By Shaik Zakeer Hussain, TwoCircles.net,
Bangalore: A day after local media reported that Ayesha Banu, a resident of Panjimogaru on the outskirts of Mangalore was arrested, for her alleged involvement in bankrolling the recent bomb blasts carried out in Patna, police officials of both Karnataka and Bihar have dismissed media reports of her alleged connection to any terror group or terrorism related activity.
On Tuesday, 12th November, local newspapers, television channels and many websites, had reported that Ayesha, the wife of one Mr. Zubair was arrested along with her husband by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on the night of November 11, for allegedly supplying money to the individuals involved in the blasts on October 27, in Patna, Bihar.
The news outlets also unanimously quoted anonymous sources, that the arrested woman was operating close to “35 bank accounts in different names and transacted over 2 crore rupees and had lured local youth to open bank accounts”. They also claimed that the money was remitted into these accounts from Pakistan.
Rejecting the malicious reports, Bihar’s Lakhisarai Superintendent of Police, Mr. Rajiv Sharma said that, her arrest was in connection to illegal financial activities and not in connection to terrorism financing.
Mangalore city’s Inspector General of Police (Western Range) Mr. Prathap Reddy said that, he is confident that there is no terror activity taking place in the western range of the region, and proclaimed that “no investigation agency has contacted us in relation to any such activities.”
If reporting this easily discernible concocted story was not enough, the media outlets also went to the extent of digging Ayesha Banu’s past and wrote that ‘Ayesha’ was born ‘Asha’, a Hindu who later converted to Islam, after marrying a Muslim man. And it only looked like they were serving right-wing organisations’ agenda, when they included a press statement by Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal, in their reports, which said that the case of Ayesha’s arrest showed that Muslim men were luring Hindu woman “with love affairs and money and converted to Islam only to carry out dangerous and illegal activities like this. Hindu young women must be guard against Love Jihad which attract them towards colorful life in the beginning, but end up in jails, prostitution hubs, etc.”