By TCN News,
New Delhi: The Central Working Committee (Majlis-e Amla) of the All India Muslim Majlis-e Mushawarat (AIMMM), the umbrella body of Indian Muslim organisations, met here today. Impact of false charges of terrorism on Muslim youth dominated the discussions.
Mushawarat termed the war on terror as the “war on the Muslim community” which has led to the arrest of hundreds of youths who later get acquitted by courts.
“The wholesale acquittal of Muslim youths after spending long years in jails is a proof of this fake campaign masterminded by communal elements in the IB, Home Ministry and Police,” said Mushawarat in its statement, asking that they “should be purged if India is to remain a secular democracy.”
They also asked that officers who falsely implicate innocents should be financially penalized for their crimes.
Mushawarat criticized the UAPA amendments that will open the law for “further misuse by the inept and communalised police and intelligence agencies.”
Mushawarat also asked the Samajwadi Party to respect its promise and release all youths falsely accused of terrorism.
Full statement
The meeting was chaired by the AIMMM National President Dr Zafarul-Islam Khan and attended by the following members: Janab Syed Shahabuddin, Janab Nusrat Ali, Janab Muhammad Ahmad, Dr Jawed Ahmad, Janab Amanullah Khan, Janab Shahid Sharif Shaikh, Janab Abdul Khaliq, Janab SMY Nadeem and Janab Abdul Qayyum Khan.
The meeting offered condolences to the millat and families of prominent leaders of the community who passed away recently and prayed for their souls, especially:
Dr. ABDUL HAQ ANSARI, Ameer of Jamat Islami-e Hind from 2003 to 2007 and former Professor of Philosophy at Shantiniketan and other universities died in Aligarh on 3 October;
Dr. SAQIB RIZVI, retired professor of Udaipur University and former chairman of Rajasthan Urdu Academy, Jaipur died in Delhi’s AIIMS on 1 October at the age of 80 years;
AKBAR HAIDARI, noted author and researcher died in Delhi on 30 September;
JAVED HABIB, milli leader, journalist, former President of AMU Students Union and founder of Babri Masjid Action Committee, died inDelhi on 11 October at the age of 62;
MAULANA ABDUL KARIM SALFI, head of Delhi’s Jamiat Ahl-e Hadees, a member of Markazi Jamiat Ahl-e Hadees’ Majlis-e Shoora, died in Delhi after a prolonged illness on 5 November;
MARYAM JAMILA, a great intellectual died of heart attack in Pakistan on 31 October at the age of 78 years;
Dr. AKBAR HYDARI, prominent litterateur, researcher and critic of Kashmir died in Srinagar recently at the age of 83 years;
Prof. SHEES MUHAMMAD ISMAIL AZMI, poet, scholar of Arabic and Islamic studies and head of Jamia Millia’s Department of Islamic Studies died in Delhi on 12 November;
Mufti of Sambhal City and patron of Ulama wa Mashaaekh Board MAULANA ZAMEER HUSAIN alias Maulana Nausha died of heart attack on 19 November;
MAULANA AFZAALUL HAQ JAUHAR QASMI, a great religious scholar and journalist, president of Markazi Jamiatul Ulama-e Hind and Abna-e Qadeem, Darul Uloom Deoband died at his home town in Azamgarh district on 30 November at the age of 89 years;
Dr. (Nawab) KAZIM ALI KHAN, a leading researcher, a man of letters and literary critic died of heart attack in Lucknow on 3 December at the age of 74 years;
MAULANA ABU RAIHAN AHMAD NOORI, a Kannad writer and translator of the Quran into Kannada died recently in Bangalore at the age of 92 years;
Prof. K. A. JALEEL, former Vice Chancellor of Calicut University, a renowned academician and author died at Kozhikode (Kerala) at the age of 90 years;
MUHAMMAD AMIN, a former VC of Jamia Hamdard, a distinguished historian and educationist who taught medieval Indian history at St. Stephen’s College for more than four decades died in Delhi on 15 December at the age of 86 years;
PROF HANEEF NAQVI, noted Urdu critic and former head of Urdu deptt, BHU, died on 22 Dec. 2012
The meeting also prayed for the souls of AKHILESH MITHAL, a noted columnist, historian, lover of Urdu and secular values who passed away on 21 Nov. 2012 in Delhi at the age of 86; and former Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral, who died on 30 November. He was a great friend of the Muslim community and a lover of Urdu.
The meeting discussed a gamut of milli, national andinternational issues affecting the Muslim community and passed the following resolutions:
RESOLUTIONS
Terror in the name of fighting terror
The AIMMM condemns with full force at its command the ongoing war on the Muslim community in the name of “fighting terror”. The AIMMM holds the central and state governments directly responsible for faking this war of terror in which innocent Muslim youths are implicated by manufacturing evidences and forcing detainees to make false confessions extracted through the use of third degree torture which is illegal under the international covenant signed by our government. The wholesale acquittal of Muslim youths after spending long years in jails is a proof of this fake campaign masterminded by communal elements in the IB, Home Ministry and Police who should be purged if India is to remain a secular democracy. The Central and state governments should pay a proper compensation to the acquitted “terror” victims commensurate with their lost years and destroyed careers and these should be deducted from the salaries and PF accounts of the officers who falsely implicated them. Such officers should also be suitably punished and dismissed from service for committing these crimes against innocent youths destroying their lives and careers and in the process defaming a whole community.
UAPA amendment
The AIMMM condemns the new amendments appended to the new avatar of UAPA which raised the ban period of a banned organization from two to five years and treats economic offences as “terrorism”. This will open this terrorist law to further misuse by the inept and communalised police and intelligence agencies. The UPA was voted to power on its promise to repeal the much-misused POTA, but very soon after election it fortified the old UAPA as a Super POTA and has since continued fortifying it with one amendment after another in order to further strengthen this terrorist law which is being used to continue the war on the Muslim community which was started by the previous BJP-led NDA regime. AIMMM demands the repeal of this terrorist law and affirms its belief that existing laws are enough to deal with the scourge of terrorism provided they are fairly and judiciously applied to all accused.
U.P. Govt. and terror cases
The Samajwadi govt. in Uttar Pradesh had been elected to power on a promise to release Muslim youths in U.P. jails on fake terror charges. Once in power, it first indicated that it will wait for the report of the Nimesh Commission appointed by the previous Mayawati government to probe into the Khalid and Tariq arrests. The Nimesh Commission report has submitted two months ago and reports leaked to the media about its contents suggest that they are innocent and everything about their arrest was fabricated but the U.P. govt. is stalling the issue and has unnecessarily sought the opinion of district collectors and deputy commissioners. AIMMM demands U.P. govt. to redeem its electoral promise, respect the Nimesh Judicial Commission and release Khalid and Tariq forthwith. It should also release many other Muslim youths in U.P. jails on fake and manufactured charges.
Minority schemes
AIMMM registers its displeasure at the lethargic pace and limited scope of govt schemes announced in the wake of the Sachar Report which by and large are now reduced to “scholarships” and even 60% of the scholarships budget was returned unutilised last year due to the callousness and inefficiency of the Union Ministry of Minority Affairs. AIMMM hopes that under the new Minority minister, a more vigorous effort will be made to uplift the Muslim community in a variety of ways and that the schemes for the so-called Muslim-dominated districts will be implemented in Muslim areas of those districts in order to honour the spirit and purpose of these schemes.
Reservation
The AIMMM reminds the Union government that action over Misra Commission Report is long overdue. Likewise, the central govt. is sitting on its overdue reply to the Supreme Court about the inclusion of the Muslim and Christian Dalits in the SC/ST reservation list. Exclusion of Muslim and Christian Dalits from the SC/ST quota since 1950 is a fraud on the Constitution of India, which should come to an end at the earliest.
Crimes against women
The AIMMM registers its full sympathy with the hapless female victims of violence and rape crimes, especially the young lady brutalised by beasts on a moving Delhi bus in the night of 16 December which has rightly agitated a large section of Indians. All such crimes against women and weaker sections, especially minorities, Dalits and Adivasis are highly condemnable and show the whole country in extremely bad light. It is time people, police, judiciary and government agencies stood up to discharge their duties to protect the weak and vulnerable sections of society. The AIMMM urges the government to introduce deterrent punishments for such brutal crimes. It should also hasten with the overdue Police reforms to liberate the police force from the British Raj rules and make it capable and accountable to protect all citizens, human rights and honour of ordinary people.
FDI
The AIMMM rejects and condemns the central govt’s impatience to open the Indian markets to foreign companies and capital which will very negatively impact our national economy and will stifle our growth. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the retail sector will be a catastrophe as it will adversely affect lakhs of households whose shops and small businesses will be forced to close. We believe that our country has ample human and financial resources to achieve the required rate of economic growth. We should unshackle our local markets and offer incentives to local industry and businesses under a stable legal regime in order to instill confidence and enable them to outperform others.
Meat industry
AIMMM takes note of the difficulties faced by people involved in the meat industry across the country. Abattoirs are being closed down, trucks transporting cattle are hijacked by saffron goons with police support, hurdles are placed in the face of opening of new abattoirs and meat shops. These activities harm a certain section of the Muslim community which is traditionally engaged in the meat trade. AIMMM looks at these hurdles as a subtle economic war against a section of the community and calls upon the central and state governments to wake up and stop these illegal activities by saffron goons, Police and some communal elements in the government.
Karnataka cow protection bill
The AIMMM opposes the new cow protection bill passed by the BJP-dominated Karnataka Assembly which is highly objectionable as it enlarges the definition of the “cow” family in an unprecedented way and enhances punishments in an unnatural fashion. AIMMM appeals to Hon’ble Governor of Karnataka and Hon’ble President of India to reject this bill which is clearly against the interests of minorities and all others whose source of protein is meat of cattle other than cows.
Gujarat Muslims
AIMMM salutes Gujarati Muslims who have shown their maturity and resourcefulness by improving their lot with self-help despite the criminal neglect by the Modi government. AIMMM also notes with satisfaction the Gujarati Muslim resilience and wisdom in denying Modi the landslide victory he was dreaming to achieve in the recent elections by showing vacuous gestures to the Muslim community and by launching a fake Sadbhavna march. AIMMM reiterates that Modi will remain an untouchable for secular forces and the Muslim community within and outside Gujarat as long as he does not apologise and makes good the losses of Muslim victims as a result of his administration’s omission and commission during the 2002 pogroms.
Waqfs
The AIMMM urges the government to hurry the Waqf bill through Parliament taking into account the suggestions made by Muslim organisations. It is high time to safeguard and redeem waqf properties and to unshackle them from the archaic rent control so that these may attract market rates. Many Muslim problems will be solved if waqfs are put to good and sensible use according to the intentions of the people who established those waqfs.
Managed peace in J&K
The year 2012 is being touted as a “year of peace” because 12.5 lakh tourists and 6.5 lakh Amarnath yatris visited the state during this year. But the fact is that this “peace” is managed by state oppression. Thousands of youths are in jails on frivolous charges. Every now and then undeclared curfew is clamped on various areas. On several Fridays this year, prayers were not allowed in the Jama Masjid ofSrinagar. Muharram processions were also not allowed this year. Separatist leaders like Mir Waiz Umar Farooq, Yasin Malik and Shabbir Shah etc were frequently arrested during this year. Another separatist leader, Syed Ali Shah Geelani, remains under perpetual house arrest and has not been allowed to offer Friday prayers during the last three years. In spite of the assurances of Chief Minister Umar Abdullah, AFSPA remains in force. A total of 150 persons are in jails under the draconian Public Safety Act and 840 political prisoners remain incarcerated. AIMMM calls upon the Union government to take a bold step to talk to the separatists. A remarkable gesture will be to lift AFPSA which has no relevance now in view of the official statements that only a few hundred militants remain in J&K.
Amarnath Trust
AIMMM shares the uneasiness of the Kashmiri brothers over the increasing activities and infrastructure building by J&K’s Amarnath Trust. A new fait accompli is being attempted at the expense of the area’s environment and people’s sentiments. The ever-growing number of pilgrims to Amarnath, from a few thousand in pre-1990 days to around six lakh this year, is disastrous to the area’s fragile ecology as well as it sends a political message to the Valley’s Muslim majority. The state government should stop any measures to build permanent infrastructure on the Amarnath route and should limit the visitors to what the area’s ecology permits. Moreover, Kashmiri Pandits should be appointed on the Amarnath Trust and no land should allotted to it as it will lead to permanent infrastructure
Illegal shrines at Muslim monuments
The recent attempt to build a full-fledged temple on the north-eastern corner of Charminar in Hyderabad under the title “Bhagyalakshmi Temple” should awaken the whole community and make it conscious of a common practice throughout the country from Ayodhya to Delhi, Hyderabad and Baba Budhan in Karnataka of building a “Hindu Shrine” adjacent to a Muslim heritage site or shrine, then slowly expand it and finally take the site over. In Hyderabad, it all began with a corner mile-stone placed to save the monument from traffic damage. Later it received vermillion marks, then a small idol was placed there and a platform was quietly built as a regular mandir. The Muslim community in every village and town must, therefore, keep an eye on the placement of an idol, picture or even a piece of stone near a Masjid or in a Qabristan or a shrine or monument, followed by Hindu rituals and puja. In some places when it was brought to the notice of the authorities, the matter was looked into with the help of old maps and land records, the mischief was nipped in the bud and the revenue or the municipal officer performed his duty to remove the accretion forthwith. In MP, the then Chief Minister Shri Arjun Singh himself once protected the Tajul Masajid in Bhopal in this manner. Near Delhi in Sikandarpur, a young district magistrate after summary inspection removed the idol from the Qabristan with his own hands. But in many villages and towns, Hindu shrines are springing up by the road-side or under a tree, even in Delhi. These are ignored by the municipal authorities and the police. It is, therefore, suggested that in all villages and mohallas the community should keep an eye on such developments on graveyards or near masjids or heritage sites and immediately file a complaint with the authorities and make a move for its removal. This practice is very common even in protected places which are in the care of the Archaeological Survey of India. The law does not permit any construction within 100 meters of any protected monument but even in Delhi there are many cases of Hindu shrines being built next to the walls of a masjid or monument. Today temples occupy the outer walls of Purana Quila and Qutb Minar. Earlier a Sikh temple had been built next to the Puran Qila. AIMMM appeals to the Muslims to wake up to the situation and press local authorities and the waqf committee to take necessary action immediately.
Muslim political parties
The AIMMM welcomes the emergence of new political parties with Muslim initiative. Muslim masses should prefer winnable, reliable and trustworthy candidates of such parties so that the community has a free and independent voice in the state and central legislatures to raise its issues.
Babri Masjid
AIMMM rejects the current hush-hush efforts to find an out of court solution for the Babri issue. AIMMM reiterates that with the unjust demolition, long litigation and the current appeals pending with the Supreme Court, the matter is now beyond such efforts and only a final Supreme Court verdict will be acceptable to the Muslim community.
Hizbut Tahrir
AIMMM notes with dismay that efforts are being made these days to export Hizbut Tahrir to the Subcontinent. It is a secretive, dubious and destructive neo-Kharijite society banned in all Arab countries but is allowed to openly flourish in Britain. Muslim masses in the area should be alert to this menace which will only further divide the community and add to confusion and chaos.
Rohingyas
AIMMM condemns the Burmese authorities’ continued persecution of the Rohingya Muslim community in Burma which is deprived of its natural rights as citizens of Burma and forced to live as refugees in its own country or to flee to neighbouring countries like Bangladesh,Malaysia, Thailand and India. Such behaviour is a source of utter shame in the twenty first century. Burma authorities should rethink their erroneous and racist policies, should allow Rohingyas to return to their villages and hamlets and should repatriate those who have fled outside Burma due to persecution. AIMMM urges the Indian government to put pressure on Burma govt. to start behaving in a civilised manner and honour the civil, political and human rights of the Rohingyas.
Egypt
The AIMMM congratulates the Egyptian people for courageously passing a new democratic constitution despite the efforts of the pro-Israel and pro-west vocal minority which does not wish to see a stable and democratic government in Egypt. The AIMMM lauds the efforts of President Mursi to wisely deal with the challenges posed by western stooges and remnants of Mubarak regime.
Syria
The AIMMM is pained by the continued war waged by the sectarian Baathist dictatorship in Syria against its own people, causing unprecedented casualties in life and properties never seen before in any similar situation. It is time for the Assad regime to go and allow genuine Syrian patriotic forces to take over in order to spare Syria the wages of an American-led western intervention which will further complicate the problems and result in further destruction of Syria.
Palestine
The AIMMM forcefully condemns the Israeli war against Gaza last November which ended rather abruptly due to the brave resistance of the people and the support of neighbouring countries especially Egypt and Iran. Israel has to learn to live like a normal country of the area foregoing its imperialist and expansionist designs. It will be cast in the dustbin of history like the South African apartheid regime if it fails to learn lessons of history. Israel has to respect the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people in their homeland including the right of the Palestinians to have their own sovereign and viable state and the right of the Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and lands, and restore Jerusalem to its rightful owners. Without such real measures there will be no place for Israel in the Middle East.