By TwoCircles.net staff reporter,
Azamgarh: Frustrated by the vilification of Azamgarh by media and the police Muslims of Azamgarh has requested the government and the police to uphold the dignity of ‘Satyamev Jayate.’
‘Satyamev Jayate’ is the national motto of India and it means that ‘Truth Alone Triumphs’ encouraging Indians to always support the truth. But according to Muslims of Azamgarh in this war on terrorism, truth has been causality. Reports appear daily in media describing Azamgarh as terror hubs and many of its youth gone to other parts of India for education and employment have been arrested in recent days.
Perturbed by the new development, a group of prominent Azamgarh Muslims met last week in an event organized by Iqra Muslim Welfare Society and wrote a memorandum to the President of India.
The memorandum sent to the President through the District Magistrate of Azamgarh asks many questions about the truthfulness of the Jamia Nagar encounter. It also allege that police personnel are harassing Muslims of Azamgarh in the name of terror investigations.
The memorandum demanded that the the harassment of innocent persons must immediately be stopped and government and police officials and media found guilty of such heinous acts must be given exemplary punishment.
Memorandum full text:
Following has been unanimously resolved in a well attended meeting of citizens of Azamgarh held on the residence of Mr. Naseem Ahmad on 25th September, 2008 at 2 p.m.
1. that persons found guilty of conspiring against the country, involved in creating terror and loss of innocent lives through bomb blasts and other destructive activities, must be given exemplary punishment.
2. that the seemingly fake encounter at Okhla, Delhi, which amounts to culpable homicide is deplorable and deserves strong condemnation.
3. that students either killed or arrested went to Delhi from Azamgarh in pursuit of a good career and were having excellent academic records.
4. that when the whole area was cordoned off and boys living at Butla House were under constant surveillance, how it was possible for two boys to escape when the flat had no other entrance/exit? (The Hindu, September 21, 2008).
5. that Zeeshan was not present at the time of seemingly fake encounter. He had gone to take up exam for final year M.B.A. Zeeshan is a brilliant student and his father had got him admitted in a prestigious business school in the Capital.
6. that when Zeeshan came to know about the encounter he called his father and on his advice he surrendered before a TV channel . The TV channel setting aside all professional ethics called police and thus Zeeshan landed up in police custody.
7. that Inspector Sharma allegedly received pistol shots fired by one of the boys though police statement mentions the boys possessing AK-47. The ballistic report has not been made public and therefore it is not possible to say as to who fatally shot Inspector and which weapon was used.
8. that when lot of Police personnel were on roof tops Inspector Sharma might have been killed accidentally through stray bullets fired by his own colleagues.
9. that the pertinent question is: who benefits from these events? This needs to be thoroughly researched in order to get to the bottom of all these intermittent terrorist attacks. The investigation must take into account political fall outs of these incidents and must keep tight vigil on the movement of different political leaders and record their statements before and after the incident. In such tragic incidents circumstantial evidence is of prime importance and if the police personnel have not taken care to cordon off the affected area (in blast at Sankat Mochan Mandir, Varanasi, affected area was not cordoned), they must be punished.
10. that the joint Police Commissioner, Delhi, claimed solving the mystery of all blasts starting from Varanasi to Delhi and laid the blame on these murdered or arrested boys.
11. that if these boys were responsible for planting all the bombs (Varanasi to Delhi) then why U.P. Police killed a so called “militant” in the outskirts of Lucknow just after the Varanasi blasts thus proving involvement of the slain “terrorist” in the Varanasi blasts.
12. that why Maulana Wasiullah, Tariq Qasmi, Khalid Mujahid, etc were arrested and national media even before court proceedings tried them and passed verdict making them responsible for all the blasts in different district courts of U.P. and other places.
13. that why additional district and session judge of Barabanki acquitted Mohammad Tariq Qasmi and Khalid Mujahid of terrorism charges. As per court verdict “allegations of conspiring against the country, stocking weapons, beating up government employees and stopping them from carrying out their duty leveled against the two defendants are insubstantial”.
14. that Mohammad Tariq Qasmi was kidnapped along with his bike from near Rani ki Sarai check post (Azamgarh) and it was only when public demonstrated that Tariq and Khalid were shown arrested at Barabanki possessing RDX. Though government of U.P. has created the post of an additional Director General of Police (ADG) Human Rights on 25 September, 1997, and subsequently IG (Human rights & legal cell) and DIG (Human rights & public grievances) were posted under ADG (H/R), Muslim youths of Azamgarh like Saleem Qamar, Mohammad Tariq Qasmi and others were kidnapped/arrested giving scant respect to the stipulated rights of an arrested person.
15. that Azamgarh in spite of having scores of M.Ps and M.L.As and being a Commissionary has nothing in the name of University, Engineering College, Business/Management School, Medical College, good Hospital, good roads, constant/sufficient electricity supply, etc.
16. that after this seemingly fake encounter in Delhi, parents are reluctant to send their wards outside of Azamgarh thus Muslim youths will be denied opportunities of a bright career.
17. that after Sachar Committee report and general exhortation of teachers, parents and social activists Muslim students were applying themselves and were working real hard to get suitable position in public/private sector but all this have received a major setback which does not bode well for our beloved country’s welfare.
18. that Police personnel are harassing Muslims of Azamgarh and are not sparing even reputed and socially active doctors of Azamgarh. This is happening even after clear instructions of honourable Chief Minister of U.P. and this clearly proves high handedness of Police Officers responsible for upholding the law of the land.
19. that realization is dawning upon Muslims of a systematic and sustained malicious campaign to make them illiterate, poverty stricken second grade citizens.
20. that the situation is reminiscent of 1857 and demands immediate coming together of all secular and right minded citizens who have faith in the constitution of India in order to fight panderers who work for their own political aggrandizement through divisive politics.
21. that we demand a time bound high level impartial judicial enquiry in all cases of bomb blasts.
22. that we also demand thorough high level time bound impartial probe of bomb making/throwing incidents, stock piling explosives along with fake beards and caps generally used by Muslims, in Parbhani, Nander, Ten Kasi and Kanpur.
23. that provocative speeches by certain groups, in particular, Mr.Yogi Adityanath’s speech in Azamgarh exhorting harmful activities/killing of minorities and weaker sections, should be taken note of by the apex court of our beloved country.
24. that the government and political parties must uphold the dignity of our National Emblem “Satya mev Jayate”.
25. that incarceration or harassment of innocent persons must immediately be stopped and government/police officials and media found guilty of such heinous acts must be given exemplary punishment.
*In view of our fundamental rights as enshrined in our constitution, we humbly request you to kindly ensure that when ATS or STF conduct raids it should take along with them local DIG/SSP or their representatives. In case of arrest and/or house search, if any, care must be taken not to violate rights of an arrested person, inherent as articles 21 and 22(1) in our constitution.
Prime Functionary
Iqra Muslim Welfare Society
Azamgarh & Citizens of Azamgarh