By Mumtaz Alam Falahi, TwoCircles.net,
New Delhi: As apprehended, the investigation into the Jaipur bombings is going on the same past line adopted by intelligence agencies: accusing Muslim organizations, arresting Muslim youths and thus tarnishing the image of Islam and Muslims.
Five days after the serial blasts that claimed 80 lives (both Hindus and Muslims), the investigating agencies are clueless about the real culprits but what has become common knowledge is the involvement of Muslims, thanks to police and media trials. This attitude of intelligence and investigating agencies has not only proved apprehensions of Muslim leaders true but has them sit finger-crossed.
How is Muslim leadership going to tackle unfair investigations into terrorist attacks? “Recently we met with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and raised the issue of biased investigations into such attacks,” said Mujtaba Farooque, political secretary of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JIH), talking to TwoCircles.net (TCN) today. The prime minister suggested creating a mechanism through which arrest of innocents could be tackled, said Farooque. Like past investigations into terrorist attacks, this time too Muslims are being blamed and innocent Muslim youths are being arrested, said he. Will you demand CBI enquiry into such attacks? “This will have little impact as the entire system seems to have become biased,” said Farooque.
Talking to TCN on the issue, Neyaz Ahmad Farooqui, secretary of Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind (JUH), said that after the Nanded and Malegaon blasts, JUH had demanded CBI enquiry, but no avail. These attacks are being carried out to tarnish the image of Islam and Muslims, he said. What will be your strategy to counter biased mentality of investigating agencies? “We will resort to every democratic means to tackle the issue,” said Farooqui.
S Q R Ilyas, convener of All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB), sees some international conspiracy behind such terrorist attacks in India. Talking to TCN, on the sideline of today’s Imarat Shariah Conference, Ilyas said, “It seems some international agencies hell-bent on tarnishing the image of Islam and Muslims are conniving with Hindu extremist groups to carry out such attacks so that the entire community could be put in the dock.” On AIMPLB’s future strategy on the issue, he said the organization may not take any action as its function areas are limited. He, however, said some efforts are on to bring out a white paper on the acquittal of Muslims arrested after previous terrorist attacks. Those acquittals were deliberately ignored by the media, he said, and their publication will help in rebuilding the image of Muslims.
To get the latest on the investigation into the Jaipur terrorist attacks, TCN contacted Er. Mohammad Saleem, Rajasthan JIH president and one of the frontline Muslim leaders in the state. “Till today the police could not make any serious breakthrough in the investigation; better to say that the officials are not making any serious effort to nab the real culprits,” said Saleem on phone from Jaipur. The police have arrested about a dozen Muslim youths but they say the youths have been taken into custody only for interrogation, they have not been arrested formally, said he. What about the investigation pattern? “What is happening is what we feared?” he said adding that two Hindu names appeared soon after the attacks have since disappeared. Vijay, a rickshaw puller from Mumbai, had alleged that a local woman named Meena lured him to carry out attacks for Rs. 1 lakh. Now the police say Vijay is mentally retarded, said Saleem. This all points out that intelligence and investigating agencies are trying to protect the culprits rather than bringing them to justice.
Er. Saleem expressed apprehension that some international intelligence agencies might have connived with their Indian counterparts to design such attacks so that Muslims could be targeted in the country. He demanded CBI enquiry into the attacks and said he would put the entire issue before the state DGP in a day or two.
Meanwhile Rajasthan Muslim Forum, an umbrella organization of Muslim groups in the state, has decided to hold an antiterrorism conference on 25th May in Jaipur.