By TCN News,
New Delhi: Murder of four innocents, all Muslim, at the hands of the BSF in Hyderabad on 14 May is a sign of a deeper malaise, said the All India Muslim Masjlis-e Mushawarat (AIMMM), the umbrella body of Indian Muslim organisations.
AIMMM President Dr. Zafarul-Islam Khan said here that Police-BSF over-reaction after a minor incident, use of military-issue INSAS rifles in the first instance without warning and without firing tear gas canisters or using rubber bullets, moving around with Sikh and Hindu rioters hunting for Muslims — all this points to a very deep malaise in our security forces which have been thoroughly communalised and this was seen by the whole world in the shape of firing on unarmed protesters and implication of dozens of Muslim youths in the aftermath of Makkah Masjid blast of May 2007.
It is a grave question, Dr Khan said, why the police did not quickly mediate between two communities after a trivial incident, why it called BSF instead of the Rapid Deployment Force which has been raised to deal with such situations? It is also strange why no non-Muslim rioter was touched although they started the riot by attacking Muslim homes. Some injured too have signs of injuries inflicted by swords, which shows how police and rioters were working in tandem.
Dr Khan rejected the magisterial enquiry ordered by the governor and demanded an enquiry by a sitting high court judge.
Dr. Khan said riots and police atrocities will not be checked until communalism is rooted out from the police force, unless enough Muslims are drafted in the force and until communal violence bill is passed with the provision of holding field and ground level officers personally accountable for violence and its repercussions.