The perception in the Muslim community following the bomb blasts in Hyderabad and the police firing that occurred after the first incident in May last year as well as the detentions and torture of Muslim youth in the months that followed is something our government would be well advised to address.

On May 18, 2007 a bomb exploded at Mecca Masjid in the old city area of Hyderabad, sparking off angry protests by local Muslims. While several people were killed and many injured in the blast itself, several more were killed and injured in the subsequent police firing. The police fired into the crowd allegedly because the "mob" tried to set fire to a petrol pump and kill policemen guarding it, attacking them with iron rods and other weapons. However, during the cross-examination of a police witness before the Justice V. Bhaskara Rao Commission of Inquiry (appointed to inquire into the incident that led to the police opening fire), it emerged, among other things, that (a) the crowd had nothing but stones in its hands, (b) the distance between the petrol pump and policemen, and the crowd when it was fired at, was about a hundred feet, and (c) from that distance it was impossible to either set fire to the pump or kill policemen. The Hyderabad police’s version of events stands falsified.

Following these events, the issue was brought before the Andhra Pradesh State Human Rights Commission. The commission held hearings and also saw video clips of the police firing. Video images showed the police firing into the mosque through the grill, firing at a receding crowd, firing at least one weapon not mentioned in relevant police reports, firing from shoulder level, not firing below the waist and so on. The police reports on the incident, prepared and filed by senior police officials, were, when compared with the videos, established as false. However, the State Human Rights Commission has, as far as I know, taken no subsequent action in the matter.

A few months later Hyderabad was to witness more explosions after two powerful bomb blasts shook the city on August 25 when several dozen people were killed and many injured as bombs were set off at the Lumbini Park open-air auditorium and at the Gokul Chat shop a few kilometres away. Following this, the police are said to have started picking up Muslim youth illegally, taking them to places on the outskirts of Hyderabad, holding them in illegal confinement and torturing them on suspicion. After petitions were filed for writs of habeas corpus (asking that the youth be produced before a judge and reasons be given for their detention) about 20 youth were gradually shown as "arrested" on subsequent dates and as having been "produced" before magistrates. All of them complained of persistent torture, degrading inhuman treatment and illegal detention. Yet the state simply ignored their plight. It was as if the Muslims were expendable, politically insignificant and simply did not count for anything.

Meanwhile, the Andhra Pradesh State Minorities’ Commission was also moved to act. The commission sent a fact-finding team comprising an advocate commissioner, a professor of forensic medicine and others to the Cheralapalli Jail where the team found and documented signs of injury to the detainees that it attributed to torture. This included marks resulting from being hung from the ankles and wrists, abrasions from severe beating, burn injuries from electric shocks, marks of needles pierced through the nipples, etc. Although dated to periods when the youth were in police custody, curiously, the injuries found no mention in the magistrate’s remand orders. Following these revelations, the state administration sought to block the commission’s next visit to the jail and it was weeks before this finally took place. Unsurprisingly, this was seen as the state’s attempt at a rather hasty cover-up.

A report was then prepared by the State Minorities’ Commission and sent to the government along with its recommendations. The State Minorities’ Commission report established failure on several fronts, including the magistracy – magistrates before whom the youth were produced after several days of torture and who failed to record visible signs of injury on the detainees even in their remand orders. Once again, no state action was taken following this report. On the contrary, there was an attempt to prevent the commission’s effective functioning and at least one statement attributed to a state minister labelled the minority commission’s actions "irresponsible".

The reports filed by senior police officials before the State Human Rights Commission and the State Minorities’ Commission also stand falsified by the facts as seen in the video footage of events. Preparing a document that contains a statement one knows to be incorrect or untrue, placing it before an authority knowing it will be instrumental in shaping opinion – aware that it will result in an incorrect opinion being formed, amounts to fabrication of false evidence. Why and at whose behest do senior police officials do this?

Since the youth were picked up and whisked away by plain-clothes policemen to unknown destinations, applications for issuance of writs of habeas corpus had been filed before the Andhra Pradesh high court. But when the police reported subsequent "detention" of these persons a week or ten days later, the cases were closed as a matter of course. The police had no reason to fear any possible consequences of their illegal actions, for the state has ordered no consequential inquiry into allegations of police misconduct.

The Muslim youth under illegal detention were also denied bail. Was this because of the detainees’ "terrorist" status, as the police would have us believe? And yet, as recently as January 25, 2008, in a letter to the State Minorities’ Commission the police commissioner stated that it had not been established that any of those detained were involved in the bomb blasts. What of the young lives that have been destroyed in the interim?

The youth are still alleged to be involved in "processing jihadi literature", whatever that means. Jihad has nothing to do with explosives and terror; jihad means "striving". Jihad fi sabeel il-Lah is "striving in the way of Allah". Working for an ideology is jihad. Jihad fi sabeel al-communism would be striving to promote communism. Jihad fi sabeel al-capitalism would be striving to promote capitalism. My writing this article, to enable better understanding of a situation faced by a segment of society, is jihad. Jihad is positive strife, not negative destructive conduct. Does the state not know this?

Early in February 2008, following the complaints of illegal detention, a delegation of the National Commission for Minorities also visited Hyderabad and the team no doubt made an independent assessment of the situation. It was perhaps as a result of this visit and the reactions it provoked that several youth were released on bail after months in prison.

Meanwhile, a law suit was filed some months ago seeking compensation for the torture, illegal detention and wrongful confinement of the Muslim youth. The matter was heard by the court several times and public notice was ordered and issued. But the suit is still to be registered and remains under consideration with orders slated to be delivered on February 29. Ordinarily to be registered by the chief judge of a city civil court, the suit was transferred to the court of another judge even before this stage was reached. Does one even need to ask whether this is at all unusual?

If Muslim youth are detained on unsubstantiated suspicions based only on their allegiance to a religion, if they are held illegally and tortured, denied bail and kept locked up for months, if every effort to seek justice within the system is blocked by the state, if the judiciary demonstrates no sensitivity to what is going on, what does the ordinary Muslim feel and think? What does anyone who is deprived of justice within a system think of that system? Is the state unaware of the adverse consequences of polarisation for society if this perception is allowed to take root? Which of the state’s officials are acting thus, and toward what end, and based on what ideology? What is their "jihad"? Does the intelligence network work at all?

Most Muslims are disillusioned with the government’s handling of the entire affair. There is disappointment too with the State Human Rights Commission’s far from adequate response; the commission could even have taken suo motu action (notwithstanding its chairman’s absence from the country at the time: it does have other members). Muslims cannot help but wonder if their cases are viewed differently from those of others. They no longer ask if the police and the state executive are hostile to them; they now ask why this is so. They ask if the "benefits" announced for Muslims are mere sops used as a device to get the uproar to die down now that we face an "election year".

When video footage of the police firing was shown during proceedings before the Bhaskara Rao Commission of Inquiry on February 26, 2008, it was noticed that the video clips that were shown were not the ones that had been earlier submitted as evidence. How did this happen? The state’s explanation that the DVD could not be played and hence files had been transferred on to CD rings hollow (a DVD has a 4.7 GB storage capacity while a CD only has a capacity of 700 MB). Moreover, the two sets of video clips were different in content. Ultimately, the commission allowed the correct footage to be shown from a backup recording. What if a backup had not been available? Why are such aberrations allowed to occur, in a matter that affects such a large segment of the population?

However, despite their disillusionment Muslims do believe that the state can salvage the situation if positive elements within it step in and take remedial measures. In their view the state administration is simply not doing its job and the "top brass" is either (a) not briefed correctly or (b) does not care: in either event, making it unsuitable to govern. Perceptions on issues like security, safety, rights, justice, opportunities and so on, alongside basics such as food, water and education, influence voter behaviour. The state seems to have failed the Muslim community on every count. Officials are utterly callous and the few who do respond to the more serious Muslim concerns are openly and unceremoniously transferred to other positions notwithstanding the negative message this conveys. Are these not punishments meted out to secular and honest officials?

If these grave concerns are not redressed, if policemen, government officials and politicians are not held to account, if immediate confidence-building measures are not put in place and implemented with well-intentioned officials being posted in key positions, the writing on the wall is far from encouraging.

Is anyone listening?