| Even Muslim Newspapers are not ready to expose the heinous mind of anti-Muslim actions of the Indian Rulers, Police and Court. Shame! Indian fought for Justice. It was not a crime. If Muslims are persecuted they should fight and it is not a crime, but a good task. Opposing evil is part of Good Deed. Muslim Youth CONVICT? NO - VICTIM?YES Report From:Sadia Khanam Hundreds of Muslim youths have been detained for years in the jails of the country in the name of terrorism. Of late most of these youths are being declared innocent. But their lives are miserably ruined even after they get clean chit from the court, as they hardly find takers in a society that ostracizes them and their families for no reason. After being tortured mentally and physically for years they find it most difficult to restore their life to normalcy. This has today become a serious concern for the Muslims of India and the community leaders have to come ahead in larger numbers to stop this injustice.
"When I returned, I was surrounded by inquiring eyes and inquisitive voices wherever I went. Initially everyone maintained a distance from me at work place. But the most unbearable was the pain in my left leg. Their continuous third degree torture ruptured my muscles. It was even difficult for me to walk around."
Some must be wondering as to who was caught in such a devastating situation, but people aware of recent developments happening in the nation must have got an idea. Yes, this person is a victim of the Police torture. But not just this! He was tortured even though he was innocent and kept repeating that he has been taken into custody with a mistaken identity. But their acts of continuous flogging and prejudiced taunting had deafened their own ears and blinded their minds.
The above narration was made by Aftab Alam Ansari of Kashipur, an assembly constituency in North Kolkata, when EP contacted him and inquired about the aftermath of the most horrendous episode of his life. He was arrested by the UP STF on December 27, 2007 from Baranagar with Bengal police's help and charged with ferrying the entire cache of explosives for the serials blasts in Lucknow, Varanasi and Faizabad court in November 2007, and consequently labeled as a HuJi terrorist. But later he was acquitted of all charges when it was proved that he was misunderstood to be some alleged terrorist called Mukhtar who was also known as Aftab.
Should this be called a simple case of mistaken identity or does the blame go to the prevalent bias against Muslim youths and prejudiced attitude among the police force and also amongst most members of investigative agencies? If only one such case is taken into consideration then we can go with the first option and forego the mistake but the truth is that this case is not a lone example. Ample of such cases today lie in front of us to prove that there exists a scheme of systematically targeting Muslim youth in such cases so as to ruin their lives and careers and put a check on the educational and economical advancement among the Muslim youth today.
If Muslim youths are actually proven guilty and brought to book, it would firmly be recognized as a credible act on part of the police and investigative agencies and it would be upheld as a triumph of justice. But if they are innocent, and as is being witnessed in large number of cases, who will pay for the loss of their precious part of life, of the reputation, honour and dignity and of the pains and sufferings that continue to hound them, maybe forever?
This question is today bothering the unbiased minds of a number of people who stand by truth and justice. They understand that this vicious cycle of victimization of Muslim youth, as presented in this report, has further marginalized the Muslim communities especially those living in rural areas. In order to save themselves from such atrocities, Muslim community in small towns like Azamgarh, Saharanpur, etc have resolved not to send their wards to bigger cities even for education or work.
But unfortunately the police and other state machineries seem to be unbothered as they continue to make such mistakes, or rather, they continue to execute the conspiracies of "victimizing' the Muslim youth and ruin their lives and careers by labeling them as terrorists!
These statements may sound audacious on our part but if we see some basic statistics, it would sound much pertinent.
Here are the cases that support the above statements (Table 1):
And you talk about bombing places of worship? Here is another analysis (Table 2):
Even after bombings in Muslim places of worship, Muslims were arrested. Reason given: Sectarian violence! Applauds to our investigative agencies and police!
Why Is This Happening?
If one sweeps across a little more than a decade old pages of Indian history, one will come across the illegitimate and communal event of razing down the Babri Masjid Mosque by RSS, its allied organizations and their karsevaks. Even top level bureaucrats have been found to have instigated the mob to carry out such a shameful act.
Before the demolition of Babri Masjid, the Muslims and Hindus were comparatively coexisting peacefully with few riots being the reflections of the scars caused by The Partition and the divisive policies of British, but nothing called terrorism had taken any shape till then and obviously not the so called Islamic terrorism.
The demolition of Babri Masjid was followed by the Mumbai riots of 1992- 93 and later the serial blasts that seriously disturbed the comparatively peaceful atmosphere of India. Though some Muslims were found involved in such violent attack, which is strongly condemnable, it should be noted that in the course of its probe the Srikrishna Commission, established to find out the real culprits of the Mumbai riots, found that several political leaders and police officers provided active support or at least tacit approval to those who fomented the communal incidents that led to the carnage and even Shiv Sena was indicted by the commission.
However, after these horrific episodes Muslims were being haunted as alleged gangsters and even today movies largely depict Muslims from local gundas to alleged dons.
Then came the 9/11 attack which totally distorted the picture of Islam and Muslims around the globe. And after that every terror attack in India was immediately called as the acts of the so- called Muslim terrorists living both in India and abroad, whom the police repeatedly alleged to have taken extensive training in Al-Qaida and other terror camps. And thus began the series of arrest of Muslim youth from across the nation. While some arrest might have been lawful [though none have been proved yet], most of the youths arrested are innocent who are subjected to third degree torture to force out confessions.
Of late, thanks to the tireless efforts of some lawyers and activists, many innocent youth have been acquitted.
When contacted, Gulzar Ahmed Azmi, General Secretary of Jamiat Ulama-e-Maharashtra, was of the same view. "I can say with all confidence that all the Indian Muslim accused who were arrested and tried after 1993, none of them got convicted. That is why I say that this is a conspiracy of Israel and America which has been joined by our investigative agencies through certain foreign policies and following which they are harassing Muslims in such a way," he said in a telephonic conversation.
Mr. Azmi was approached by Late Shahid Azmi, who suggested that they should provide legal aid to innocent Muslim accused and thus began a new mission of Jamiat-e-Ulema Maharashtra.
This organization has also arranged legal aid for suspects in various ongoing terror cases such as Bombay Central, Vile Parle and Ghatkhopar blasts; Gateway of India and Zaveri Bazaar blasts, Aurangabad arms haul case, Official Secrecy Act case, case of Indian Mujaheedin in Mumbai and Gujarat, American Consulate attack in Kolkata, Mubarakpur attacks case, 7/11, and many more. At present the Jamiat is providing legal assistance to a total of 68 Muslim terror accused and bears all the expenses of legal proceedings however and whenever necessary. It has a legal panel of around 10 to 12 lawyers who work tirelessly and selflessly to grant justice to these innocent youths.
Even MIM in Hyderabad and its leader, Assaduddin Owaisi have been instrumental in saving the Muslim youths from the accusation regarding the Mecca Masjid Blast case. However, EP was unable to contact him.
Khalid Ibadullah, a local congress leader, commenting on the issue told, "I can say with full confidence that there is a conspiracy being hatched and executed on international level from America and parts of Europe to reduce the Muslims to a despised minority. I am 99.9% sure that even the RSS and VHP is a part of this international conspiracy."
Lawyers Prosecute!
As one would agree the best people to comment on this issue are obviously those lawyers who have managed to get some of the Muslim youths acquitted and have deeply studied each and every aspect of this issue using their legal lenses.
Adv. Md. Shoaib of Lucknow who braved in to fight for the of Aftab Alam Ansari when the Bar Associations of Faizabad, Lucknow and Barabanki had banned lawyers to fight the cases of Muslim terror accused, talking to EP said, "As the Muslims started progressing in the fields of education and economy, leaving behind the wounds of Partition, a fear was created in the hearts of anti- Muslim forces. America and Israel cashed in and along with the RSS, its sister organizations and their loyalist seated in IB and RAW together carried out the propaganda of maligning the image of Muslims and Islam and systematically started preparing lists of Muslim youth who could be targeted," feels Adv. Md. Shoaib.
He said that as the NDA government took charge, many blasts were "planted" and right after the blast, Advani would instantly blame LeT, HuJI and SIMI following which SIMI was banned even though he had filed a writ of habeas corpus against all allegations.
According to him, the police actually make arrest from somewhere and through FIR they show the arrests somewhere else which would support their concocted tales of the crimes done by the accused. The examples stated by him in this regard [provided in the table below] are worth noting.
Advocate Muhammad Shahwar Khan of New Delhi has also taken up several terror cases and secured acquittals. Sharing his experiences he says, "There are false implications. The main objective of the police is to keep the person in jail. So they make up the case so lengthy that the person does not come out of the jail. The role of investigating agency is to collect evidence but the police here "create" evidence and innocent persons are being convicted on their basis."
He has 85% acquittal rate to his credit. Referring to a case he stated, "The prosecution said that they saw two persons alighting from a bus. They gave the bus number and recovered the bus ticket but the bus conductor deposed in the cross examination that he did not carry out that trip."
Adv. Mobin Solkar, of Mumbai who is presently defending the German Bakery Blast accused Abdul Samad, though declines to agree that Muslims are being implicated just because they are Muslims, but he does accept that such cases have come up where Muslim have been falsely implicated. "We have seen cases like the Mulund blast case where the prosecution have themselves after imprisoning them for 4 to 5 yrs have filed affidavits in courts stating that some of these accused persons are not involved in the conspiracy." he stated.
When inquired as to why issues of Non- Muslim accused are generally suppressed he explained that in such cases neither the police, nor the prosecution or even the media take decisive stand and address them as sternly as they do in case of Muslim accused. "When a Hindu accused is arrested, it is not called Hindu terrorism or Hindu atankwad!" he exclaims.
Adv. Khalid Azmi, brother of Lt. Shahid Azmi, who was killed in February for unraveling various terror cases linking to the involvement of the saffron group, is now carrying on with his brother"s legacy. Criticizing the police's habit of alleging that almost all Muslim accused had gone for training at terror camps in Pakistan or elsewhere, he says that only 1% of them might have gone for training post Babri Masjid demolition and are linked with Pakistani terrorists harbouring in India. "But where are those Pakistani terrorists in India? Why aren't they being arrested along with all the Indian Muslims?" he asked. As per him most of the accused are well qualified persons who must not have had the time and motivation to carry out such attacks. "Intelligence agencies are playing a notorious game with the Muslims as they do not want them to reach higher echelons of success," he said.
Basing on authentic research and findings, he said, "there is this person who has freely confessed that from 2005 to 2008 all the blasts has been carried out by him but the police has not taken any action against him. Though they have arrested him for one or two blast case but also arrested 13 Muslims for the same blast cases."
Just Few Questions
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All this instances cited by well known lawyers clearly shows how a systematic targeting of Muslim youth is prevalent today in this largest land of democracy. The police also have evidences against some non Muslim extremist groups and individuals! Why are they not being brought to book? What about the Nanded Blast? What about the confessions of Col. Purohit of masterminding so many attacks? What about so many political leaders who have been secretly recorded to have confessed or planned communal riots and blasts with undercover journalists?
After all, do you remember what happened to the man named Vijay, a rickshaw puller from Mumbai, who had said after Jaipur bombing that he was tried to be bribed by a woman called Meena in Jaipur?
You were actually made to forget this. These news are shown once to ascertain everyone that police and investigative agencies are unbiased and then they go into oblivion.
And why blame the police? In March, R R Patil, Maharashtra Home Minister, announced that if the ATS chief had indeed named Hindu groups as having been involved in the Pune blast, action would be taken against him. Four days later, ATS chief K P Raghuvanshi was removed.
Not convincing? Let me give you another forgotten example. On August 2, 2008, a suspicious sadhu-like man, entered the court premises of Faizabad. When police questioned and threatened him, he said that his name is Nankaoo Das, an accused under Gangsters Act and was currently on bail but on search, bombs were recovered from his bag. He was arrested and jailed but at the same time the police exerted all its efforts to minimize the gravity of his crime. They described the three bombs as "crackers".
People present during the time of recovery said that along with the bombs a small iron box too was recovered and there were about 20 persons with Nankaoo Das at the time of the recovery but they all fled in jeeps after he was caught, and the police made no mention of these in its report. Had there been a Muslim in Das' place, would the police and media have still considered the bombs as "crackers"?
Such Nankaoo Das keep roaming around but are not the target of police scrutiny much! And the officers who go ahead and do their duty without any bias or prejudice are silenced to death! At least that's what happened to Hemant Karkare!
And why are we forgetting the lawyers who are representing the innocent Muslim accused? Even they are being harassed and assaulted.
Adv. Md. Shoiab, in fact, just saved himself from loosing an eye, though the wound has caused considerable damage to his eyesight. And who were the attackers? The lawyers of the Bar association at Faizabad, Varanasi and Barabanki!
When Adv. M.S. Khan went to Mathura in Uttar Pradesh in the month of March 2009, for such a case, local lawyers numbering 300-400 surrounded him and raised slogans against him but he managed to escape with dignity.
Similarly, advocate Noor Mohammad, was physically assaulted by lawyers in Dhar who sought to prevent him for taking up the case of a Muslim accused.
And Advocate Shahid Azmi was killed after all! His only sin that he was unveiling the actually culprits of terror cases while assisting the innocent accused! He had received real threats from Chota Rajan gang members before his death and alerted the police about it but the police did nothing. Recently even Khalid Azmi felt threatened by suspicious people moving around him.
Is this the India that our freedom fighters dreamt of? A land where culprits are set free and innocents are being imprisoned? A land which calls itself secular but runs on communal agendas and appeasement politics, both of which ultimately marginalize the minorities? And lawyers- the protectors of law- being threatened? That too by their own peers? Isn't this an uncivilized barbaric, in fact utmost insensible scenario?
Lets Get Serious Now!
If this whole trend continues to go on with its pace, then India would actually become a breeding ground for all sorts of terrorists- One, those whose crimes have been neglected would grow in number and two, those who will actually start treading this path, after being victimized by the biased police and state machineries.
These are not mere speculations but serious reflections of an issue that has expanded throughout the nation and created a dirty web of injustice, deception and terrorism of course [though I won't name it as either Islamic or Hindu terrorism], that is harbouring a monster which is not only preying upon the Muslim youths but indirectly on the whole nation, its sovereignty and its constitutional values of justice, democracy and equality.
Thus, It is needed that the government and the unbiased minds in the legal fraternity come together to devise such ways which can retard such practices malpractices and bring the actual terrorists to book. And more importantly, they should create a proper structure of compensating the victims of bias both monetarily and morally. After all they can take such lessons also from the Western nations like America or Australia!
And lawyers should be barred from creating such bans as this would be a big blot on the democratic principle of free and fair trial for every one and would destroy the spirit of right to equality before law! Only court can decide if they are guilty or innocent.
It is an oft repeated statement that no nation can prosper entirely if some sections of its population are marginalized! But if forget about governments, nations and competition for the super power, it is ultimately the human society that is the basic form of existence. And history bears evidence that all such societies ceased to continue or got ruined which bred on barbaric ideals of man hunting down the other man to quench his hunger and thirst. Today India is witnessing a civilized form of such barbarism and if it is not checked, India will keep visiting the 1993, 7/11, 26/11 and the likes and the new generation instead of focusing on developmental issues would either leave a land of violence and terror to settle abroad or would converge their energies in addressing such matters only. Then who will care of a double digit GDP? Is anyone listening?
Victims Speak
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Lets for some moment forget the political aspects of this issue and divert our attention to those hapless people about whom we have been talking all along. Even after getting acquitted their worries do not cease. After getting out they see a whole new battle lying in front of them to be fought- The battle to restore their honour, livelihood and happiness- for which they keep fighting for years again as both physical and mental scars prove to be the enemies within them.
Aftab Alam Ansari, who was falsely accused in the Serial Court Blast case, was the lone breadwinner of his family consisting of his widow mother, wife, two sisters and a younger brother. One of the two sisters was already engaged but upon his arrests, the groom's people discarded the relationship. However, after his acquittal he sought for another marital alliance and married off her sister in 2009. But it wasn't an easy task since his financial condition was not like before and his physical injuries didn't allow him to work much. However, Khalid Ibadullah, a congress leader here in Kolkata helped him financially at that time.
Even his brother's Higher Secondary result was affected by his arrest and consequently he wasn't getting admission in any college. The CPIM MLA Md. Salim had agreed to help them but delayed so much that all due dates for admissions passed. "He was just needed to make a call but that he couldn't manage," complains Ansari. It was on his personal request that a local college their admitted his brother.
Even the government neglected his need for proper compensation. He was called upon by CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and was assured that he would be given proper compensation so that he could at least avail of proper medication. However, Out of Rs. 80000, as was estimated for his medical expenses, he was just given Rs. 30000. "I wouldn't have taken even that money but I needed it so that I could get my legs treated and at least help my brother get proper education. After all I have to fend for a family," he said explaining how it became difficult for him as a line man at the CESC to climb ladders and work even for fifteen consecutive minutes. Due to this and during cold weathers he has to take leave because of his leg pain. On the other hand his chest pain always worsens when he exerts himself more in tension.
He said that many Human rights forums had approached him and many organizations called him to tell his tale. But at the end he stood alone surrounded by all sorts of problems while everyone went their way.
In the custody he said that he had to go undergo only torture and abuse daily. Speaking about the last one he said, "as I was leaving after getting acquitted, the constable who used to beat me up came and said, "jao, dadhi munch nahi hai isliye chod diya.' [we are leaving you since you don't have a moustache or a beard].
Seeing this one can imagine the height of disdain that is existing in the minds of people who vow to protect us irrespective of race, religion, caste or colour!
Then there is the case of Dr. Abdul Matin, who was arrested for the Ghatkopar Blast Case of 2002, but was acquitted along with all the other 7 accused as the confessional statements that the police provided were doubtful.
When asked about that devastating episode, he commented, "it's very difficult & painful for me to recollect the time but it is still a ghost hounding on my family life as well as social life."
A post graduate MD in forensic medicine, a rare option in medical fraternity, he worked as a lecturer at the government medical college, Aurangabad at the time of incidence. However even after acquittal by the special POTA court, the government is not willing to reinsted him at the post of asst. professor and has filed an appeal against the acquittal. "Now I am trying to get my job back but it doesn't seem to be easy or may be it's my destiny," said Dr. Matin in a sorrowful tone.
He now works as a general practitioner but even the patients are averse of consulting a doctor with such background and ongoing cases. At the end he only prays, "I hope that whatever has happened to me does not happen with anyone in this world."
He feels that Muslims in this country are required to form a legal forum as well as a social organization with all sects on one platform to fight for the justice to the victims of persecution by the law enforcing agencies.
Likewise, Hyderabad's Md Rayeesuddin had to take a loan from the AP Civil Liberties Monitoring Committee to set up shop as an electrician. No one would give him a job. Md Afroz who despite being acquitted and freed of all charges, had to face problems in even getting his children admitted in schools.
Thus, for such atrocities on one person, the whole family's peace and dreams of success and prosperity shatters. In such situations only, the victims get alienated from state and public. Just think if this child is unable to get proper education, what will the future hold for him? Just a tag of being the son of a terror accused?
This actually happens as we see in the case of Fahim Ansari's brothers. In the past two years, the family has suffered emotionally and financially owing to the trial. They have an envelope printing business and all six brothers had an equal share. However after Fahim's arrest, their business dwindled as no client wanted to be associated with a "terrorist'. The family of all brothers sustain on the income generated from just one client.
Custodial Torture: Blow To Rule of Law
You must have witnessed scenes of torture in some several movies, and almost all of us are aware of it being a brutal reality. So when the worst has happened to innocent Muslim accused, how can they have possibly missed this one?
But before delving into the details, we must make a note of the fact that third degree torture on accused is totally illegitimate. The police and investigative agencies are only allowed to interrogate them in custody and no kind or physical or even mental pressures are entertained by the Indian legal system during interrogations as informed by Adv. Khalid Azmi. Article 5 of the UDHR, 1948 proclaims that "No one shall be subjected to torture, or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment." Following the spirit of UDHR, the Indian Constitution provides for life and dignity and honour as incorporated in the preamble and in the chapter on Fundamental Rights.
But if we go on to examine the cases of 7/11, we will witness how these very doctrines of Indian laws were flouted by the police. In this case the police did not get a single accused right after the incident. It was only after two months, that they started to catch two or three people every day. Adv. Khalid Azmi informed that in these two months they were actually listing down people who could be targeted.
After this those arrested were illegally detained for weeks and were prevented to meet their lawyers and family. To break them, the police used cheap tactics like unclothing the wife in front of husbands and threatening to abuse her if they declined to sign confessional statement. They put petrol in their private parts or injected drugs in any part of their body. This would obviously break any common man!
But this wasn't the end. On 28th June, 2008, all 33 undertrials were brutally tortured by the orders of Swati Sathe, the then Superintendent of the Arthur Jail where they were imprisoned. Without a court order she ordered the transfer of the 33 under trials to other jails. When they opposed the transfer in absence of court order, Sathe ordered the jail staffs to lathi charge the prisoners. This was done with the assistance of the `deshbhakt gangs (Hindu prisoners)', local police and a number of convicts brought from Pune. The 7/11 undertrials were beaten and some of them had theirs ribs and legs broken, nevertheless they were forcibly taken to jails outside Mumbai.
To the media Ms Sathe said that they had to resort to force as these undertrials first attacked the jail staff with bricks and stones shouting "Pakistan zindabad, Hindustan murdabad".
But Shahid Azmi was not ready to take this. Being a victim himself of such atrocities in his teens, moved by the plight of the victims, some of them who were denied medical treatment for weeks, he filed a petition in the Bombay High Court and succeeded in obtaining an order for a judicial enquiry into the incident.
Principal Sessions Judge T V Nalawade's report indicted Sathe by holding that the lathi charge was totally wrong. The Bombay High Court disposed of the petition filed by Shahid Azmi by ordering the transfer of Ms Sathe from Arthur Rd Prison and for an FIR to be lodged against her. However, till now nothing has been done in this regard.
For evidence, one can go through the letters of Vernon Gonsalves who was a political prisoners arrested as "Maoists" by Mumbai ATS in August 2007 and was in Arthur Road Jail till the beginning of 2009. He informed that Sathe had created communal walls even inside the prison.
The Muslim terror suspects or Dawood's gang members were segregated in separate barracks, and labeled as "atankwadis' or `Pakistani' agents. Whereas Chota Rajan's men were referred to as `deshbakt' gangsters, and the Hindu terror accused in the 2008 bomb blasts at Thane, Panvel and Vashi, along with Lt Col Purhit, and Dayanand Pandey, were also referred to as `deshbhakts' and VIP treatment were meted out to them. The letters also described the religious favours granted to this group.
In case of Mecca Masjid Blasts also, 21 Muslim were arrested, only to be acquitted 20 months later. Three months after this blast, Hyderabad was rocked by twin blasts, for which again, Muslims were arrested. An inquiry by advocate L Ravi Chander, commissioned by the Andhra Pradesh Minorities Commission, confirmed after meeting 20 Muslims in jail, that they had been tortured and the police have flouted all norms while arresting them.
The biased police officers conduct all these atrocities away from the eyes of media and judiciary and force confessions from them. This was seen even in late 2006, when all the seven key accused in the Mumbai train blasts in July retracted their alleged confession to the police, saying they were illegally forced to sign blank papers.
Even 28-year-old Dr Ibrahim Ali Junaid, who was in the final year of his medical course when the local police picked him in August 2007 in connection with the Makkah Masjid and other terror blasts in the city was exposed to third degree torture for five days and was unsuccessfully forced to admit his "role' in the blasts. At last he was charge-sheeted for hatching conspiracy for terrorist activities in the country but in December 2008 the court acquitted him of all charges.
Is this how those officers bounded by Indian law and constitution safeguard honour and life? Witnessing such reality any common man would loose faith in the government and legal system of the nation. But it is also not to be forgotten that still there are people like Shahid Azmi and Hemant Karkare who are even ready to risk their life to uphold truth and justice.
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