Palwal clash 'classic example of intolerance': Riot victims

CHANDIGARH: Members of the Muslim community have termed the violence at Tikri Brahman village in Palwal in July, as a "classic example of the intolerance and intimidation meted out to people of minority community in Haryana".
In an affidavit filed before the Punjab and Haryana high court on Thursday, they have said that if the true genesis of the riot is not exposed, the consequences may be a multiplication of similar planned attacks on minorities.
A number of mostly Muslim houses were set on fire by an angry mob on July 5 after some youths allegedly passed lewd remarks on a woman who had gone to fetch water at a hand pump on the outskirts of the village. It all started with a minor scuffle between the youths but soon blew up into a full-scale riot.
Countering the status report of Haryana police, submitted before the high court on November 5, the victims have claimed that the state police fabricated facts to show the violence as an altercation when it was "actually a planned and sustained attack on the minority community". "It is shocking to see that the investigating agency has termed it altercation," submitted the victims on Thursday.
The case is pending before the high court after Mohammad Haneef and four other residents of Tikri Brahman filed a petition, seeking a CBI probe in the violence.
In the status report, police had termed the violence as an altercation between villagers, which was projected by some anti-social elements as a communal riot. The report also claimed that the main intention of the incident was loot. A document signed by the "peace committee" of the village on October 10 was also produced, claiming all was well in the village. The cops claimed that the petition had been filed just to take undue benefit in upcoming panchayat polls.
Questioning the police investigation, the petitioners submitted that documents of the Palwal fire brigade reveal that all 17 houses set on fire in the violence belonged to Muslims while no property of other communities was touched. "Had there been any incident of setting ablaze the houses of the majority community by the people of the minority community, the same would have been reflected in the damage report of the Fire Department," the petitioners have told the court.
"The failure of the investigating agency to collect this document in their investigation is not inadvertent but deliberate, and consistent with the partisan and tainted investigation."
The petitioner also denied holding of meeting of the peace committee and submitted that the signatories of the joint statement mostly belonged to the majority community.