Ramleela is tarah hogi kabhi socha na thi,
Yeh Dasha Saket mei hogi kabhi socha na tha.
Ab na wo ramayan ki chaupaiyan na chand hai.
Ram Key Adarsh Ab Almariyo mei band hai
Ki Bharat ney jo tapasya wo adhuri rah gayi
Kaiakeyi Key khwab ki Tabeer Puri Ho gayi – Shameem Ahmed Shameem (Faizabad)
By TCN Special Correspondent,
Lucknow: Perhaps, the above lines sum up the recent communal violence incidents at Faizabad and adjoining areas. The area had remained peaceful since 1992, when Babri Masjid was demolished.
Among those who suffered was one newspaper office — Aapki Taqat, a bilingual Urdu-Hindi weekly published from Faizabad. Its masthead carried the slogan — Hindu Muslim, Do Bhai, Hindi Urdu, Do Behen (Hindu and Muslim are two brothers; Hindi and Urdu are two sisters). Edited by local journalist Manzar Mehdi, the newspaper had admirers and patrons in Faizabad, mostly Hindus.
IAS Transfer List 6 Nov, 2012
This attack and burning of newspaper office is not a simple act of communal violence. In Mehdi’s words, “What is a matter of concern is that it was burnt by those who had at times must have visited my office. I have no words to explain.” But the relations were forgotten
and the communal frenzy took over.
Now when the curfew has been lifted, people are coming to terms about what they have lost. The brotherhood, the harmony are not the only things. “I am still finding it hard to face my friends who had shops in Chowk area. I had spent my student days there and used to spend many hours having tea and chatting with them. I called them up and they too don’t had any answer,” Anil Yadav, a journalist from Faizabad and presently based in Lucknow stated. Anil has not been to the place after the riots and is presently in Lucknow.
Mehdi, who also runs a social organisation Guldasta which forms a human chain for communal harmony every year on republic day, is aware that things will be tough. The human chain which he formed had seen several Hindu seers joining hands with Muslim clerics.
“Flowers were showered from Chowk Masjid in the past when the idol procession passed. Now what has happened?” wondered Mehdi.
Azadar, a local shopkeeper who had dry fruits outlet in the mosque which was also looted and gutted openly admitted in Lucknow that it was a planned attack. “Tension was palpable for past one month. But we never thought that it will be so worse,” he said.
Perhaps, this is the most glaring example of selective targeting of Muslim establishments. As per reports, 81 shops and houses were torched and gutted, only few of them being from other community.
Now, after nearly 12 days, Samajwadi Party government which regards itself as pro-Muslim, has finally woken up and transferred the district officials. Dated November 6, the state government has finally issued the transfer order of the DM of the district.