Chairman, Human Rights Commission.
Chairman, National Commission for Minorities.
Dear Sir,
With regard to the two alleged bomb blasts that took place in `Lumbini-Park’ and `Gokul Chat’ at Hyderabad, we would like to express our deepest grief and regret at this turn of events and join with the government in trying to identify the perpetrators and bring them to book.
In this effort however we see a very regrettable trend where within minutes of any such incident, government spokespeople name some Muslim organization or the other and the press immediately reports this. At this point, there is no evidence whatsoever to link these
named organizations to the incident. However this does not deter either the government spokesperson or the press from reporting this by using the word, `suspected’ as a qualifier. When such suspicions are not realized there is no clarification in the press to say that the original report was wrong. This paints the Muslim community in a bad light and casts aspersions on people who have already suffered with their members dying in the blasts.
Another thing which happens is that exclusively after such incidents it is Muslim youth who are arrested on suspicion by the police, usually from the old city. These youth are held for an indefinite period, tortured and then released usually after taking some bribe from them. There is no follow up on these arrests to say why these boys were arrested, nor any attempt to clear their names after they have been released as they were not guilty in the first place, nor any talk of paying compensation for their wrongful detention and ill treatment at the hands of the police.
In the case of the blasts on Saturday also the same drama has been played out. A Muslim organization was named as being behind the blasts, all the Muslim countries in the neighborhood were also named for good measure as possible supporters of the terrorist action and some Muslim boys were arrested from the old city. We fear that these boys are being held in inhuman conditions and are being tortured to extract false `confessions’ from them. It is interesting to note that both on the day of the Makkah Masjid blasts as well as last Friday a Hindu man was arrested from the Masjid premises. But we have no report of what happened to him or who he was. The same is true of the blasts in Malegaon, Nanded and other places in premises known to belong to the RSS. No arrests were made and no mention of the name of the owners of the premises and no questions about why explosives were being manufactured or stored in these places.
Initially reports emanating from the police force were to the effect that the explosives used in the Macca Masjid blast as well as the two blasts at Lumbini Park and Gokul Chat, were the same. Later it transpired, and was reported, that the two were different, and that while RDX was used in Macca Masjid, Neo-Gel explosive comprised of slurry, ball-bearings etc. was used in the other blasts. This sort of irresponsible reportage resulting in the immediate linkage of a community with such horrific events is uncalled for and seriously defamatory of the entire Muslim community and a gross violation of their human rights.
The newspapers report that the Intelligence Bureau had tipped off the Andhra Pradesh Police more than two MONTHS ago that the explosives smuggled into the country for terrorist activity were only partially used in the Macca masjid blast, and that the rest were floating around, two terrorists reported to have entered the country later to target Ganesh festival and Ramzaan festival. It is unusual; to say the least, that checking and frisking operations ought to have been mounted seriously, which were not. The result was that at crowded places, criminals could place such explosives and cause a human tragedy of such proportions, undetected.
The human rights of citizens deserve better measures than these, and in our submission, there appears to be a clear violation of human rights in this matter which we request you to investigate urgently, since the inaction of the police before the blasts, and the biased and slanted response afterwards, the immediate linkage with Muslims, are each and all matters of very serious concern. Intelligence received ought to have been better processed and handled, which it was not. Preventive measures ought to have been taken, which were not. Half an hour after the blast it was stated who the culprits were. The statements of firm conviction coming from the police force are not backed by the political statements of those in charge of the police force. The members of one community are immediately stated to be behind the criminal acts : it is as if there was an orchestrated campaign to malign the Muslims, create a fear psychosis about them, and under the cloak of that terrorize the Muslims by police high-handedness.
The Hon’ble Commission is earnestly requested to investigate the matter thoroughly, on the issues of intelligence processing and usage, preventive actions, routine harassment of Muslims in such matters, defamation of the entire community, and monitoring by human
rights and minority commission officials of what goes on in the name of countering terrorism, and to direct the police agencies who pick up (or “call”) citizens for investigation to do so informing the Hon’ble Commission immediately of such detention (or “call”) so that a monitoring of the rights of citizens can be effectively implemented.
Yours’ faithfully,
shafeeq rehman mahajir
AarizMohammed
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