In latest round of rioting in at Alirajpur and Neemuch, houses, shops and vehicles belonging to Muslims were damaged. Yet over 30 Muslims arrested so far, curfew imposed only in Muslim areas.
By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter,
Bhopal: The flow of communal violence in the Malwa region, the hotbed of Sangh Parivar, in Madhya Pradesh has left state’s Muslims in the state worried. The recent violence at Alirajpur and Neemuch is just the new addition to the ever growing communal frenzy in the region which has already covered Indore, Ratlam, Mandsaur, Dewas, Ujjain and Burhanpur in the past few years.
The recent conflagration broke out on the occasion of Hanuman Jayanthi, a festival which for past few years has become a rallying point for Hindutva organizations. In the run up to the festival on April 1, clashes broke out between Hindus and Muslims in Alirajpur when district BJP President’s son Sudhanshu Verma got into a scuffle with local Muslims allegedly over the decorations for festival.
He was allegedly attacked by some local Muslims which led his supporters to go on a rampage in Muslim localities damaging any property on their side. The situation was soon brought under control with heavy police deployment and imposition of section 144.
But the April 3, violence at Jawad tehsil in Neemuch manifests the underlying problems for the growing tension. In the communal violence, a day before Hanuman Jayanthi, a procession of Bajrang Dal went wild, injuring over dozen persons, and set ablaze over 15 houses, 12 shops and 10 vehicles, belonging to Muslims. Curfew was soon imposed amusingly only in the Muslim dominated areas.
The local Qazi of Jawad, Syed Mohammed Aqil told TwoCircles.net that riots were well planned, “Hanuman Jayanthi was falling on Saturday but Bajrang Dal insisted on taking out a procession on Friday. Their intention was to create mischief. Using WhatsApp they spread the message to come out in huge numbers to show off ‘Hindu strength on Muslim day’.”
According to him, later that day “During Friday prayer at Athana Darwaza Jama Masjid and Momin Mohalla Masjid, they started shouting slogans which were objected by Muslims, which led to confrontation and subsequent violent attacks and rioting. Miscreants were armed with petrol and kerosene oil which clearly suggests it was all well planned.” According to the complaint filed to the police, and letter written to the MP CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan, loud music were also played in front of the mosques, even at the time of the prayers.
Despite being on the receiving end of the communal violence, Qazi of Jawad claimed that Government and police were hell bent to “teach Muslims a lesson”. He expressed the helplessness of local Muslims, “Our shops, vehicles and houses were torched; we are the one who were beaten up by the armed mob. But then police choose to target and arrest us. Curfew has been imposed only in Muslim dominated localities. Police in the curfewed nights are arresting young and old alike, till now over 30 Muslims have been arrested on rioting cases. And no one from Bajrang Dal was touched. We are unable to do anything as we are locked inside our houses in an unending curfew.”
Qazi said that he even contacted local MLA Omprakash Sakhlecha and local MP Sudhir Gupta but both refused to interfere in the matter and told him bluntly, ‘You Muslims are trouble makers you pelted stones first’. Both are from the ruling BJP.
Jawad Tehsil’s Qazi observed that violence and hatred against Muslims in Neemuch and Mandsaur began with community’s progress and assertiveness.
“Sangh Parivar here hates Muslims seeing eye to eye with them. Since last decade Muslims are becoming more politically assertive and progressing in business and education. So this kind of violence is crafted to push us back on ground where Sangh feel we belong.”
Malwa region, western part of MP bordering Gujarat and Rajasthan, has always been in the news as a breeding ground for extremist groups, Muslim radical outfits were targeted heavily by the administration, but when it comes to radical outfits of Hindutva, it is alleged and observed by many that they enjoy patronage of MP government.
In the recent years scores of Muslim youths were arrested from different parts of Malwa region on charges of terrorism. MP stand on first position in the list of states with highest number of terror accused in jails, all of them are Muslims.
This despite the fact that link of every major bomb blast in the country targeting particularly Muslims like, Mecca Masjid, Malegoan, Ajmer, Samjutha express has their connections end at Malwa. In fact NIA claimed that RSS pracharak Sunil Joshi and Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur organized ten different terror training camps in the Malwa region.
Former head of state Jamat-e-Islami unit Abdul Ahad is a sharp political observer and quite vocal on the issue of increasing communal violence in Malwa. Abdul Ahad explains aptly, “Muslims are quite assertive in Malwa region compared to other parts of state. It is unacceptable for Sangh Parivar to witness an assertive minority in the heart of their Hindutva laboratory.”
He claims that modus operandi is first to instigate Muslims and when they react, harass them using state machinery. “They first assault Muslims under police protection, when Muslims even try to defend themselves police beat them up, arrest them and harass them for rest of their lives. So next time no Muslim will dare to stand on their feet against Hindutva.”
He said that the disturbing trend emerging in communal violence in Malwa region is the use of dalits to attack Muslims, “Malwa has huge concentration of Dalit and Tribal population. The higher caste Sangh Parivar is filling up Bajrang Dal with Dalits who are being used as foot soldiers to attack Muslims. By this way they are making two oppressed section to fight against each other.”
He lambasts BJP and Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan for their ‘political hypocrisy’, “It is all political calculations of BJP. On one hand our CM wants to portray that he is close to Muslims, on other hand he gives rope to Sangh Parivar to implement their agenda. At the end the ideology of Sangh Parivar drives BJP.”
Coordination Committee for Indian Muslims based in Bhopal has been working tirelessly to make sure rioters get punished for their acts. Their work looks simple as there are tons of provisions related to the crime in law books. But its convener Masood Ahmed Khan said their task is close to impossible in Madhya Pradesh.
“In the recent violence at Alirajpur and Jawad police refused to register the complaints of Muslims who were attacked and lost their properties in the riots. Police shunned Muslims away from the station telling that ‘your complaints will create more tensions’. This attitude gets repeated in every incident of communal violence especially in Malwa,” he told TCN.
Masood alleged that during festivities, communal tensions are built up by Hindutva elements under police protection provided before and even after the crime.
Riots and communal incidents have become so frequent in the region that Masood points out, “Local Muslims earlier used to call communalism as ‘Firqa Parasti’ and riots as ‘Gadar,’ now they describe both situations in one term, ‘Malwa ka zehar’ (Malwa’s poison).”
Meanwhile, the situation is now under control as curfew remains in place. Inspector General of Police, Ujjain Zone, Madhu Kumar told IANS that adequate police personnel have been deployed in the area. Extra police force has been requisitioned from neighbouring districts as a preventive measure.