For several months now, almost no week passes without the media reporting about ‘dreaded Muslim fundamentalists’ being picked up by the police and allegedly confessing to being involved in bomb blasts or plots to engineer violence across India. It is not my argument that all of these reports are cooked-up and dished-out propaganda. Some of these stories must be true, and those behind such acts must be caught and punished. But, the fact remains, many of these stories circulating in the sed onmedia are wholly fabricated, and these are being manufactured and highlighted for a particular motive: to fuel anti-Muslim passions and, thereby, justify various forms of discrimination and oppression—even murder—of hapless Muslim citizens who, far from having anything to do with terrorism, are victims of terror—of agencies of the state, especially the police and Hindutva terror outfits.
America’s ‘global war on terror’ has provided a convenient cover to the Hindutva lobby and to fiercely anti-Muslim elements within the Indian state machinery to launch a concerted campaign of terror against Muslims. Large numbers of Muslims in various parts of India continue to languish in jails on trumped-up terror charges, suffering brutal torture as well as routine insults to their religion by police officials. Meanwhile, Hindu terrorists, often in league with the police and the state machinery, are allowed to run riot, unleashing violence and bloodshed on a frightening scale, while the state, the police and the courts take no firm action against them. Bomb blasts that are now occurring with frightening frequency, whose perpetrators remain unknown, are automatically blamed on Muslims, while some of these might possibly be engineered by Hindutva outfits or by elements within the state apparatus, or even by foreign intelligence agencies like the CIA or the Israeli Mossad who have a vested interest in demonizing Muslims and thereby driving India closer into the deadly American-Israeli embrace.
That, in brief, was what numerous social activists as well as dozens of Muslim victims of police and state terror testified to at a public hearing on brutalities against Muslims in the name of countering ‘terrorism’ recently organised in Hyderabad by a group of noted human rights’ activists. Going by their depositions and the verdict of the jury of eminent social activists, journalists and retired judges, it appears that powerful elements within the state apparatus are deeply implicated, along with Hindu terrorist groups, in a witch-hunt of India’s Muslim citizens.
27 year-old Yakoob Khan from Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, was arrested at the age of 17, accused of being involved in the Coimbatore blasts in 1998, a charge that he vehemently denies. ‘On the day of the blast I attended class at the Industrial Training Institute where I was enrolled, and when I was returning home I heard about the blasts’. In the wake of the blasts, the police went on a rampage, indiscriminately picking up Muslim youth. Some days later, Yakoob found himself in prison, where he was to spend almost the next ten years, much of it in solitary confinement in a small cage-like cell. ‘I was accused of being in possession of explosive material, and of being associated with the Islamic group Al-Ummah, although I had never even heard its name.’ In addition to routine torture, while in jail he was often abused for his religion. ‘I would be beaten up if I wanted to say namaz. My torturers would tell me to face them while praying, rather than the Kaaba. They tore my Quran, and while beating me they would scream “Bharat Mata ki Jai”‘. ‘They ruined ten precious years of my life, my youth, falsely branding me as a terrorist’, he says.
Yakoob Khan’s friend, 34 year-old Shiv Kumar, alias Abdul Hamid, is a Hindu convert to Islam. He eked out as livelihood selling old newspapers and utensils for recycling. He was accused of being involved in the Coimbatore blasts, a charge that he denies. The police forced him to sign a blank piece of paper which they later filled out themselves, threatening him that if he refused to do so they would arrest his family as well. He was remanded to the Coimbatore jail on the basis of this forced ‘confession’ and his repeated applications for bails were rejected. Because he was the sole earner in his family, his wife was forced to beg in order to survive. He was finally acquitted only recently, after almost ten years in incarceration. ‘I was mercilessly tortured in prison. I was constantly told that if I had not become a Muslim and had remained a Hindu I would not have been beaten like this’, he says.
Scores more Muslim men and women testified at this public hearing, narrating the harrowing brutalities that they or their relatives have been subjected to, being, so they insisted, unfairly blamed for various terror acts. Predictably, though, the so-called mainstream Indian media took little notice of the hearing, the first of its kind in the country. Nor, for their part, did major political parties and state authorities. As Ghadr, the popular cultural activist from Andhra Pradesh who addressed the gathering, rightly put it, ‘To expect anything else from the media and the establishment is folly. The answer lies not in simply narrating our woes but initiating a mass movement against this sort of oppression.’
Shabbir Masiulllah Ansari was picked up by the Mumbai Crime Branch in August 2006, but he was soon relea bail for ‘lack of evidence’. Yet, he was charged anew for being allegedly the ‘mastermind’ of the Malegaon mosque blasts, while, it is said, that at the time the blasts took place he was actually in police custody. He continues to languish in jail and has suffered routine torture, including acid being thrown on his private parts. In the course of torture he was coerced into making a forced confession, but he later retracted this in court.
‘They are targeting us just because we are Muslims’, Aftab says. ‘They want to falsely implicate us in terror cases so that our image gets tarnished and people start hating Muslims.’ Like many other innocent Muslim youths who have been picked up and brutally tortured by interrogating agencies and then released for lack of any evidence, Aftab received no compensation for the enormous amount of money his family spent on securing his release. Nor has the state compensated him in any way for the damage to his health caused by the torture in prison. Nor has he received any sort of apology.
Maulana Muhammad Zahid is originally from Malegaon. Some two years ago, at the time of the Malegaon bomb blast, he was in Phul Savangi, a village 500 km away from Malegaon, where he used to lead the prayers in a mosque. The police implicated him in the blast, although his relatives insist he is innocent. When he was produced before the magistrate in Mumbai Esplanade Court, he gave a statement listing the torture that was done to him and also the false statement on which the police had taken his signature. The magistrate ignored his plea and asked for the police produced statement and accepted that as evidence. He still languishes in prison.
Faisal Attaur Shaikh and Muzammil Attaur Rehman Shaikh are among the thirteen Muslims charged for the 11 July 2006 Bombay local train blasts. The police accused Faisal of being a commander of Lashkar-e Tayyeba and of setting off the blast. They also claimed to have recovered maps of Mumbai and some CDS from Muzammil. In October 2006, 11 out of the 13 accused in the case gave their confession, but later retracted it in the sessions’ court. It is alleged that almost all the accused were subjected to brutal torture, which forced them to confess to crimes they said they had not committed. It is claimed that 11 out of the 13 accused could not endure the torture and finally agreed to whatever story the police fabricated. This is why their confession stands retracted.
33 year-old Kalim Ahmed Karimi used to manage a small radio repair business in Ahmedabad. On 3rd April, 2003 he had gone out to get some medicines for his pregnant wife who was unwell. The police picked him up and he never came back. Although Kalim was arrested on the 3rd April from Ahmedabad, the CBI states that they arrested him on the 26th of April in Andhra Pradesh. He was charged with being allegedly involved in the Tiffin Bomb Blast case, the Haren Pandya murder case and a ‘jihadi’ conspiracy. Thereafter, he was sentenced to 14 years imprisonment for the Haren Pandya murder case and to 10 years in the Tiffin Bomb Blast case.
Says his 70 year-old father, Habib Karimi, ‘My son is innocent. Officials of the crime branch picked me up for questioning. Under duress, I was forced to sign some blank papers that they presented me with. They told me that I should not contact any lawyer and that they had men keeping an eye on me. I was also told not to forget that they had my signatures on blank sheets. My son has been tortured brutally and he has been forced to sign a confession. He and some others have narrated the experience of torture and forced confessions before the POTA Judge Sonia Gokani.’
Junaid is a final year student at Unani Medical College, Hyderabad, and president of the student union. He was picked up on the 3rd of September 2007 while returning to his home. He was produced before the magistrate on 8th of September 2007. Police claim that he was apprehended at Nampally railway station on the 8th of September. He was accused of conspiring against the state, which he vehemently denied. The argument given by the police was that some literature was found in his possession. While in custody he was subjected to heavy electric shocks, including on his private parts, and was coerced into making a forced confession. During his interrogation he was constantly rebuked for having shouted slogans against police violence. They asked him why he raised questions regarding the Sohrabuddin fake encounter and why he attended a conference against it. They even asked him why Muslims have so many children. For two days he was not given anything to eat. His face was kept covered in a black cloth throughout this ordeal. A shoe was stuffed in his mouth and he was told to read the Quran in that condition. In order to further humiliate him he was forced to shout ‘Jai Shri Ram’.
24 year-old Aftab Alam Ansari, the only bread-earner in his 10-member lower middle class family, and an employee of the Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation, was picked up by the police and taken to Lucknow. ‘I was badly tortured with iron rods by drunken policemen who accused me of being a Bangladeshi. I was forced to declare that my name was actually Altaf Muletar and that I was responsible for the bombings in Sankat Mochan Mandir and the Courts in Lucknow. Of course I had nothing whatsoever to do with these.’
Aftab was then sent to the civil jail in Lucknow where he was stripped and was imprisoned for twenty two days. ‘I was accused of being the area commander of the Harkat ul-Jihad al-Islami, although I had never even heard of this outfit. My interrogators heaped abuses on Muslims and Islam.’
Photo: Abid Bhat
It is condemnbale without even a single doubt. I or any Hindu will not stand for harming an innocent. And I have very strongly always argued to anyone that India should not become a Hindu pakistan or an Hindu state like an Islamist state. Where people like a parrot will repeat that all minorities are always safe and show rights in a religious book but in reality will not even show an ilk of compassion against a human life.
But sadly India is not a perfect place either. What can i say about these Muslims when I as a Kashmiri Hindu was driven out and many of my relatives killed. By the same Islamists and seperatists who on the face shouted kashmiriyat but in their hearts carried hate against all hindus. Does the religious book Yaseen speaks of any Jihad which I can carry out against them as well or does it only gives you knowledge.
I may sound harsh but what i want to say is that lets stop creating victims alltogether. Its not that all in police are bad or wrong as well. But many of them will also testify that they have been at receiving ends at times.
The only thing I can add here is lets take a page out of west here and not any Islamic state and put in a mechanism of strong compensation. Also radical reforms like better equipped police forces and a humane training whereby people who are innocent do not become victims.
This does not happen only with Muslims but many student leaders, opposition leaders or at times caste wars or personal vendetta are carried out by some police men and the entire system becomes a nought. Also I believe the 1993 Bombay Bomb Blast verdicts currently are being used for attack on judiciary. The judiciary has almost in 90% cases left innocents and reprimanded police force involved in such cases. But many times has felt a need to be strict in efforts to be extra vigilant.
All in all the system is not perfect and no system is perfect. Including the west where a guantanamo bay is openly used to teach lessons. India is still more humane and things are much and easily heard here. Noone is tested by throwing stones at him and if he escapes alive he is innocent. But still the saner brains need to better the system.
Please note – according to the article, some of them are actually convicted and their families are saying they are innocent. whose familt won’t say they are innocent?
There is no doubt police use third degree in india, particulalrly on poor ppl. how this shud be addressed? any solution mr sikand or r u interested in propoganda alone? why not file suits, why not PROVE what ppl are complaning? if someone’s privates are burned by acid, surely it can be proven in a medical report??? how abt some credibility instead of providing more fodder for indian mujahiddin?
Everybody seems to be missing the real issue here. If you remove the communal goggles you can see it clearly -
Indian Police continues to be governed by rules set in colonial times when the main concern was to keep the masses in control rather than provide a law enforcement service to the people. After independence, Indian police acts more often than not as hired goons of the political parties in power. Police in India are undertrained, understaffed and thoroughly incompetent. They seldom follow professional forensic analysis at crime sites and are completely oblivious to the latest investigation methodologies. Providing round the clock security to political bosses leaves the police little time to enhance professional capabilities. Add corruption and communal thinking to this sorry state of affairs and the result is disaster. So whenever there is a blast and there is pressure from the top to “do something”, they do the obvious – round up suspicious looking youth fitting a wrong profile, throw them in jail under some terror law and torture them to extract confessions and dispose off the cases. It has been proven many times that confessions extracted under torture besides being inhumane and against the law are also notoriously unreliable. This does no good for anybody. The real culprits often go scotfree. Innocents languish in jail for years destroying their careers and leaving their families in anguish and despair. The targeted community seethes in anger at the injustice, lack of transparency and procedure. The police loses credibility and trust and not even upstanding members of the targeted community want to pass on vital info for fear of being tortured themselves. Even if real culprits are caught by some miracle, there is no credibility left in the system for anyone to believe the police’s story.
At various times, the targeted community has been different but the methods of the Indian police the same. The exceptions in the form of good Indian police officers is inspite of the system rather than because of it.
The attitude and functioning of the Indian police is in sharp contrast to Police in western countries where despite many excesses, Police personnel are often regarded as heros and are highly respected in society.
Reform in functioning of the police is of vital interest to all citizens of India not just Muslims. Who knows which community will fall under “the wrong profile” tomorrow and you and I may be affected – maybe biharis in Maharashtra, Tamils in Karnataka, all kinds of linguistic minorities in the wrong place at the wrong time. We need a law enforcement system that answers directly to the people not the political bosses. There have been various proposals to reform the police system but they have been defeated by the political class who have a vested interest in keeping the current system alive. Does anybody have any ideas on police reforms?
How about holding elections among competent candidtates for the police chief and district attorney? How about bringing local police administratively and financially under local district/city administration instead of the state? How about automatically giving terror investigation lead to CBI or a special anti-terror unit and using the local police only for support? How about doing the same for riot investigation?
Such a debate can be undertaken without any communal reference and will involve everybody in a progressive agenda for the future.
This is not to dilute suffering of some muslims at the hands of the police and push it under the carpet of reforms. My point is that this is a systematic rot requiring systematic solutions. Muslims and concerned citizens can make a real change in their situation and contribute to the progress of the nation as a whole if they word their campaign against police atrocities in the above terms instead of shouting communal bias which is more likely to be ignored as incredible or with an attitude of “they had it coming”. Any takers??
Since my name was mentioned by Khoja, I will write.
I have lost patience for the idiocy in many arguments. So much so that it effects my work.
For me, born middle class without any quota with only hard work as the only option, indulging is self pity is a luxury I cannot afford. I’m yet not in a situation to look for scapegoats for my personal incompetencies.
Yaseen, if in your infantile argument, reading Quran puts food on the table and makes your kids be educated & self reliant – please go ahead. If morons in VHP and Shiv Sena – think that attacking missionaries in Villages in Orissa helps them get popular support – I can only say that Indians are not that stupid. And if missionaries think that converting a tribal to give him medicine adds to the glory of Christ, I wonder how Christanity will survive with such soldiers.
Even Narendra Modi knew that after a point Hindutva cannot work – we have to perform on development. Its thanks to people like Azim Premji and Abdul Kalam among other Indians, that India today can have some hope to be a progressive country tomorrow. The House of Tatas – a minority once again, is perhaps the most trusted business symbol amongst all the corrupt business houses. People like them believed in hard work and merit and not chasing chimeras. Everyone is a minority in India – some by religion, some by class, some by intellect, some by choice of lifestyle, some by beliefs.
If the tragedy of India is that its citizens get concerned about dreams of “Ummah” and “Ram Rajya” when we cannot provide basic necessities to our citizens and preach our religions rather than practice them; that we are religious but not spritual; that we seek God and cannot understand humanity and assume that God needs the assistance of us mortals for protection; then this country deserves to implode. In my low intelligence, I can only say that I will set very low goals for myself – be a good professional and a good citizen. I know only of this life (…..I do not seek rivers of milk and honey or a great party in heaven…) and posting on this blog gets in this way.
YASEEN
DEAR u missed my point…. we must love and protect everyone but we change during communal riots… suddenly our thinking power vanishes!!! It is in that respect I said can we gurantee each others safety… We do not know….If I live with Hindus, in a Hindu area, I know all of us will fight together in such a time because we are all of the same religion. It is only in that sense I asked. And Yaseen if this issue was only as old as Babri, I would have loved to kill all those VHP and RSS people. But unfortunately it is not….. The way you are saying, I can say it too that it all started with Kashmir, Kareem lala, Dawood….. It is not one issue alone but many mixed together. Wish it was as simple as that.
Police needs to be trained definitely. But most of them are poor and uneducated themselves who are there to earn bread and butter for their family. They are not trained to handle such situations and of course most of them are working goons for politicians and in the name of terrorism it is Muslims who suffer.
And if Haj subsidies (I am commenting without any knowledge) is important and ur right it must be given to you. Why should one be denied their religious right?
Only yesteday while watching a news channel (where they were reporting that police is not allowing cycles to be parked outside ganpati pandals) my landlady who is a muslim informed me that the Maulana who comes to teach Quran to her son and urdu to me, was asked to park his cycle outside. They did not realise why he was asked to do so. Now, who do you blame? Maulana or the building’s members? The building members anyway never allowed outsider’s car to be parked inside the premises, now they have asked people to keep their cycles outside (and only poor people come in cycles, whose cycle if lost will….), irrespective of their religion. Here the Hindu labourers working currently may not feel bad but there is a good chance that Maulana would (and naturally he would because he will be metted out with such behaviour everywhere) and their is always a risk of his and everyone’s cycle getting stolen. All these people are poor. And they are suffering because someone chose to take revenge of Godhra. Ek baar liya, do baar liya, how many times? Who is suffering here? You. All the Muslims. Is it helping? All of us are trying to protect our religion, for what damn it? And see the price we are paying.
YASEEN its a sad world we are living in. And we are getting accustomed to it. I must caution that this terrorism is a business and nothing else. These governments and religious parties have created arms market everywhere and they will keep feeding innocent Muslims and soon others to this monster. These ******** are not fighting for any GOD but minting money on our blood. Why do you need a messiah. Don’t you and I know the duties of a human and a citizen of the country we belong to?
I am sorry to say that our writers have not yet developed the art of reporting matters “objectively”!
One should not loose sight of the fact that India is not a ‘village’ or a ‘town’! It measures 3214 Km from north to south and 2933Km from east to west,with a totl land area of 3.29million sq.Km.Its total population is 102 crores! Hindus account for 82 crioes and Muslims 13 crores.Thus, the total trouble makers from both communities may not be larger than 0.000!% of each!
Hence, the fanatic Hindus’ charge that “all terrorists are Muslims!”is far from the truth! The media should note it.Tthe poignant stories of lynching and torturing Muslims also should not be related like a passion play!
What one has to feel proud about is that a very big majority in each case is for justice and fairplay.
Now, as never before, the time has come for the liberals from both communities to come forward and boldly warn the wrong doers to desist from those acts.
Lawyers from both communities should form a Citizens Counsel Committee and take up the issue of wrong arrests and torture of accused.AND also file cases against errant police and officials.
Cruelty doesn’t have caste or religion but some narrow minded ppl like yaseen see everything with their perception.
may be someday they will realise why the entire world is questioning Islam and Muslims from USA , europe to Asia .. and why they cant accept the world with a different point of view.
Comment Edited
Sudie:
Theoretically it may seem Quraan does not put food on the table, but the Quraan has been an Inspiration for Muslims for ever. And it was the guide for us to conduct ourselves and also resist oppression. There are things which you will not understand what it feels to be a muslim following the Quraan.
As far as I know there is no religion or society wedded to absolute “pacifism!” Upto a certain limit only, an individual or a society could tolerate outside oppression.After that breaking point,retaliation becomes the natural outcome!
However, unlike the individual the society has been endowed with a very long period of tolerance Hence, the elders in the society have a moral responsibility to protect the youth from the mischief of charlatans, who brainwash them and encourage settling scores.
In a big nation, one community might be in a large majority and the next will be a small minority.Vested interests in the majority community have an opportunity to misconstrue the policies and actions of a secular Govt. and try to play the role of defender of faith of the “majority”, by harping upon the ‘religious sentiments of the majority’! This is a dangerous game, which the secular govt, on the one hand, and the elders of that community, on the other hand, have to put down at the earliest.They have to dispel the notion that a majority community of several crore population cannot be outpaced by a minority on any front, whether in terms of population, or terrorism, or conversion. etc.Once the gullible people accept that fact, the mischief makers could not thrive for long.
Lastly, the minorities have to be cirumspect and alert to secure real facts by availing the “Right to Information Act”and seeking Court’s intervention. in lieu of appealing to the Govt.
Lastly, all people have to realize that the world is shrinking in size and for decent jobs one will have to go abroad, the reaction of those people to our people at home , could make their lives difficult.That shall not be!
Yaseen,
The Quran can be a guide if people follow the right INTERPRETATION of the verses.
We cannot read our whims and opinions into its interpretation. A proper tafsir by learned scholars has to be followed.
No doubt, the Quran IS an inspiration, and any translation can ONLY be a translation of that “inimitable symphony, the very sound of which moves men to ecstacy and tears”
Mohib,
You are talking about feeling unwanted, that only a muslim can know. Not a Prophet is talking about not wanting someone because of they are muslim, which only a non-muslim can tell.
If I were a muslim I too would fight for my rights while delivering my duties and definitely wouldn’t take to escapism like Yaseen.
@sudie
- be a good professional and a good citizen. gr8 & simple brother.
if everybody thinks like this only then india will be superpower without any hindu , muslim or sikh. everybody will be good indian.
@yaseen
brother people like your thinking are UNWANTED.
Yaseen
Probably all those if they are Muslims are interpreting Quran the way you are doing. What Prophet did was 1300 years ago that does not hold good now. I do not know what you do and which country you belong to but use your brain constructively. One is a minority as long as he or she wants to be. Your regular participation indicates that at least at this point of time you have the basic facilities one require to live on. I am sure its your or your family’e hard earned bread and butter. Your regular participation shows that you have enough time on your hand. Why do you not use it for the upliftment of Muslims. If you do it. Good but focus harder of education, health, hygine… of Muslims. You will say that even Hindus suffer from the same bug. So let Dalits focus on Dalits, Sikhs on Sikhs…. Even if it may look divided at least it is more constructive than cribbing that upper caste Hindus dominate everyone.