Home Articles A few questions for Anurag Sharma, DGP of Telengana

A few questions for Anurag Sharma, DGP of Telengana

By Ubaid ur Rahman for Twocircles.net

Last December, Intelligence Bureau organised an All-India conference of Directors General of Police which was attended by Director General of Police (DGPs) of all the state and Head of various security agencies.

According to an Indian Express report on December 22, Telangana DGP Anurag Sharma gave “the most critical” presentation on “the radicalisation in the context of threats from the Islamic State”. He goes on to “cite” random (and wrongful) arrests of Muslims in Mecca Masjid blasts case in 2007 as one the reasons for the radicalisation.

However, on December 30 2015, a report in Siasat Daily showed that Sharma denied that Hyderabad is particularly prone to “radicalisation”.

Considering that the two statements seemed out of sync with each other, I tried, in vain, to find his presentation and/or any notes on the discussions the DGPs might have subsequently had. In any case, here is what I was hoping were included in the “critical” presentation.

Radicalisation without “contexts”

Why is there a need to have these “contexts” when radicalisation and internal security are discussed? Maybe, due to it being a vast topic, it is necessary to have these “contexts”. And I hope the other “contexts”, in order of their precedence, were discussed too. If Hyderabad being the city in which (wrongful) and “Random” arrests have happened and yet the DGP of the state is denying that Hyderabad is particularly prone to radicalisation, it undermines the significance of the DGP’s presentation and discussion if the caveat “context of threats from the Islamic State” was given the total focus or trumped “contexts”. What are these other contexts which can be a threat to internal security?

Prejudice and Radicalisation among the Police and the Civilian administration
Since Anurag Sharma reportedly brought it up, let us look at the Mecca Masjid blasts case. We all have heard of the cases where police looked the other way, ignoring the criminals and letting them get away. But that was not it: they also charged like a mad elephant in one particular direction, trampling citizens’ rights and their dignity.

It is shuddering to think about the number of total government resources spent in these (T)error arrests. Even if we go according to the official figures: think of the sheer number of police officers involved in these arrests. The amount of resources spent on preparing the documents for these cook-ups, their superiors’ time and resources that went in reviewing and approving these cases. The time and energy spent in preparing the “what to show” and “what to hide” for press releases. The time spent on preparing and filing the cases for the judicial process. The time judiciary spent on scheduling these cases for hearing, the time, space, money, police personnel, and other resources spent on keeping the under-trials in detention, producing them for the court hearings. And after these falsehoods were not sustainable any longer, the amount of resources spent on deliberations that the police and civilian administrations to come up with adequate “face-saving”.

The Mecca Masjid case is just one of many, and I hope the DGPs have discussed extensively that the radical actions of the officials in responsible positions are threatening internal security of citizens and deliberated on how to cure it.

Now, let us look at a case related to Mecca Masjid blasts, the Aler Encouter where 17 trained police officers were escorting FIVE undertrial prisoners for a hearing in court. Oe prisoner tries to snatch (on a day of their court hearing on the threat to their life from Police) a INSAS rifle (4.15 kg, 960 mm) from an accompanying officer, and is successful in snatching that weapon and fires upon that officer. To make it worse for the families, they then file an FIR against the dead prisoners and document this outlandish story and put in record their incompetence both in handling their routine duty as well as scripting a story. (various inconsistencies from various official sources is a matter of another topic).

The event and the behaviour of the involved policemen is similar to the Forbesganj incident where their despicable attitude is on shameless display.

A brief look at the Malegaon blasts case, “The ATS filed a charge sheet in December the same year of the blasts. The case was later handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation, which supported the ATS’ case and filed a charge sheet in 2010 against the same set of nine accused. Now, let us pause and reflect on this. ATS chargesheets, CBI reinforces it five years later (was it even investigating?) what the judges calls “In my view the basic foundation or the object shown by the ATS behind the blast is not acceptable to a man of ordinary prudence.”

These are only a couple of many more cases, I hope the DGPs have discussed the abhorrent behaviour of some of the police officers among them and civilian officials among us.

Radicalisation among Hindus
The following are just some of instances of ‘Hindu radicalisation’ and by no means an exhaustive list”.
· “they first ask the crowd for Muslims and ask them to leave the rally because they say that they don’t want their votes.”

· < href="http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/deoband-bypoll-if-i-get-elected-they-will-feel-our-terror-says-bjp-leader-rampal-singh/">“If I get elected, they will feel our terror, says BJP leader Rampal Singh”
· “BJP Councillor tries to evict Muslim family from a Hindu neighbourhood in Moradabad, police helpless”
· “Madhya Pradesh BJP MLA says he has power to carry out an encounter”
· “Yogi Adityanath’s Men Telling Hindus To Rape Dead Muslim Women Is Beyond Shocking”
· Muslims warned of ‘final battle’ at Sangh Parivar meeting, MoS Katheria says ‘we’ve to show our strength’
· < href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/article-3527245/Muslim-man-21-kidnapped-beaten-Bajrang-Dal-activists-going-shopping-Hindu-girl.html">Muslim man, 21, kidnapped and beaten up by Bajrang Dal activists ‘for going shopping with a Hindu girl’
· (Muslim policeman at duty beaten up and paraded in Maharashtra). Or, for that matter, an on-duty police animal.

Which “ISIS”s are radicalising them? Who are their “recruiters”? What economic benefits have not reached them? I hope the DGPs have discussed this in-depth and have come up with ideas on how to tackle them.

The above radicalisation “contexts”, definitely not new and were raised many times, if still were not raised and discussed (past due, at least a decade and a half ago) with highest precedence and actions formulated, then it is just another instance of targeting Muslims, Again, under a different pretext.

One more thing:
Peculiarly, Mr. Anurag Sharma reportedly used the word “Random” to describe the arrests, and particularly cited Mecca Masjid Blasts case. Here I hope that he clarified that the Randomness was not actually Random in the general sense, but “random” on a particular community which explains why the arrestees were all Muslim. Quite a few times, it was and continues to be twice “Random”, as the ones that were acquitted in the first round “random” report being called for “interrogation” more than one “random” times.

Moving further, Random, means without any basis. So, obviously, the “Random” arrests were illegal. But Mr. Anurag Sharma, in his reply to the Andhra Pradesh State Human Rights Commission, stated that “…No such Muslim youth persons was detained illegally, nor tortured, not harassed by the Task Force and SIT police of Hyderabad City”. This raises a loads of questions. Then, who was responsible for these “random” arrests? Was Mr. Sharma not being straightforward then or was misled by whoever he “inquired” with? If he was misled, then when did he come to know about it and did it result in any action?

Where/who did Sharma inquire at that time? Can Sharma answer them or revise his original reply?