Destruction, discrimination, denial of justice
AIDWA’s Convention against Communal Conflict draws attention to the
recurring brutality against Muslims across India over the past six
months
BY SUBHASHINI ALI
The All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA)
organised a Convention against Communal Conflict in Delhi on
November 16, 2011 in an attempt to breach the silence and apathy
surrounding acts of violence against the minority community that have
occurred in the last six months. In four states under very different
political dispensations – the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in Uttar
Pradesh, the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) and BJP alliance in Bihar, the BJP
in Uttarakhand and the Congress party in Rajasthan – incidents of police
firing have taken place in which all the victims have been Muslims;
shops and homes belonging only to the minority community have been
looted and burnt and the overwhelming majority of those arrested have
also been Muslim. In all the states, the political leaders have sought
to cover up, justify or downplay the unforgivable and dangerous communal
bias displayed by the police and administration.
Members of affected families from Forbesganj, Moradabad
and Gopalgarh attended the convention. Unfortunately, no one from
Rudrapur could attend because most of the victims are migrant workers
whose families, along with thousands of other migrant families, have
fled the town. While those who spoke at the convention, mothers,
grandmothers, fathers, brothers and uncles who had suffered the
unbearable losses of loved ones, expressed their unimaginable grief,
they had come to Delhi to do more than that. They had come as part of
their desperate search for justice and retribution.
Bihar
In Forbesganj, in an area inhabited only by Muslims, the
state government was determined to build a wall denying them access to a
road that had been built and then repaired by the state government
because it was their only link to the mosque, to the schools, to their
workplaces. However, to facilitate the interests of a local factory
owner, the son of a BJP MLC, the government decided to build the wall
across the road. Naturally, there was a protest. The police version is
that the protesters resorted to stone-throwing but nothing more than
this is alleged. The police responded by firing. On June 3, 2011 four
Muslims, including a woman and an eight-month-old infant, were killed.
One of those killed was 18-year-old Mustafa. A policeman was filmed
jumping on his dead body and this horrific video, taken on a cellphone,
has been seen all over the country.
Mustafa’s brother, Quddus, recited a poem that he had
composed at the convention: “Jo soch nahin sakti duniya, woh manzar
kal dikhlaya hai, Vardi mein darinda aaya hai, vardi mein darinda aaya
hai; Kya kuch maanga tha humne, haq apna maanga bas humne, Purkhon se jo
chale aaye hain, woh raah maanga tha bas humne; Fariyaad meri sun ke
itni, seene pe goli chalaayi hai, Vardi mein… (What we saw yesterday
defies imagination, when the devil in uniform comes calling, the devil
in uniform comes calling. We asked for so little, only asserting our
rights, the use of a path trodden for generations. But hearing our
request, they fired bullets into our chests…).”
The state government has not taken any action at all –
not even the photographed constable has been punished. Only the family
of the eight-month-old infant has been given compensation, since no
government can claim that such a small baby is capable of
stone-throwing. The other three deaths remain uncompensated. More than
four and a half months later, following the intervention of the Supreme
Court on October 10, a judicial inquiry which had been announced by the
Bihar government within a few weeks of the incident finally limped to a
start.
Uttar Pradesh
The background to the events of July 6, 2011 in
Moradabad is an incident of the kind that occurs in hundreds of villages
and urban areas every day: two neighbouring Muslim families in Bagha
village had been engaged in a long-standing dispute over various petty
matters. In the first week of July, Yusuf, son of Kamrul, is alleged to
have misbehaved with his neighbour, Muslim’s mother and Muslim is
alleged to have misbehaved with Yusuf’s sister. While Kamrul complained
to the police against Muslim, Muslim’s family was convinced by the
village pradhan (head) not to go to the police and that the
matter would be sorted out amicably ‘within the village’. The result was
that the police came looking for Muslim early in the morning of July 6.
By then all the male members of the family had run away and only his
young sister, Noorjahan (about 14 years old), was at home. They
ransacked the house and abused her (there is photographic evidence of
this) and apparently threw a copy of the Koran on the floor. After they
left, the terrorised young girl ran into the village and told everyone
about what had happened.
The news of the ‘desecration’ of the Koran spread like
wildfire through nearby villages which are heavily populated by Muslims
and by 9 a.m. thousands of people had started collecting on the main
road and a massive road blockade had started. The local police took the
help of Muslim leaders from the area, including Haji Atiq and Kamil (pradhan
of Dingarpur), and the roadblock at Bagha village was soon cleared. By
the time they returned to the thana (police station) at Mainethar they
found that not only had a large crowd collected there but that a jeep
had been set on fire. Again, with the help of local people, the crowd
was dispersed.
Meanwhile, the district magistrate (DM), Raj Shekhar,
and the deputy inspector-general (DIG) of police, Ashok Kumar (large
districts in Uttar Pradesh have seen senior superintendents of police
replaced by DIGs), had left Moradabad for the area and they had to stop
at Dingarpur where a mob had collected. All these large villages are
located off the main road and have taken on the attributes of small
kasbahs with large markets. As a result, there are always large crowds
around the main road, as people from a large catchment area come for
their daily needs, for work and also to go to school and college. At
Dingarpur too, the crowd was large and angry. The DIG, thinking that his
personal intervention would restore peace, got out of his vehicle and
went to talk to the people. At this point, quite inexplicably, the DM
along with his large armed escort turned around and left the area,
leaving the DIG quite alone in the middle of an angry mob. Apparently,
the DIG did fire his service revolver but the situation was out of
control and he was badly beaten by members of the crowd. Soon Provincial
Armed Constabulary (PAC) and police reinforcements arrived and he could
be removed to hospital.
After this, it was the police that went berserk. They
entered homes in Dingarpur village and beat men and women mercilessly
and ransacked their homes. People were beaten and sent to jail with
serious injuries. At least three minors suffered bullet injuries and
among the 38 persons still in jail, there are at least a dozen minors.
One of those injured, 14-year-old Rehan, succumbed to
his injuries on October 19. The district administration was interested
only in his quick burial, not in his death or the reasons for it. His
father is a daily labourer who sold his only possession, two bighas of
land, to pay for his son’s treatment. The MLA of the area, Akbar Husain,
a BSP minister, three MPs from Moradabad – Mohd Azharuddin, Rashid Alvi
(Congress) and Shafiqur Rahman Barq (BSP) – have done nothing to
alleviate the grievous injuries suffered by the people here.
Saimeen, wife of the Dingarpur pradhan, Kamil,
told the convention angrily of the way in which the police had beaten
both of them and ransacked their home. Salma, whose son Tauseef is one
of the children arrested, showed the audience his school certificate and
a photograph of him in his uniform. She carries these with her at all
times, hoping that someone, somewhere will see them and do something.
Rajasthan
Ten Meos belonging to Gopalgarh, Bharatpur, were killed
on September 14, 2011, most of them in police firing. Ostensibly, a
property dispute is responsible: a plot of land adjacent to the mosque
has traditionally been used as a graveyard and was declared as such a
few years earlier. Parts of it however have been encroached upon by some
Gujjar farmers. A few months earlier, there was a minor clash over this.
The thana and main administrative offices are very near the village and
the Meos had made several applications to the administration about these
developments but nothing was done. On September 14, when matters reached
a flashpoint, the police called both parties to the thana. A compromise
was reached according to which the land would belong to the Muslims and
they in turn would withdraw all their complaints after the sarpanch
apologised for the attacks and abuse that they had suffered.
This angered some members of the majority community who
came in large numbers to the thana, alleging that they were being
‘massacred’ by the Muslims in the village. Senior police officers and
the district magistrate reacted to this completely false statement by
declaring that ‘they’ would be taught a lesson and orders for firing
were given even before they reached the village. Arms from the thana
were distributed to the police personnel present and, it is alleged, to
some lay members of the majority community as well. All of them
proceeded to the village and indiscriminate firing was resorted to.
After some Meos died from bullet wounds, their bodies were badly
mutilated. Shamsuddin described the death of his son, an Industrial
Training Institute student aged 16 years and 6 months, who was praying
next to him in the mosque: “When we heard the gunshots, we ran out of
the mosque. I could hide in a nearby thicket but my son was shot in the
foot. When he fell down, he was attacked with lathis and shovels. Then
kerosene was poured on his body and he was set on fire. Then his charred
body was thrown into a well.”
The state government of Rajasthan has made some
interventions – officers have been suspended, compensation to the
families of those killed has been paid but the villagers involved in
killing and incitement have not been punished and the lower-ranking
policemen are all still in the neighbourhood.
Uttarakhand
Rudrapur, Uttarakhand, saw a deliberate attempt to
incite communal clashes. In September, pig meat wrapped in pages torn
from the Koran was thrown near a temple. The police did nothing to
arrest the miscreants or to prevent further trouble. On October 2, 2011
the same thing happened again, this time near a mosque. When a large
number of Muslims demonstrated outside the thana in protest, they were
attacked by the police and by groups of people encouraged and incited by
the police. At least eight Muslims were killed. Many shops belonging
only to the minority community were looted and burnt. Their homes were
also attacked. The state government has made some changes in the
administration but has not bothered to meet anyone from the minority
community.
The central government has failed to ensure protection
to whistle-blowers through appropriate legislation and as a result, in a
state like Gujarat, which is witness to the complete breakdown of
constitutional institutions that protect citizens and guarantee their
rights, important witnesses are being killed and terrorised with
impunity. Even a senior police official who has the courage to perform
his constitutional duty of naming those responsible for communal carnage
is rendered completely insecure.
Shweta Bhatt, wife of Sanjiv Bhatt, suspended DIG,
Gujarat, was a special guest at the convention, whose presence was a
source of inspiration for the victims and for all those fighting against
communal violence and hatred. She spoke of her experiences and said that
all those who bear witness against the perpetrators of communal violence
must be prepared for the worst when they do so. Brinda Karat, MP,
felicitated Shweta and said that recent events served to highlight the
acts of omission and commission on the part of the central and state
governments. The Whistle-blowers Protection Act and effective
legislation against communal violence are nowhere in sight and central
agencies display great bias in their treatment of Muslim suspects and
undertrials. In a state like Gujarat, constitutional institutions are
crumbling while other states vie with each other to justify
administrative bias.
The following resolution was passed by the convention:
“This AIDWA Convention against Communal Conflict
“Expresses deep concern about the number of
incidents in several states where citizens of India belonging to the
minority Muslim community have been targets of violence, primarily by
forces of the state. It expresses its strong solidarity with the
families of the victims and especially the mothers, sisters, wives, who
bear the heavy burden of loss of their innocent loved ones.
“These incidents include:
Ř
The police firing in Bharatpur district, Rajasthan, where 10 members of
the minority community were shot dead by the police, many of them inside
the masjid where they had taken shelter. This was the result of a long
pending dispute on the issue of ownership of a graveyard which the
administration had allowed to fester, encouraging communal elements;
Ř The police firing on villagers in
Araria district, Bihar, who were protesting the forcible takeover of
their land by a powerful local politician belonging to the ruling JD(U)/BJP
alliance. Four Muslims, including a woman and her baby, were killed and
a policeman performed the barbaric act of jumping on the dead body of a
young man killed in the firing;
Ř The police firing on Muslim
protesters in Rudrapur, Uttarakhand, and the razing of minority-owned
shops and property by communal fanatics;
Ř The police firing in Moradabad, Uttar
Pradesh, killing a young man and then arresting several minor Muslim
boys.
“In all these incidents many innocent people were
injured and property of the minority community destroyed.
“This convention strongly condemns the
communal bias of the police and administrations reflected in all these
incidents.
“This convention also condemns the refusal of
state governments involved to take strong action against the officers
responsible. Particularly in the case of Rajasthan, the Gehlot
government did everything to protect the officers involved. Similarly,
the Nitish Kumar government refused to take prompt action against those
responsible for the barbaric firing and no compensation has been paid to
the families of those killed. This convention demands justice for the
victims. It demands exemplary punishment against the police officials
responsible and full compensation to the victims.
“This convention expresses its strong protest
against the actions of the Gujarat government in threatening and
intimidating those, including senior officers, who dare to expose the
role of the chief minister and his government in the Gujarat genocide.
Almost 10 years after the genocide, a large number of victims are yet to
get justice. Instead, activists fighting for peace and harmony are being
targeted and harassed.
“This convention demands justice for the Gujarat
victims. It expresses its solidarity with those who are being
threatened by the Modi government. It demands that the central
government take action to protect witnesses who have given evidence
against Modi and his government.
“This convention demands legislation
against communal violence and for protection of secular principles and
against attacks on minority rights.
“This AIDWA convention pledges to uphold the
principles and values of secularism. It pledges to defend the rights of
minorities against attacks by communal forces, including by
administrations with a communal bias, regardless of the political party
involved. It resolves to work for the unity of women and to mobilise
women in the struggle against communal forces.”
After the convention, members of the victims’ families
met the union home secretary, RK Singh, along with patrons and
office-bearers of AIDWA: Brinda Karat, MP, Subhashini Ali,
vice-president, Sudha Sundararaman, general secretary, and Sehba
Farooqui, joint secretary. They gave him the following memorandum:
“We are grateful to you for having given us this
appointment at such short notice. Our organisation held a Convention
against Communal Conflict today in Delhi. Victims of communal violence
and of police attacks and atrocities from: Forbesganj (Araria), Bihar;
Gopalgarh, Rajasthan; Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh; Rudrapur, Uttarakhand,
spoke about their experiences. The current situation in Gujarat where
witnesses are being threatened and terrorised was also discussed. We are
aware of the constitutional position regarding the federal structure.
However, it is essential for the centre to intervene in the relevant
states within the constitutional framework to ensure justice to the
victims. We seek your intervention in the following:
“1. Gujarat: In spite of Supreme Court directions
for witness protection, the situation for witnesses in the state in the
ongoing cases of communal genocide naming important political leaders is
critical. Only recently, six witnesses have appealed for protection in
the special court. In Sanjiv Bhatt’s case also, the protection is
extremely inadequate. A nodal officer must be appointed and a group of
senior personnel deputed for this job.
“2. Bihar: Four people, including one woman and
one infant, were killed in the police firing but compensation has been
paid only to the family of the infant. No action has been taken against
any of the police personnel involved. The judicial inquiry that was
announced many months ago has only been advertised in the papers two
days ago.
“3. Uttar Pradesh: A 14-year-old boy
succumbed to his injuries from police bullets on October 19 but no
cognisance of this has been taken. Two more adolescent boys have also
been similarly injured but there has been no intervention by the state
government. Additionally, nearly a dozen minor boys have been arrested
in connection with the incidents of July 6. Despite the fact that their
school certificates have been produced before the court, neither the
administration nor the courts have accepted these. These children are
not being tried in the juvenile court or being kept in the juvenile home
as is required by law but are locked up in jail.
“4. Rajasthan: There has been some
intervention by the state government. However, no action has been taken
against the thana police. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has
started its inquiry. Family members of the victims feel a bias in their
questioning. Assurances which had been given by the government are yet
to be implemented.
“5. Uttarakhand: Some compensation to the
families of those killed has been paid. No action has been taken against
the concerned police personnel.
“These incidents show only too clearly that, most
unfortunately, not only lower-ranking police personnel but senior
officers display a pronounced anti-minority bias. This is certainly an
area that needs your urgent attention.”
A few days after the convention, inquiries into the July
6 incidents were started in Moradabad. Saimeen and others recorded their
statements before the district administration and at least three minors
are being transferred to the juvenile home.
(Subhashini Ali is vice-president of AIDWA and a member
of the central committee of the Communist Party of India-Marxist.)
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