By Civil Liberties Monitoring Committee,
On the occasion of 3rd anniversary of the Makka Masjid blast and subsequent police firing, Civil Liberties Monitoring Committee expresses its solidarity with the victims of the blast and police firing. We also strongly condemn the negligent behavior of the government, because until now the culprits of the blast and police firing are still free.
Makkah Masjid blast
On this occasion we want to remind one and all that the first Hindutva terrorist attack in the country was done on Babri Masjid where the Masjid tombs were brought down by bomb blast and this continued till the bomb blast at Makkah Masjid on 18th May 2007. On this day three terror incidents took place in Hyderabad. One is the blast at Makkah Masjid in which five people were killed, second is the subsequent police firing in which nine people lost their lives and third one is blaming the Muslim community by the police through using the media – and later several dozens of innocent Muslim youths were arrested. The aim of the first one is to create fear complex, second one was to bring down the morale and third one to suppress the Muslim community morally and make them feel ashamed so that they cannot hold their head high in the society.
Police-media nexus to blame Muslims
Unfortunately, a group of Hindutva police officers succeeded in their aims and objectives. Muslims became so fearful and suppressed that they could not protest nor perform last rites of the blast and firing victims. Because of floating the name of Shahed Bilal by the then Additional Commissioner of Police, Rajiv Trivedi, not only the common Muslims became speechless even the Muslim leadership were stunned. This was a great conspiracy against the Muslims by the Hindutva terrorists by using the Hindutva group among the police personnel. The main aim of this conspiracy was to target the Muslims on every level. The whole society is witness to everything that happened accordingly.
Immediately after the blast and subsequent firing, Civil Liberties in its fact finding report clearly stated that it is the handiwork of Hindutva and, the anti-Muslim police officer is misguiding the investigation by registering two cases of a single offence, by stating that one bomb is exploded and the other unexploded. Hyderabad police handed over the exploded bomb case to the CBI and kept the unexploded bomb case with themselves. This clearly reflects the communal mindset of Hyderabad police. By taking the advantage of blast and in the name of investigation, police targeted hundreds and hundreds of innocent Muslims. Not only this, print and electronic Media especially Telugu media played a negative role by publishing and telecasting false stories by depicting Muslim youths as terrorists in Makkah Masjid blast case. Within five minutes of blast, electronic media propagated the name of Shahed Bilal by giving the reference of police officers saying Shahed Bilal triggered the bomb from Bangladesh through his cell phone. The print media published the stories that Shahed Bilal celebrated with sweets sitting in Bangladesh. A notorious inspector Ramchandran played an important role in this whole process.
Blasts—police firing—Muslims killed and arrested
The Makkah Masjid blast is a unique case among all the blast cases in India because immediately after the blast, there was a subsequent police firing on the people who were helping the blast victims to shift in the hospitals. More number of people died in the firing than in the blast. Then police started harassing Muslim youths continuously by questioning them as to why they were present in Makkah Masjid on that day. Therefore, this is said to be unique case because of the above reasons. One important thing to be noted is that, the people died in the blast and firing were only Muslims and the harassment was also on the Muslims only. Thus, we can say that a Muslim has become the soft target of the Hindutva terrorists and the soft corner of Indian government towards Hindutva terrorism is a greatest threat to national security.
Biased, flawed investigation
Because of the biased investigation of the Hyderabad police, and the laziness of CBI, real culprits are still roaming freely, due to which number of blasts took place in different parts of India. On this occasion we want to remind that last year the central Home Minister, Mr. P Chidambaram had visited Hyderabad and commented that the main accused of Makkah Masjid blast, Shahed Bilal has died and the Makkah Masjid blast case has turned cold. With this statement, one can understand the seriousness, carelessness and unawareness of central Home Minister in connection with Makkah Masjid blast case. Because of the presence of such type of people, innocent people are being targeted and the culprits are roaming freely.
For investigation into the subsequent police firing, which is the second act of terror, the Andhra Pradesh government constituted the Bhaskar Rao Commission. Even after the completion of three years, the commission has failed to submit its report. This shows the inefficiency of the commission and non-seriousness of state government on police firing. On this occasion we question the government, where is the Bhaskar Rao Commission and we demand to explain the existence of this commission and whereabouts of commission.
The Muslim and political leaders have failed in fulfilling their responsibility in the incident of Makkah Masjid blast and subsequent police firing. Instead, they came under the pressure of the government and issued favorable statements, because of which Muslim community has faced tremendous loss and torture.
Demands
On the completion of three years of Makkah Masjid blast and subsequent police firing, we demand the following:
1. Now when the Hindutva terrorism has been exposed, we demand the government to apologize with the Muslim community for labeling, harassing, torturing and terrorizing them.
2. Arrest real culprits of terror acts of the Makkah Masjid Blast and subsequent police firing by the police personnel on innocent people
3. CBI should investigate Makkah Masjid blast case in right direction after the exposing of the Hindutva terror face. CBI should investigate about the nexus of Hindutva and anti-Muslim police officers.
4. The activities of RSS and Sangh Parivar should be checked appropriately. Government and police personnel should change their attitude of soft corner towards the RSS and its outfits
5. There are many Hindutva sleeper cells in the city, police should check and expose them immediately.
6. Take stringent action against the police officers responsible for the illegal detention harassment, torture and arrest of innocent Muslim youth.
7. Stop terrorizing people on the name of red alert, checking on the roads, and all unnecessary actions in the Muslim populated areas.
8. Bhaskar Rao Commission should be brought into activation and to submit its report as soon as possible