By Md. Ali, TwoCircles.net,
New Delhi: Shabnam Hashmi from ANHAD and Navaid Hamid, member of the National Integration Council (NIC), have demanded a CBI enquiry in the Bharatpur communal violence, saying that only the CBI enquiry could bring out the truth in the gross human rights violations against the minority community of Meos, in which the local police was reportedly involved during a clash between Meos and Gujjars, which started after a controversy over an Eidgah land on September 14.
While talking to the press on Friday in the national capital, Hashmi said, that according to the victims of the police firing, the local police not only joined Gujjars in gunning Meos down, when the firing started but also they didn’t take action against Gujjars when they were allegedly burning Muslims alive on Wednesday evening.
“There are enough instances to prove that at present, police is trying to suppress and destroy evidences related to the horrible, human rights violations of the members of the minority community by the local police and Gujjars,” Hashmi added.
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An ANHAD team had visited Bharatpur on Thursday only to be reportedly threatened by the local police. The team was also detained when it tried to investigate about smoke coming out from several places, just outside the controversial Eidgah land. Local Muslims alleged that police was burning bodies in order to destroy evidences. The team also found two burnt bodies in a well within the premise of the Eidgah.
“Why didn’t the police want us to visit the area? It misguided and threatened us at every turn of our visit because it didn’t want us to find out the truth behind the violence in which police had a big role to play. After all there were lots of things to hide for the police,” Hashmi added.
Hashmi also alleged that the local police was suppressing and destroying evidences. Anhad also released a CD which showed burnt and charred bodies thrown in a well, bloodied spots in the mosque- things which were being hidden by the police in order to suppress the truth about the police firing reportedly on Meos.
Ramzan Choudhary, a local activist from Mewat said that “What is also clear is that police are destroying evidence. People have gone missing. We want the CBI to take over the investigation.”
Hashmi said that she didn’t want to speculate on number of dead, “It is clear they are many more than official figures. It is obvious that there is a lot more than meets the eye,” Hashmi added.
Besides the CBI enquiry, Hashmi led team has also demanded for the immediate dismissal of the culprit officers, besides compensation of ten lakhs to the family of those killed in the clash and the subsequent police firing.
Hamid asked, “Do we need few more communal riots to occur in the country, for the government to pass the Communal violence bill?”