Cops failed them, but not
this mosque
NEHA
SINHA
NOIDA,
JANUARY 8
A
LONGISH walk down the road from D5 – the house of Moninder Singh
Pandher – leads one to a large mosque, a landmark of sorts in the
area.
For the
parents of Nithari – and other areas in Noida – who have lost their
children, this had been the only “authority” that stood by them in
their hour of crisis, gave them an ear and a voice.
Hindu
or Muslim, the mosque had been making announcements about the
missing children on its loudspeaker after prayers – if need be, even
five times a day.
In
fact, so conscientious has the mosque been, that in the absence of
their own proactive investigations, a police officer – one Vinod
Pandey – commended the system and asked for more announcements two
years ago.
Significantly, very few of the missing kids were Muslim, but the
helping hand has been generous.
Says
Pappu Lal, parent of 8-yr-old Rachna, whose clothes were identified
among the belongings of the victims: “We kept going to the mosque as
no one in the police were listening to us. We went there when our
daughter first went missing, and then repeatedly after that, when
the police case dragged on…..”
Others
like him, whose children’s belongings were identified at D5 as well-Jhappu
Lal, father of 8-yr-old Jyoti, Ramkishen Dhamuk – father of 3-yr-old
Harsh and Rita Haldar, mother of 12-yr-old Dipali, had all made the
rounds of this mosque.
“Children go missing from time to time and we make the
announcements. But the situation started becoming bad three years
ago and worsened especially over the last two years,” says Mohammed
Shahid Qasami, who had been a Maulvi of this mosque for the last 15
years.
Never
have so many kids been missing, some missing from further off, like
Khoda Colony and Greater Noida.
“At
first, we used to make announcements twice a day. Then, when the
cases started pouring in, we increased it to five times a day,” says
Qasami.
A
father himself, he confesses that at that time, he even felt scared
to send his children to school.
Though
it is against the Muslim faith to paste images in a mosque, he put
up pictures of the children on the gate. “After all, these innocent
children belong to everyone and not any one faith,” he says.
“The
police hardly helped the parents. Most of the Bengali parents were
jeered at for being ‘Bangladeshi’,” he says.
But how
does he feel about the police inaction?
“Two
years ago, a police officer came and visited the mosque and asked us
to carry on our announcements… action should be taken and the media
should keep up the pressure,” Qasami says.
