By Mumtaz Alam Falahi, TwoCircles.net,
New Delhi: Muslim youths in Azamgarh are terrified thanks to the Batla House encounter where two Azmi youths were killed and indiscriminate picking of many others from Delhi and Azamgarh itself. They think they were targeted as part of conspiracy.
Mohd. Sarfaraz, president of Students Union, Shibli College
Youths are terrified and frightened. The incident has affected their educational progress. They are not gathering courage to go out. They fear that they may be picked up and implicated in false cases and confessions will be taken out of them through torture.
None of the youths from Azamgarh are terrorists. Real terrorists have now been exposed in the Malegaon blast case. The Batla House encounter is fake and all Azamgarh Muslims arrested are innocents.
At present youths are thinking two things: some are determined to go out for education; some are planning to move out of the country for job, leaving education in the middle for fear.
What has happened here is on the line of what happened in Gujarat – a conspiracy to suppress the progress of the community.
Dr Mohd. Shahid
Muslims are very strong here educationally and financially. There has been a conspiracy to hit their progress. People attached with BJP and other communal forces want to see Muslims backward.
There is no proof that Azamgarh Muslim youths have been involved in any such crime. Courts have been exonerating Muslim youths arrested in different blasts.
They are not thinking about any reaction. Rather they are frightened. Now religious organizations like Jamaat-e-Islami Hind and Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind have come up to instill confidence in people and thus situation is changing fast.
Mohd. Belal, ex-president, district minority cell of BSP
The Batla House case and communal tension created by some communal politicians here have changed the thinking of Muslims in the district. They are getting united and thinking to spend on community welfare, on institutions and education.
Azamgarh people are angry with the media for their reportage on the incident. How was Azamgarh described as Atankgarh while none of the arrested people of the district have been proved guilty? No media talked about the contribution of Allama Shibli Nomani or Kaifi Azmi.
Those living abroad or in Mumbai or other cities have spent lot on local politics on egoistic issues. However, it can’t be imagined that they have funded terrorism. Most of those gone abroad were from labour class. They did menial work there earned and raised their living standard. They did spend on them, not on society or community.
Abdullah Shahjahan, ex-president of Students Union, Shibli College
In the wake of the recent developments, youths here are thinking more about higher education. They wish that facilities for higher education and technical education could be available here as they fear going out.
They are not thinking about any negative reaction. As they have understood the conspiracy to keep them educationally backward they want to sabotage this conspiracy by focusing more on higher education. Though at present they are frightened, they will be soon out there where they were before the Batla House case and will pursue higher education. If we did not go out to get higher education conspirators will be successful in their aim. We will never let them be so.