Ram
Puniyani pleads that the police drop its prejudiced attitude towards Muslim
youths.
IN
KALYAN, Bilal Shaikh was slapped with a non-bailable cognisable offence last
month under Section 333, after he jumped a traffic signal. He was assaulted
brutally for arguing with the police, suffered a fracture in the right arm and
was in jail for eight days. The policemen who beat him up were released with a
non-cognisable 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 found.
In
the series of blasts, for which now Asimananda, Pragya Singh Thakur and Co are
cooling their heels in jail, many a Muslim youth were arrested after every
blast in Malegaon, Mecca Masjid (Hyderabad), Ajmer and Samjhauta Express. In
all cases, the Muslim youth had to be released as police had no credible
evidence of any sort. Many had to drop out from studies, ruining career prospects.
The
June 2012 report by Tata Institute of Social Sciences has found that 36 percent
of jail inmates in Maharashtra are Muslims while the population of Muslims in
the state is only 10.6 percent. The report was sponsored by the Maharashtra
State Minorities Panel. The findings of the report are in conformity with the
Sachar Committee report and general observations of human rights activists.
Many
in the police force are totally in the grip of communal thinking. With their
infinite power, they unleash themselves against Muslim youth at every
conceivable opportunity. With terrorism of the al Qaeda variety, stereotypes
about Muslims have worsened. One recalls that this type of terrorism was subtly
brought up by the United States for pursuing its goal of controlling oil
wealth. The anti-minority attitude undermines their professionalism.
The
recent acts of terror and attitude of police are very reflective of the whole
process of communalisation of society. In most of these acts of terror —
Malegaon, Ajmer, Jaipur and Samjhauta Express blast — many a Muslim youth was
arrested as the ones who have perpetrated 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 investigation and action was defying common sense. Police
had a standard formula for arresting Muslim youth after every blast. They make
it a practice to implicate Muslim youth and put on their head the charge of
being involved in blasts and having links with Lashkar-e-Toiba, Indian
Mujahideen, simi or some such group. Social activists kept pointing to the
authorities about the leads pointed to another direction from where the acts of
terror were emerging. Police, totally biased, kept repeating the same pattern
over and over again.
Once
Hemant Karkare’s immaculate investigation showed the link of Malegaon blast to
Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur’s motorcycle and her links with many Hindutva
groups, matters came to a halt. Sadhvi’s links with Swami Dayanand Pandey, Lt
Col Prasad Shrikant Purohit, retired Major Upadhayay, Swami Asimananda and many
others subscribing to Hindutva ideology revealed that police till then was
totally acting in a wrong manner. In this light, human rights organisation
anhad (Act Now for Harmony And Democracy) organised a tribunal in Hyderabad,
‘Scapegoats and Holy Cows’. The report of this tribunal was very damning of the
actions of the investigative 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 day-to-day life
they display this partisan behaviour. Those implicated in such acts are boycotted
by the community and face immense personal, social and economic losses. Legal
measures need to be strengthened so that the police cannot exercise its biased
attitude in arresting any Muslim youth.
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 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 organisations to undertake and promote such awareness
programs through lectures, workshops, popular booklets and through mechanisms
like TV and media in particular.
Ram
Puniyani is a communal harmony activist based in Mumbai.
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