By Md. Ali and Mumtaz Alam Falahi, TwoCircles.net,
New Delhi: “With due respect to secularism and with due respect to the honourable Chief Minister of Gujarat” said a person from Gujarat when he began giving information to TwoCircles.net about a communal violence there.
Why this “kalimah” in praise of the man who is known to the world more for Gujarat pogrom 2002 than anything else? Was he really saluting the man? Obviously, he was terrified to share the information while talking to the media though just repeating the facts. He feared that maybe his phone was being tapped. At the end of the talk he requested not to phone him again, and to prefer email.
This is just a reflection of how terrified and terrorized Muslims are today in India after serial bombings and terrorist attacks.
Photo by Lakshman Anand
This was to happen and maybe this had been the purpose of those who have launched an unstoppable series of serial bombings across the country – Delhi, Ajmer, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Bangalore, Ahmedabad and again Delhi, and still counting. They also conducted bombings in some district court premises in Uttar Pradesh last year.
What happened after each and every terrorist attack has shattered the faith in law enforcement of the second largest majority community in the country.
For each bombing some Muslim sounding organizations were blamed. This was enough to cast the entire Muslim community in suspicion. Their youths as well as elders were picked up indiscriminately by investigating agencies and anti-terrorist squads.
With this trend on in full swing after the recent Delhi bombings also, the community is shaking with fear. More so because now a new feature has been added to the trend. Now ATS personnel are making known and respectable persons from the community their target.
Abdul Rasheed Agwan, a known social activist who is attached with some prominent organizations, was picked by ATS on Sunday from Jamia Nagar area in New Delhi. After 10 hours of grilling he was released as they could not find anything against him. But his detention was enough to damage his image. Who will compensate him for the damage to his personality?
Dr. Mustafa Kamal Sherwani is one of the prominent personalities in Uttar Pradesh. He heads All India Muslim Forum, a political organization which has fielded its candidates in elections.
A couple of days ago “two intelligence personnel even came to me to acquire all the details of All India Muslim Forum, saying that the government is collecting information about all Muslim organizations,” discloses Sherwani in a mail. He has been running the All India Muslim Forum as a political party since 1996, and it is the first time that it has happened.
Patna-based legal expert and practicing lawyer Dr. Badre Alam Khan is also fearful. He fears that any innocent person be it he or anyone else can be arrested by the police. He says the effects of biased investigation of terror attacks and the bomb blasts are being felt by the Muslim youths.
TCN correspondent in Delhi had planned 10 days ago to have Iftar with four of his friends at Jama Masjid on this past Sunday. But hours after the Saturday blasts in Delhi they changed their mind. They said they won’t accompany him, fearing backlash of police and indiscriminate arrests.
Sabihul Haque (24), an MBA from Patna University, pointed out, “indeed the blasts and terror attacks do have profound influence on the psyche of Muslims in India.”
Putting himself as an example he says, “the first thing that comes to my mind is that of fear and terror. Leave others, even I myself who has no relation with the thing called terrorism can end up being projected as a terrorist.”
“Earlier Muslim youths may not have inclined towards the acts of terrorism, but the way the investigative agencies have been conducting investigations into the bomb blasts, it certainly feeds the extremist ideology.”
Dr. Imtiyaz Ahmad (48) who is a professor at College of Commerce, Patna says that the community as a whole has been isolated and alienated on account of the terror and fear prevailing them after any bomb blast.
He says that the way police has been conducting biased pattern of investigation the maxim is still true that injustice leads to extremism, because the only emotion they evoke for the Muslim youth is that of anger and anguish. The youth in anger can do anything when they feel that the system is prejudiced enough to deliver them justice.
Ishtiyaq Ahmad (30), a stock market investor and trader, points out, “I can only express my anguish at the fact that I find every blast to be so much destructive for the Muslims in India. Certainly I do fear that I may end up behind the bars, as here there is no transparency and police have been misusing its powers without any accountability.”9”.
Shagufta Khan who teaches English literature at L.N. Mishra Institute of Management and Social Change, Patna, points out, “let alone any individual Muslim, the whole community is suffering from fear psychosis.”
TwoCircles.net also talked to Dr. Badre Alam khan on the legal aspect of the issue.
In what situation any law enforcement agency can arrest someone on the charges of terror? Do they have sweeping powers?
He replies, “Absolutely not.” Any law enforcement agencies be it police or Anti Terror Squad (ATS) don’t have absolute powers to arrest any person. Before arresting anyone it has to tell him or her charges of arrest.
But that can always be misused as the recent cases show. He says that it is the fault of the law that it considers the agencies like police to act in an impartial manner which is not at all the case.
But again if they have misused the law anyone can contact the Human Rights Commission which has got the powers to amend the wrong done by the police.
The accused has got the right to liberty and life. So he deserves proper judicial trial without which he can not be “damned.”
So if the police don’t produce him or her before the court within 24 hours one can contact the Human rights commission or Court.
He goes on to point out that even after such provisions laws have been misused by the police without any accountability. In order to correct that, the lawmaking agencies must include certain provisions in the law which can counter its misuse.