The Muslim Leadership In India - The Ultimate Sham - 3
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3. Ghaziabad Riots
- Background
If there can be a more mundane reason for riots kindly inform
me, for I will be even more greatly amused than you are going to be after you
learn about this particularly nasty piece of handiwork by some merchants of
death, for the lack of a better word. The incident began when 3 boys (reports
give one of their name to be Rashid / Salman) happen to tumble up on 16 – 18
pages of Quran on which abuses along with a phone number was written upon paragraphs
9 and 10. These boys showed these pages to
Hafiz Abdul Gaffar/ Gaffar Hafiz / Abdul Gaffar / Zalil-ur-Rehman / Muti-ur-Rehman
(each report gives a different name though the name Gaffar appears
predominantly). He gave it to the muezzin of the Rafiqabad masjid, Abdul Qadir.
Incidentally Qadir claims in one report that Gaffer gave him the copies, and in
another he claims Zalil-ur-Rehman showed him the desecrated pages of the holy
book. Then he called the elders of that locality to discuss as to what is to be
done and it was decided that the book will be buried as is the practice. The
news report says - “Qadir recalled how
within minutes of the pages being brought to him, a crowd had gathered outside
the masjid. He said – “When I stepped out of the masjid 15 minutes later,
several people had gathered asking what had happened. Some people asked me if
someone had thrown the pages outside the masjid, while others said they had
been found near the tracks.”
By afternoon
it was decided that a complaint should be registered with the Masuri police
station after the Friday evening prayers. The Imam Qadir claims a group of
people, which included only a few he recognised, forced him to take the pages
to the police station. “We reached the
police station by around 6.30 pm, but it took at least an hour to register a
complaint. By then a larger group of people had gathered outside the police
station,” Qadir says. One Zalil-ur-Rehman, who claims Abdul Gaffar to be
mentally challenged according to a news report [both Rehman and Gaffar have
“disappeared” as of now], wrote the complain on behalf of Qadir, who
incidentally is now disowning whatever is in the FIR claiming that since he did
not know how to read and write, Rehman had written up the complaint and read
out a different version of it to him. Though the Inspector asked for custody of
the pages, it was not provided and even as to this day the article is being
written, the pages are “lost” and no one knows what happened to them. The crowd
started demanding the police officers that they should immediately start
interrogating the man whose number was written on the pages to which the police
responded negatively saying that it can be done only after verifying who the
person is. Apparently this triggered the “spontaneous
reaction” and a mob of nearly 3000 – 5000 started pelting stones at the
police men, blocked the NH 24 , started looting the cars and other automobiles,
set ablaze nearly 64 private and public vehicles, abused and even manhandled
women passengers of the road (Read a shocking
firsthand experience here[25]).
Strangely the mob also let free, the criminals lodged in the jail, one of whom
was arrested on charges of drug trafficking. To add to this, the investigation
report by Masuri administration says, “In
a bid to kill a head-constable Roop Chand (who is still critical), the rioters
strangulated his neck tightly with a rope. Several policemen were injured with
the stones pelted by them.” Another constable is still critical in hospital
with a bullet wound. Anyone would naturally start retaliating, and the police resorted
to firing to disperse the crowd. There were causalities resulting in the death
of 6 people - Hayat (35), Asif (19), Wasim (18), Wahid (18), Amir(16) and
Lukman (14) – and about 25 people were injured, 12 of whom are reported to be policemen.
One should remember that these were 30 police men who were trapped in a police
station by a 3000 – 5000 strong mob armed with “rifles, revolvers and sharp weapons” who had “set a barrack on fire and threw an LPG cylinder in the fire to maximise
damage.”
- Politicians’ Response
Anyone with a little common sense would be trying to pacify
the locality. They would also not blame the police of gross negligence when
they have been brutally attacked. A group of 30 facing an armed group of 3000
is a night mare. So we expect leaders all across the political spectrum
including Muslims leaders, to condemn this incident and act tough. But secular India is no place for pragmatic
approach is it? Hence we have Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, the “young and
dynamic” Akhilesh Yadav, who uneasily evades questions of him not being in
control of UP by lame jokes, blaming, wait – for –it, the Police Officers, who
had delayed the action against the complaint. Akhilesh “felt that had action been taken on time after local residents
complained about desecration of a holy book, the flare-up could have been
avoided” says one news report.
Bordering on absurdity and lack of sympathy the CM said in the presence of
state DGP A C Sharma, “Bahut bigra hua
police mahakma hai (There is something wrong with the police department”.
Was this absurdity confined to the new CM
alone? No. The Shahi Imam of Delhi’s Jama Masjid Syed Ahmed Bukhari made the
whole incident about Muslim victimhood once again, not even for once pointing
out the fact that it was the so- called devout Muslims who had created the
ruckus. He claims that he represents the Muslims of India even while constantly
creating trouble for the ruling dispensation of UP with “warnings” like "Eighty percent Muslims have voted for the SP
this time round and Mulayam Singh can only ignore them at his own peril"
and “I had appealed to Muslims to support
the SP during the Assembly polls. But it will be a tough call now, I have no
answer” and suggestions like “There
are a few Superintendents of Police but no Muslim District Magistrate. If there
is a paucity of Muslim officials, get them on deputation” and “I was not seeking any alms from the SP chief
but was only batting for the community. I am feeling let down as adequate
Muslim representation was not given" in response to his brother being
denied a Rajya Sabha ticket from UP. One would wonder if the Imam thinks that
Uttar Pradesh civil administration is his personal fiefdom or if he is some
famed public policy consultant considering the interventions made by him in
administrative issues. It is altogether different issue than another secular
leader Azam Khan had declared that the Imam was a non-entity in the Muslim
world. This is the same Bukhari who persuaded Muslims not to participate in
Anna Hazare movement since chanting slogans like “Vande Mataram” and “Bharat
Mata Ki jai” are un-Islamic. This is the same Maulana Syed Ahmed Bukhari
against whom Delhi High Court had issue a non-bailable warrant in connection
with a criminal case in which he is accused of rioting, obstructing and
assaulting public servants from discharging their duties[26].
Following is the extract of a news item
from Times of India about the response from The Left, Right and Centre of the
Political Spectrum.
“The rapidly deteriorating communal situation has, however, drawn no reaction from the political class, a silence seen as linked to Mulayam's unique position as flag-bearer of the "secular" bloc in future central politics. The violence reiterated the salience of SP in the wake of turmoil over Centre's decision to allow FDI in retail. The Left and Samajwadis have joined hands in opposing the move that could wipe out native retailers. Mulayam, who once again floated the idea of 'third front' by partnering the Left bloc to protest against the coal scam in Parliament last month, is seen as critical in deciding the shape of secular politics post-2014. He is eyeing leadership of the 'third front' for a last shot at prime ministership. Both the Left as well as Congress are aware of his political muscle. He may be a big beneficiary in the 80-seat state and could determine who rules Delhi. The Left will prefer him to stay with the third front. Congress, on the other hand, is keen to keep him on its side, as much for UPA-II as for 2014. No wonder, the party has desisted from criticizing the UP regime even though it ran a campaign during state polls accusing Samajwadis of using communal polarization for electoral gain. Trinamool Congress is eager to coordinate with Mulayam since early polls suit both parties. Interestingly, while Mulayam cannot ally with BJP, the latter has its own calculations post-retail ruckus in keeping away from the UP regime. The saffron party does not want to stoke the 'communal vs secular' debate by talking about the sensitive issue since it would evoke strong 'secular camaraderie' from Congress and keep Mulayam on the UPA side.”
It is unbelievable to know that not one leader, be it from Muslim community or the other secular leaders or the social activists or any one, had the guts to speak up and ensure that they were actually, really helping to build a secular India. Even the BJP has not been strong in its response other than the stray comments from BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar and Shahnawaz Hussain. It got even more ridiculous when the local Muslim leaders started asking the policemen not to take any action as it would further deteriorate the delicate communal situation of the region. [27] The only group who seemed to be registering some disapproval were the Hindu shopkeepers who had shutdown their shops protesting the police delay in making any arrests.
- Results of Investigation
Notwithstanding the grumblings from the officials, about the investigation being hindered due to the presence of media, who are constantly following them for news bites, the results of preliminary enquiry are disquieting although not surprising. Following are the extracts of what the Intelligence Bureau has been saying for some time since long.
- Retired IPS and former Director General of Police (DGP) Uttar Pradesh KL Gupta says the reason behind the unprovoked attack on media persons at two places could possibly be aimed at destroying the video and photo footage of the violence so that the accused remained unidentified.
- The major worry of the IB is that the modules of various terrorist outfits might use the volatile situation to trigger more violence and engineer terror attacks, particularly on or before the tenth anniversary of Ayodhya Babri mosque demolition on December 6.
- This was not the first time that a defaced religious book was found in the region. Another book defaced in the same manner was found in Pilakhua on August 10 during Ramzan. The pattern was similar to the book found in Masuri as a mobile number was also scribbled on that.
- The man whose number was found scribbled on the defaced pages of the Holy Quran, claimed he had received a similar threatening call in August as well. “The caller used threatening and abusive language and told me that ‘you have defaced our religious book’. I was shocked. I called back and told him that we will hand his number to the police,” he claimed. The matter was not reported to the police as he received no further calls —that was till the September 14 violence at Dasna and Masuri. The man is totally confused and said two incidents of similar nature, in August and September, cannot be mere coincidence.
- The police reportedly recovered some pamphlets which were distributed by a political party of eastern UP at various places soon after Friday namaz. The contents of this pamphlet, misinformation about Assam and Myanmar violence, provoked Muslims to resort to violence across the state.
- Last month the police had recovered some kites on which highly communalised messages were written. The minority community had been asked to wage a war against the nation. Some pamphlets have been recovered on which communal slogans have been written." an officer of state intelligence department.
- “The State police chiefs have been asked to investigate robberies and street crime incidents minutely after security agencies noticed a disturbing trend of Indian Mujahideen raising money through this modus operandi.” The report says that “another area of concern was the circulation of undated pictures of charred bodies of Muslims with communal text supporting it to motivate young men to join the IM”.
Thus we see a
planned incitement, stirring up of passion using the age old, tried and tested
theme of Muslim victimhood and a wide scale violence harming not only the
policemen but also the unassuming on-lookers of their own community. The
conclusion that terrorist outfits like Indian Mujahideen are raising money
through such heinous manners is something upon which serious investigation need
to be done. A very worrying trend is the number of young men who had
participated in the mob. It is repeatedly pointed out how hundreds or thousands
of young Muslims of the age between 20 and 25 have been seen rioting and
plundering in this particular incident alone. One would like to assume that
they are not fools who get flared up just because a few pages of their book
have been defiled. Yet, what is seen
around the world, in Middle East and in Europe, points to a conclusion which is
otherwise. Another thing which is of disturbing nature is the role played by
the mosques. By now we have seen a number of incidents in which, misinformation
is spread during the namaz time in mosques. As a concerned citizen anyone would
want to know about the steps being taken to tackle this. It was a different
India, when we saw a leader boldly stating "I don't give a damn if the Golden Temple
and whole of Amritsar are destroyed,
I want Bhindranwale dead" so that the nation
will not reel under the threats of secession and terrorism and it is another
India when we have a foreigner ruled government trying its level best to pander
to the whims and fancies of extremists in the name of secularism.
Written on 2nd October 2012
Links to other parts
Part 1 - Muslim Leadership
Part 2 - Assam Riots
Part 4 - Muslim Youth Radicalisation
Part 5 - "Innocence of Muslims"
Part 6 - A Chance for Indian Muslims
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