim Community of IndiaSummarised by Dr. Syed Zafar Mahmood13 December 2006
While issuing notification during March 2005 the Prime Minister’s Office had noted that there is lack of authentic information about the social, economic and educational status of the Muslim community of India. The PMO had observed that such lack of information comes in the way of planning, formulating and implementing specific interventions, policies and programmes to address the issues relating to the socio-economic backwardness of this community.
Hence, the Prime Minister’s High Level Committee was mandated to obtain relevant information from departments / agencies of the Central and State Governments and also conduct an intensive literature survey to identify published data, articles and research on relevant status of Muslims in India. The Committee was to find out the asset base and income levels of Muslims relative to other groups across various states and regions. It had to find out the level of socio-economic development of Muslims in terms of relevant indicators such as religious rate, drop out rate, MMR, IMR etc.
What is their relative share in public and private sector employment?
Is this share in proportion to their population in various states?
If not, what are the hurdles?
The Committee was to find the proportion of OBCs from the Muslim community in the total OBC population.
Are the Muslim OBCs listed in the comprehensive list of OBCs, prepared by the National and State Backward Classes Commissions.
What is the share of Muslim OBCs in the total public sector employment for OBCs.
The Committtee had also to find out whether the Muslim community has adequate access to the education and health services, municipal infrastructure, bank credit and other services provided by the Government and public sector entities.
This was to be compared with the access enjoyed by the other communities.
What is the level of social infrastructure (schools, health centres, ICDS centres etc.) located in areas of Muslim concentration in comparison to the general level of such infrastructure.
The Committee was to identify areas of intervention by the Government to address the relevant issues relating to the social, economic and educational status of the Muslim community.
2. The Report which was presented to the Prime Minister on 17 November 2006 and was tabled in Parliament on 30 November 2006 has twelve chapters. Chapter I is introductory. Chapter II talks of Public Perceptions and Perspectives gathered by the Committee during its widespread interaction with the people and their representatives while it visited 13 most Muslim populous states and organized 5 Round Table Conferences in Delhi. Chapter III deals with the population size, distribution and health conditions of Muslims etc. In the subsequent chapters the Committee has analyzed the educational condition of Muslims, their economy and employment, their access to bank credits, their access to social and physical infrastructure, their poverty level and standard of living, their participation in government employment and programmes and empirical situation of Muslim OBCs. There is a separate chapter of Wakfs talking about economic potential of Wakf assets, constraints regarding the fulfillment of Wakf objectives and suggestions for overcoming such constraints. In the last chapter the Committee has given its recommendations.
3. The Committee noted that the public opinion in India was divided on reservation. Some argued that policies that promote equality must aim at a substantive equal outcome, not merely formal equal or identical treatment. Reservations or a separate quota for Muslims in employment and educational institutions was viewed as a means to achieve this. Others felt that reservations could become a thorny issue and have negative repercussions. Still others argued that good educational facilities combined with non-discriminatory practices are adequate for Muslims to compete. Those who argued for reservation policies often differed on who should be their beneficiary. Some argued that this facility should only be available to ‘dalit’ Muslims, while others suggested that the entire Community should benefit from it. For some an economic criterion was an ideal basis for reservations. They felt that this would fail to address the problem arising out of social discrimination. There were voices that questioned the non-availability of the Schedule Caste quota for Muslims while it was available to the followers of three religions.
4. A large cross section of the people was of the conviction that political participation and representation in governance structures are essential to achieve equity. Many alleged that participation is denied to Muslims through a variety of mechanisms. While it was pointed out that many names of Muslims were missing in the voter lists of a number of states, the Committee’s attention was also drawn to the issue of Muslim concentration constituencies of Assemblies and Parliament declared as reserved for Schedule Caste persons while constituencies with very low Muslim population but high SC concentration remain unreserved. Hence, it was argued that Muslims are being systematically denied political participation. The Committee collected data from all over the country in the light of which the second allegation regarding reservation of constituencies was found to be correct. For the first allegation the Committee did not collect any data.
5. In the field of literacy the Committee found that the rate among Muslims was far below the national average. The gap between Muslims and the general average is greater in urban areas and women. 25 per cent of Muslim children in the 6-14 year age group have either never attended school or have dropped out. Expansion of educational opportunities since Independence has not led to a convergence of attainment levels between Muslims and all others. Drop out rates among Muslims are higher at the level of primary, middle and higher secondary. The Committee observed that since artisanship is a dominant activity among Muslims technical training should be provided to even those who may not have completed schooling. The disparity in graduation attainment rates is widening since 1970s between Muslims and all other categories in both urban and rural areas. In premier colleges only one out of 25 under-graduate students and one out of 50 post-graduate students is a Muslim. Unemployment rate among Muslim graduates is the highest among all socio-religious communities. Only 3% of Muslim children among the school going age go to Madarsas. There is dearth of facilities for teaching Urdu. Lower enrolment in Urdu medium schools is due to limited availability of such schools at the elementary level.
6. The Committee found that Muslim parents are not averse to mainstream education or to send their children to affordable Government schools. But the access to government schools for Muslim children is limited. There is non-availability of schools within easy reach for girls at lower levels. Absence of girls hostels and female teachers are also impeding factors. The changes in the educational patterns across the various religious groups and communities suggests that the schedule castes and schedule tribes have definitely reaped the advantages of targeted government and private action supporting their educational progress. This reflects the importance of affirmative action. The sharper focus on school education combined with more opportunities in higher education for Muslims seems desirable. Moreover, skill development initiatives for those who have not completed school education may also be particularly relevant for some sections of Muslims given their occupational structure.
7. Bidi workers, tailors and mechanics need to be provided with social safety nets and social security. The participation of Muslims in the professional and managerial cadre is low. Muslim regular workers are the most vulnerable with no written contract and social security benefits. Muslim regular workers get lower daily earnings in both public and private jobs compared to other socio-religious communities. Since a large number of Muslim workers are engaged in self-employment, skill development and credit related initiatives need to be tailored for such groups.
8. The average amount of bank loan disbursed to the Muslims is 2/3 of the amount disbursed to other minorities. In some cases it is half. The Reserve Bank of India’s efforts to extend banking and credit facilities under the Prime Minister’s 15-point programme of 1983 has mainly benefited other minorities marginalizing Muslims. Muslim community is not averse to banking and more improvements can be brought about with specific measures. Inadequate targeting and geographical planning has resulted in a failure to address the economic problems of Muslims in rural areas. Some banks have identified a number of Muslim concentration areas as negative geographical zones where bank credit and other facilities are not easily provided. Steps should be introduced to specifically direct credit to Muslims, create awareness of various credit schemes and bring transparency in reporting of information.
9. There is a clear and significant inverse association between the proportion of the Muslim population and the availability of educational infrastructure in small villages. Muslim concentration villages are not well served with pucca approach roads and local bus stops. The concentration of Muslims in states lacking infrastructural facilities implies that a large proportion of the community is without access to basic services. In both urban and rural areas, the proportion of Muslim households living in pucca houses is lower than the total population. Compared to the Muslim majority areas, the areas inhabiting fewer Muslims had better roads, sewage and drainage and water supply facilities.
10. Substantially larger proportion of the Muslim households in urban areas are in the less than Rs.500 expenditure bracket.
11. The presence of Muslims has been found to be only 3% in the IAS, 1.8% in the IFS and 4% in the IPS. The share of Muslims in employment in various departments is abysmally low at all levels. Muslim community has a representation of only 4.5% in Indian Railways while 98.7% of them are positioned at lower levels. Representation of Muslims is very low in the Universities and in Banks. In no state does the representation of Muslims in the government departments match their population share. Their share in police constables is only 6%, in health 4.4%, in transport 6.5%. There is need to ensure a significant presence of Muslims especially in those departments that have mass contact on a day to day basis or are involved in sensitive tasks. Targeted programmes are required to be put in place. The coverage of Muslims in ICDS programme is poor in most states.
For the Maulana Azad Education Foundation to be effective the corpus fund needs to be increased to 1000 crores. Total allocation in the four years 2002 to 2006 for Madarsa Modernization Scheme is 106 crores. The information regarding the Scheme has not adequately percolated down. Even if the share of Muslims in elected bodies is low they and other under represented segments can be involved in the decision making process through innovative mechanisms.
12. The Presidential Order of 1950 is inconsistent with Article 14, 15, 16 and 25 of the Constitution that guarantee equality of opportunity, freedom of conscience and protect the citizens from discrimination by the State on grounds of religion, caste or creed. Most of the variables indicate that Muslim-OBCs are significantly deprived in comparison to Hindu-OBCs. The work participation rate (WPR) shows the presence of a sharp difference between Hindu-OBCs (67%) and the Muslims. The share of Muslim-OBCs in government/ PSU jobs is much lower than Hindu-OBCs. Out of every hundred workers about eleven are Hindu-OBCs, only three are Muslim-Gen and one is a Muslim-OBC. The monthly Per Capita Expenditure of Muslims is much lower than the national average. Benefits of entitlements meant for the backward classes are yet to reach Muslim OBCs. The condition of Muslims in general is also lower than the Hindu-OBCs who have the benefit of reservations.
13. There are about 5 lakh registered Wakfs with 6 lakh acre land and Rs 6,000 crore book value. But the gross income from all these properties is only 163 crores i.e. 2.7%. The management of Wakf Boards is unsatisfactorily due to inadequate empowerment of the State Wakf Boards and Centreal Wakf Council. Encroachment of Wakf properties by the State is a common practice. The attitude of the State Governments and their agencies has resulted in large scale abrogation of the cherished objectives of the Wakfs. Fresh institutional support is essential. A number of Wakf properties have been acquired although compensation was not paid. High legislative, administrative and judicial priority should be accorded to Wakf matters in order to improve the management of about five lakh properties across India. The Chairman and Members of the State Wakf Boards can be selected from a list of eminent persons in each state. The Government should create a new cadre of officers with knowledge of Islamic law to deal with the specific affairs of the Wakfs efficiently. A National Wakf Development Corporation and State Corporations should be established. The lease period of Wakf properties may be increased up to 30 years where the property is used for education, health care and other purposes consistent with the objects of the Wakf provided the lessee is a registered society or a registered trust doing charity work. Wakf properties should be exempted from Rent Control Act and Land Acquisition Act. Wakf Tribunal should be manned by full time presiding officers appointed exclusively for Wakf purposes. The Public Premises Eviction Act should be applied to remove encroachments from Wakf properties. Failure on the part of the state and statutory bodies entrusted with safeguarding Wakf properties has caused disquiet in the Muslim community.Recommendations
14. The Muslim community exhibits deficits and deprivation in practically all dimensions of development. Mechanisms to ensure equity and equality of opportunity to bring about inclusion should be such that diversity is achieved and at the same time the perception of discrimination is eliminated. Creation of a National Data Bank (NDB) where all relevant data for various Socio Religious Communities are maintained has been recommended along with an autonomous Assessment and Monitoring Authority to evaluate the extent of development benefits which accrue to different Socio Religious Communities through various programmes. An Equal Opportunity Commission should be constituted to look into the grievances of the deprived groups. A carefully conceived nomination procedure should be worked out to increase inclusiveness in governance. The Committee has recommended elimination of the anomalies with respect to reserved constituencies under the delimitation scheme.
The idea of providing certain incentives to a diversity index should be explored. Incentives can be related to this index so as to ensure equal opportunities to all socio religious communities in the fields of education, governance, private employment and housing. State functionaries should be sensitive to the need to have diversity and the problems associated with social exclusion. A process of evaluating the content of the school textbooks needs to be initiated and institutionalized. The UGC should evolve a system where part of the allocation to colleges and universities is linked to the diversity in the student population. To facilitate admissions to the most backward amongst all the socio religious communities in the regular universities and autonomous colleges, alternate admission criteria need to be evolved. Providing hostel facilities at reasonable costs for students from minorities must be taken up on a priority basis. Teacher training should be compulsory ensuring in its curriculum the components which introduce the importance of diversity and plurality. The teachers should be sensitized towards the needs and aspirations of Muslims and other marginalized communities. The states should run Urdu medium schools. Work out mechanisms whereby Madarsas can be linked with a higher secondary school board so that students wanting to shift to a regular mainstream education can do so after having passed from a Madarsa. Recognition of the Madarsa degrees for eligibility in competitive examinations is desirable. The Committee recommended promoting and enhancing access to Muslims in Priority Sector Bank Advances. The real need is of policy initiatives that improve the participation and share of the Minorities, particularly Muslims in the business of regular commercial banks. The community should be represented on interview panels and Boards. The underprivileged should be helped to utilize new opportunities in its high growth phase through skill development and education. Provide financial and other support to initiatives built around occupations where Muslims are concentrated and have growth potential.
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