Ram Puniyani
Another Muslim youth Mohammad
Amir Khan, age 18, preparing for his school exam, was abducted by police,
charged with being the mastermind of serial blasts in Delhi, was charged under
all the possible sections, tortured in jail for 14 years and finally released
in 2012 when no evidence was proved in the courts.
The worst part of this phenomenon
is that in popular perception it is alleged that it is Muslims, who start the
riots. Dr. V.N. Rai, who has done a major study on the communal violence points
out that generally a situation, is created where the minority community is
forced to throw the first stone on many occasions. To worsen the matter, after
the violence the majority of those who are arrested for communal violence are
Muslims again.
In Kalyan a Muslim youth
Bilal Shaikh was slapped with a non-bailable cognizable offense (May 2012)
under section 333, after he jumped the traffic signal. He was assaulted
brutally by the police for having arguments with them, suffered a fracture in
right arm and was in jail for eight days. The policemen who beat him up got
released with the non cognizable warrant.
Another Muslim youth Mohammad
Amir Khan, age 18, preparing for his school exam, was abducted by police,
charged with being the mastermind of serial blasts in Delhi, was charged under
all the possible sections, tortured in jail for 14 years and finally released
in 2012 when no evidence was proved in the courts.
In the series of blasts, for
which now Aseemanand-Pragyasingh Thakur and company is now cooling the heels in
jails, many a Muslim youth were arrested after every blast in Malegaon, Mecca
Masjid (Hyderabad), Ajmer and Samjhauta express. In all the cases the Muslim
youth had to be released as police had no credible evidence of any sort. In the
meanwhile many of them had to drop out from their studies and their careers
were ruined.
In the recently released (June
2012) report by Tata Institute of Social Sciences, the observation is that 36%
of the jail inmates in Maharashtra are Muslims
while the population of Muslims in state is close to 10.6%. The report was
sponsored by the Maharashtra States’ Minorities Panel. The findings of the
report are in conformity with the Sachar Committee report and general
observation of Human rights activists.
Most of the arrests of Muslim
youth are prompted by the prevalent stereotype of ‘Muslims are criminals,
terrorists’. These stereotypes are highly prevalent not only in society but
also amongst the bureaucracy, particularly the police and amongst intelligence
agencies. Many in the police force are totally in the grip of communal thinking
and with their infinite power they unleash themselves against the Muslim youth
at every conceivable opportunity. The rise of communalization of society and
more particularly after the coming up of the terrorism of Al Qaeda variety, the
stereotypes about Muslims have worsened. One recalls that this type of
terrorism was subtly brought up by United States for pursuing its goal
of controlling the oil wealth. The attitude of authorities has become more anti
minority and this in turn has undermined their professionalism and they are
guided more by their biases than by the rules of law.
There are multiple reasons for
the Muslim youth being targeted by the state authorities. True, that some
Muslim youth have fallen prey to the illegal activities due to the abject
poverty which they have to suffer. Still the major reason for their being
indiscriminately arrested by the police relates to the misconception regarding
acts of terrorism and communal violence.
In communal violence, the major
culprit instigating the violence is majoritiarian communal forces. The study of
different inquiry committee reports by Teesta Setalvad (Communalism Combat,
March 1998) shows that in most of the cases of violence it is the RSS related
organization, already prevalent or floated specially for the occasion, which is
in the lead. Even in Mumbai violence, Shrikrishna Commission held Shiv Sena as
the major factor leading the violence. As such Muslims are 13.4% of the Indian
population according to 2001 census, but amongst the violence victims 90% are
Muslims. Police and many a times political leadership takes the attitude which
increases the insecurity of the community.
The worst part of this phenomenon
is that in popular perception it is alleged that it is Muslims, who start the
riots. Dr. V.N. Rai, who has done a major study on the communal violence points
out that generally a situation, is created where the minority community is
forced to throw the first stone on many occasions. To worsen the matter, after
the violence the majority of those who are arrested for communal violence are
Muslims again.
The recent acts of terror and
attitude of police are very reflective of the whole process. In most of these acts
of terror, Malegaon, Ajmer, Jaipur and Samjhauta express blast, many a Muslim
youth were arrested as the ones’ who have done the act. Police machinery
produced evidence of their involvement with some Pakistan based terror group; SIMI
was always blamed for many of these acts. Even at that time there were enough
pointers that police investigations and action defies common sense. Police had
the standard formula for arresting Muslim youth after every blast. They made it
a practice to implicate the Muslim youth and put on their head the charge of
blast and their link with Lashkar-E-Tayyaba, Indian Mujahideen, SIMI or some
such group. Social activists kept pointing to the authorities about the leads
showing in another direction from where the acts of terror were emerging.
Police totally biased with prejudiced mind set kept on repeating the same
pattern over and over again.
Once Hemant Karkar’s immaculate
investigation showed the link of Malegaon
blast to Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur’s motor cycle and her links with many
Hindutva groups the matters came to a halt. Sadhvi’s links with Swami Dayanand
Pandey, Lt Col Prasad Shrikant Purohit, retired Major Upadhaya, Swami
Aseemanand and many others of Hindutva ideology revealed that police till then
was totally acting in a wrong manner. In this light Human Rights organization
ANHAD (Act Now for Harmony And Democracy), organized a tribunal in Hyderabad , ‘Scapegoats
and Holy Cows’. The report of this tribunal was very damning of the actions of
the investigation authorities and the state. Logically with the arrest of
Saffron terror gangs the acts of terror seem to have come to a halt.
Despite this, the attitude of
police remains as biased as before and in the day to day life they display this
partisan behavior. This biased attitude of state machinery, police and
intelligence authorities in the main, has been ruining the life and careers of
many a Muslim youth. The feeling of insecurity amongst the community as a whole
is on the rise. This feeling of insecurity is crippling the possible growth of
the community. Those implicated in such acts are also boycotted by the
community and have faced immense personal, social and economic losses. It is
time that the Human rights groups intensify their campaign to protect the
innocent Muslim youth, the legal measures need to be strengthened whereby the
police cannot exercise its biased attitude in arresting any Muslim youth.
Measures are needed to ensure that police-intelligence agencies takes up more
professional attitude overall and more particularly in the matters related to
minority youth. The Government needs to wake up and apply the correcting
measurs.
Apart from preventive legal steps
we also need to work against the prevalent social biases against Muslims in
particular. The myths against the community, which are historical and
contemporary issues, which are related to the causes of acts of terrorism need
to be countered by spread of truth about these myths. It is the duty of state
and social organizations to undertake and promote such awareness programs
through lectures, workshops, popular booklets and through mechanisms like T.V.
and media in particular.
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