there you go. Something more dangerous than ‘communal riots’ is being achieved by the perpetrators. The turning of a few Muslim sentiments – Irfan Engineer and his readers – towards the notion that ‘Hindu terrorists’ are attacking their places of worship. I’d say if its the JeM, they are succeeding beyond their wildest imaginations. This lays a solid foundation for pent-up anger to eventually erupt which is far more deadly than any 2 week riots. I guess ‘they’ are succeeding indeed.

By Adv. Irfan Engineer

The Milli Gazette

31 May 2007

First in Malegaon and now in Hyderabad, the blame for the recent bomb blasts is being laid on the doorstep of “Islamic terrorists” like Jaish-E-Mohammed. One ends up asking the question, what could be the aim of the “Islamic terrorists” in carrying out bomb blasts in mosques. For, media does not use the word “Hindu terrorists” for LTTE combatants and ULFA and naxalite cadres carrying out similar acts, just because their religion happens to be Hinduism.

It is being suggested by the authorities that are looking into the bombings that the real purpose of “Islamic Terrorists” is to provoke communal riots. If after planting bombs in mosques in Malegaon and Hyderabad, the “Islamic Terrorists” could not provoke communal riots, they must be either naïve or running out of options to tread the same path again and again to see yet another failure in achieving their objective of communal riots. The “Islamic Terrorists” risk demoralizing their cadres by their consistent failure in creating riots. If provoking communal riots is the objective of “Islamic Terrorists” then they could do better by studying Reports of Enquiry Commissions appointed by various governments like, Raghubar Dayal Commission (Ranchi-Hatia, 1967), Jagmohan Reddy Commission (Ahmdabad 1969), Madan Commission (Bhiwandi, Jalgaon and Madad, 1970), Krishna Rao Commission (Hyderabad, 1984), Ramanand Prasad Commission, (Bhagalpur, 1989) Srikrishna Commission (Mumbai 1992-93), and scores of other reports which have brought to the fore that those riots were not accidents but well planned and executed and it required days, if not months of continuous and sustained provocative and divisive speeches and publication of communal propaganda and collection of arms and ammunitions. Then a spark like throwing stone on a religious procession, hitting a cow, teasing a lady from other community or a secret marriage between a Muslim boy and a Hindu girl or some such triggering event can be used. Then rumour mongering like “the milk in the city is poisoned” or “drinking water has been poisoned” or “a huge mob of the “rival” community is approaching to attack” or that “women have been raped and murdered by the “rival” community”. These rumours enhance the threat perception of an ordinary citizen and mobilizes him/her and even leads them to attack “rivals”. With India having “experience” of scores of communal riots in which thousands have been killed, the “Islamic Terrorists” might be fools not to learn how to spark a communal riots or to try a different path which is proving futile.

Reality is that the politicians who blame the blasts in mosques on “Islamic Terrorists” sound less convincing. If use of RDX or improvised explosive devices are available to Jaish-e-Mohammed or organizations of their ilk, why should it not be available to anybody else having sufficient purchasing power? No weapon is monopoly of only one terrorist organization. The politicians even before visiting the site of the bomb blast have their statement of allegation on this or that organization ready. They may be advertently or inadvertently narrowing down options for the investigation agencies and may be allowing the real culprit to not only escape but also feel emboldened.

A fact finding team of reputed and credible organizations in Hyderabad visited the site of the blast two days after the blast and talked to scores of victims and their relatives in the hospitals. The team members included Bojja Tharakam (State President, Republican Party Of India), Lateef Mohd Khan G. Secretary, Civil Liberties Monitoring Committee, Varvara Rao, Revolutionary Writer’s Association, D. Suresh Kumar Secretary, APCLC, and others. According to the team, the medical officer of Asra Hospital who treated the injured found some nails, door hinges, and briefcase handle from the bodies of the injured. This establishes that the bomb used in the blast was a crude one that does not require much expertise. The injuries received during the blast and the foreign objects recovered from the bodies of the injured do not establish any connection with either RDX or TNT. The naming of the two Islamic organizations as responsible for the blast without much evidence reveals the mind of the investigating agency either to mislead the public by identifying the probable accused and the organizations without sufficient evidence shows the attempt of the police to close all other areas of suspicion. The fact finding team was of the opinion that the bomb blast at Mecca Masjid while the Friday prayers were going on were aimed at terrorizing Muslims. According to the Team, five, not eleven died in the bomb blast. In the police firing that followed one hour after the blast on the people who had come to find out about their loved ones, nine people died. Firing to kill people who have come to find out about their loved one is shocking brutality by police. More people died in the police firing than in the bomb blasts!! If the objective of the blast was to terrorize Muslims, that seems to have been achieved better by police firing!! The Team concludes that the firing was unprovoked and on people who were helping the victims. There was no warning or use of rubber bullets. Why the Muslims needed to be terrorized? Was it to silence them over the co-operation extended by the Andhra Police to the Gujarat Police in apprehending Sohrabuddin who was later killed by Vanzara and his team claiming him to be Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist? Is calling Sohrabuddin a Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist before killing him and laying the responsibility of the bomb blast on the same Jaish-e-Mohammed a mere coincidence? These questions will be answered in times to come. But for the truth to be unraveled, there needs to be a thorough and impartial CBI Inquiry which examines all possible theories and marshals thorough evidence to prove the guilt of the accused. For we must know the truth to be able to stop bomb blasts.

Girish,
you may be knowing old city is a muslim majority area , and also many hindu business families live here. most of the pearl dealers nearby charminar are hindus. if any looting would have taken place then these would have been the obvious and lucrative targets for any one. but i never found an instance of rioting in the recent past where hindu families have been hurt or killed or any hindu business looted. Old city muslims are stereotyped , by telugu movies ‘paata basti allarlu’ …. as the old city disturbances are referred to in these movies and some elements who want to see old city like that.

i remember a discussion amongst a group of friends , most of them scientists in a reputed organisation. it was an informal talk. one of them … a lady scientist was talking about a colleague , she told ‘ u know we call him an ISI agent’. i was surprised and asked why would you say so.. she says ‘he comes from old city’. that is the kind of stereotyping old city muslims suffer from.

as for the razakar roots of MIM , i hope you have first hand information about it and the razakar terror as you call it. i know bits of it as i heard from my Uncle (who is no more).
you compare MIM with Shiv Sena, did you anytime hear anti Hindu rhetoric in MIM speeches the way Shiv Sena does against Muslims?

there are problems with youth from old city, problems which they are not capable of solving themselves. hope those who feel concerned do something for betterment there.

Scene 1:

There is a blast in your home. Mercifully nobody is hurt. Immediately the local police responds within minutes. Your house is cordoned off. The police comes in to investigate. You are deligthed with the speed of response. You help them in every way to ensure that they can investigate the case. And so on……………….

Scene 2:

There is a blast in your home. Mercifully nobody is hurt. Immediately the local police responds within minutes. But you close the door. You don’t allow the police to come in. You throw stones at them from the upper floor. You try to set fire to your neighbor’s house. And so on……………

Now the big question: What happened in the Makkah Masjid incident?

Does it remind you of Scene 1 or of Scene 2?

RasoolAllah (SAS) said, “The pinnacle of Imaan is to speak the truth in the face of the tyrant. Today we are our own worst tyrants and the time has come to speak the truth to ourselves, no matter whether we like it or not.

The basis of right and wrong can’t be – Who did the action? The basis of right and wrong always has to be – What did he do?

If a Muslim does wrong, it does not make it right.

There was no justification to throw stones at the police after the blast or to obstruct them from entering the masjid to investigate the incident. There was all the reason in the world to thank them for responding immediately, to cooperate with them, to offer them every help in solving the crime.

But what did we do??

Your decision: Were we right or were we wrong?

I find this very amusing, especially because of the amnesia this represents on the part of MIM leadership and its followers. It would be a good idea to ask them some questions:

1. Who started the stone throwing in the Charminar area?

2. Why did the Muslims burn Charminar Wines shop and a petrol station after the blast? The Charminar Wines shop burning was shown on TV.

3. Why did some of them snatch the chains of two women who had come to see the Charminar? This was reported in both The Hindu and The Deccan Chronicle.

4. Why did they attack Charminar Police Station?

5. Why did they not disperse when the police first requested them, then resorted to a lathi charge, then used tear gas and water cannons?

6. Who was egging them on to continue to throw stones?

7. Where did the stones come from, since there are none at that site, but the people who were throwing them seemed to have an endless supply?

8. Why is it that stone throwing after Juma in the Makkah Masjid happens so often that there is a permanent police posting outside the masjid on every Juma?

9. Who stopped the police bomb disposal and dog squad from entering the Makkah Masjid area to look for any more bombs?

10. Who then blamed them for wasting time and not detecting unexploded bombs for more than 1 ½ hours?

11. What would the MIM leadership recommend as the course of action if a mob starts rampaging and indulging in attacking innocent civilians and burning shops and refuses to stop even after repeated police action?

12. What if that mob is Hindu and the victims are Muslims?

13. Where was the MIM and its sudden love for the Human Rights Commission and Public Interest litigation when Sohrabuddin and his wife were abducted and murdered by Gujarat Police last year?

14. Where were the MIM leadership when Maulana Nasiruddin was arrested on suspicion and in the melee an innocent youth was shot down in cold blood by another Gujarat Police officer in front of the DGP’s office in Hyderabad?

15. How is it that this champion of human rights remained silent at that time?

16. Why did they not burn the effigy of that DGP or complain to the Human Rights Commission?

17. Why did they not criticize the TDP government?

18. Where was the MIM and its leadership when several young Muslim boys were arrested by the police on terrorism charges during the same Naidu (TDP) government and have not been seen again?

19. Why is it that the MIM instead of praising YS Rajashekhar Reddy for announcing compensation and government jobs and houses for the next of kin of all those who died in the police firing and bomb explosion, something that has never been done before by any government, is actually making snide sarcastic remarks saying that this implicates the government in the firing?

Is the MIM really interested in Muslims? Or are they using this tragic incident to make political mileage by capitalizing on a terrible tragedy?

The reality is that the MIM is fast losing popularity in its heartland of the Old City of Hyderabad, where its popularity depended mostly on the ignorance and backwardness of the population. Today thankfully this is changing. So they are trying to play the communal card once again by using an incident that seems to have happened in a very timely way for them.

Instead of calming people down after the blast, their leaders instigated them to indulge in stone throwing and other illegal actions and perpetrated the firing. It is a tragic fact that the people who died were innocent. But the reality is that if a mob attacks armed police and indulges in arson and looting, the police will, at some point, resort to firing and someone will die. Especially when we claim that most of the police are non-Muslim and more than likely anti-Muslim. Every Muslim above the age of 2 knows this in India. So why must we instigate such a force and give them the excuse to shoot you?

You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to understand this. But it seems that intelligence is in short supply. As also genuine interest for the community or its true welfare. No wonder that despite being in existence for decades (albeit having made billionaires of its founding family) the MIM has only one solitary MP. But that situation too seems to be changing.

Just for the record, the blast happened in Makkah Masjid immediately after Juma (i.e. around 1330pm) while the police firing happened in Moghalpura (a different mohallah from where Makkah Masjid is located) at about 1630pm. So the whole theory of the police firing on a fearful crowd running away from the blast is nonsense.

The question in my mind is not why the police fired. It is why our leaders incite our mobs to behave in ways that result in police firing. If indeed we believe that the police is trigger happy when it comes to Muslims, then there is even more reason to be circumspect and careful and not incite them and give them an excuse to fire. After all if the mob resorts to arson and looting and attacks the police, then at some point they will fire. And people will die.

In that case, in all fairness, whose responsibility is it? The mob and its leader’s, who started the whole thing? Or the police, who are trying to protect public property and maintain law and order?

Jai Hind.

I wonder how would you have reacted if I had actually woven a conspiracy theory.

But you already have…and that’s why I think it’s irresponsible. Here’s the quote from your post. If it’s not a conspiracy theory, what is?

I hate weaving conspiracy theories but this blast could very well have been the handiwork of social workers belonging to the RSS/BD. I know the evidence don’t seem to suggest this but can’t they be doctored? The role of these social workers cannot be ruled out. They can always point evidences at ISI sponsored terrorists and hence escape.

I can’t see how you throw allegations of prejudice when I’ve just stated facts. I wouldn’t have bothered to comment here, or express disappointment, if I were prejudiced.