Terror probe strikes fear in Muslim youth, writes Piyush Srivastava
There are at least 10 Muslim youths of the district who are absconding in fear of arrest even though there is little evidence against them
Members of the Muslim community in Azamgarh are angry and afraid with good reason. There are at least 10 Muslim youths of the district who are absconding in fear of arrest even though there is little evidence against them. In fact, locals claim that apart from one or two phone calls from people allegedly involved in terrorist activities, there is no concrete proof against them.
As Tariq Shafique, a youth of Sanjarpur says, "Out of 26 youths of Azamgarh, who are lying low to evade arrest, at least 10 are running away from here because the police claim that they had talked to a suspected terrorist on their mobile phone. Here lies our question. Does a telephonic conversation - without the text of the conversation - prove someone is anti-national? Will the government treat all cases in the same manner?"
It's not surprising then that the locals here feel a sense of vulnerability. They point to the infamous Batla House encounter on September 19, 2008, and claim that the entire encounter was "fake" and have called for a high level inquiry into the incident. The fact that a local youth Shehzad Ahmed was found guilty in the encounter has not helped.
Ahmed, who was arrested in 2010, pleaded not guilty and said he was not even present in the flat at the time of encounter. The Batla House encounter is not the only case of "victimisation" says the Muslim community.
Locals point to the infamous case of Aftab Alam Ansari. Accused by the CID who said his name was Mukhtar and that he was involved in the UP serial blasts in November 2007; Ansari, an electrician of a Kolkata-based company was tortured for 22 days before his mother Ayesha Begum submitted the attendance sheet of the company to prove that he was on duty on November 23, 2007. The police tendered an apology to him and withdrew the case. But his life was ruined by then.
Another tragic case is that of Ajijur Rahaman Sardar. A farm labourer from Basirhat in West Bengal, Ajijur, the UP Special Task Force, claimed had reached Lucknow with explosives on June 22, 2007. They arrested him on June 28, 2007.
However, the West Bengal CID submitted in its report with the Additional Judicial Magistrate, Alipore in February 2009 Ajijur, a brick-kiln worker, was arrested by Kolkata police on June 20, 2007 in an armed robbery case and he was in custody on June 22, 2007.
Clearly it was impossible for him to have been in UP at the time for the alleged crime. Such cases not only anger the Muslims of Azamgarh but what they take strong exception to is that their district is dubbed by the police as a "nursery of terrorism."
It will take time for the wounds to heal and the anger to ebb away but politicians must ensure that they do not play politics with the community's sentiments. For instance AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal had termed the Batla House encounter "fake," on July 25, 2013, only to say in January this year that nothing could be done about the encounter as the court has done given its verdict. Kejriwal's changing stance earned him the fury of Afroz Alam, an RTI activist, who accused the AAP leader of backtracking on his words. According to Alam, the Kejriwal had used the "encounter issue" to his advantage and then quickly run away.
IGNORED VILLAGERS RESORT TO VIOLENCE
Here is an example to show what can happen if the government ignores the demands of the poor for too long. Over 10,000 members of the Kewat and Mallah community, who have been demanding free licenses for limited sand mining, have now formed an organisation to fight their battle. They call it the Akhil Bharatiya Kisan Mazdoor Sabha (ABKMS)and raise slogans of 'Lal Salaam.' This introductory pleasantry is what the members of ultraleftist organisations exchange in the Red Corridor, the forest areas where the Naxalite-Maoist insurgency has become a major problem.
The Kewat and Mallah communities who reside in villages - Kanjasa, Jagdishpur, Bikar, Kanua, Palpur and Vaswar - all of which are located along the river Yamuna - have been mining sand since before the time of Independence. But they lost their only means of livelihood when the government started leasing out the river banks to contractors for mining. Presently, they make a living by selling fishes or ferrying villagers.
But recently, things have boiled over. Over 1,000 Kewats and Mallahs from these villages raided the village of Madaripur on Sunday and attacked the house of one Bachcha Yadav, a ruling Samajwadi Party (SP) leader who allegedly has been involved in illegal mining since 2012, when Akhilesh Yadav became chief minister. The henchmen of Bachcha opened fire on the attackers and six people were injured.
Although Akhilesh had claimed he has completely curbed illegal mining, many counter-claim that it is running in full swing in Allahabad and Kaushambi, with full knowledge of state mining minister Gayatri Prasad Prajapati.
According to S.K. Sharma, Additional District Magistrate of Allahabad, members of the (ABKMS) have been turning aggressive and can resort to more violence if they are ignored.
NOW BSP & SP COZY UP TO THE BJP
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was almost "untouchable" for the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) before the Lok Sabha elections took place.
Yet, now they are competing with each other to prove their proximity to the Narendra Modi-led NDA government.
Those who are shocked to see their support for the Centre on Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Amendment) Bill to pave the way for appointment of Nripendra Misra as Principal Secretary to the PM, need to look back at many such instances in the recent past.
BSP supremo Mayawati had become CM for first time on June 3, 1995 with the help of the BJP. Later, the BJP withdrew support on October 17, 1995 on the issue of misuse of the SC/ST Act. She again became CM for six months on a rotational basis with the help of the BJP on March 21, 1997 and resigned on September 21, 1997 when Kalyan Singh was supposed to take over as CM for the next six months.
Mayawati took over as CM for the third time on May 3, 2002, again with the BJP's support.
However, Mulayam toppled her government on August 29, 2003 with the help of 39 defected BSP MLAs. The SP and the BJP had also forged an undeclared alliance for 15 Parliamentary seats of UP in the 1999 Lok Sabha elections.
In 2003, when then finance minister Yashwant Sinha was blamed for receiving gratification in the form of publicity materials from Flex Industries during the 1999 Lok Sabha polls, Mulayam had stood by him saying: "All political parties receive donations for elections and have links with business houses."