The lingering memory of Shahid Azmi

       The whole life and death of Shahid Azmi illustrates a kind of
subterranean conflict of interest. There are those who frame innocent
Muslims. And there are those who strive to save such.   Hatching
conspiracy of terror from across the border is obvious and the non
state and state actors so vaunted and so well known are banal. But it
is the homegrown terror that is the most trying phenomenon not for the
investigation agencies and for the police. But for the honest lawyers
fighting for justice through their métier. The current chief of ATS,
Rakesh Maria, knew that there were three men assigned to assassinate
the lawyer and yet he did not provide security to Shahid or prevent
his assassins from accomplishing the job. This could have been done
easily. Shahid had taken cases where risk factor to his own life was
the greatest. He had known how the accused in 1992, 1993 riots/blasts
were eliminated by the state/stateless actors in league with the
police.
       The prisoners languishing in jails also knew the risk to their
life. Qateel Siddiquy was intensely conscious that his life was at
risk; he could count on the fingers of his two hands his remaining
days in the top security jail of Yarwada though he was not in the
death row by any means, nor had any judge decided his fate. Some
forces at work would do what the victims of unfortunate death feared
was the design of the reactionary. Qateels’s wife also knew it. The
jail authorities could not pretend ignorance of what lay in future for
him. His two killers he had correctly identified as the ones behind
the explosion at Dagdu seth halvai mandir in Pune. They were struck by
his knowing the truth. The jail authorities also got the wind of what
was the impending doom. Alas, they failed to prevent what was schemed
to happen.
       The antagonized forces were well organized. They made an
intrigue and planned a strategy to finish whom they wanted. They could
mount any such attack because they have communally infected people
planted or nurtured everywhere. The concerted effort of the sangh
parivar is a multi pronged offensive powered by “cultural
nationalism”. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh has more than a score of
organizations at its command to secretly carry out its mission.
       Shahid and Qateel knew who were after them. They did not have
any grouse against any gang for they did not belong to any group. They
apprehended the forces that wanted them killed. The people in the
uniform and civil dress with a slant of mind for stealth and
conspiracy and known for violence were the ones they feared most.
       Mob justice was and even now is the order of the day in many
places and Shahid knew it and so did Qateel, He knew where mobs could
not get in there were others to surrogate them and do the same heinous
crime of lynching. Both, the late Bal Thackeray and his nephew Raj as
well as the hoodlums of Bajrang Dal and VHP issued open threat to
lawyers not to defend Muslims accused in terror cases. They issued
their dictate even when the accused was clearly innocent in the eyes
of the ordinary man. Lawyer Mohammad Shoaib of Lucknow High Court had
got one acquitted when the police accepted that the accused was
arrested because of mistaken identity. He fought for another but the
mob forced him to withdraw from the case. The next month saw him
withdrawing from another. He was attacked in the court of Barabanki
and next month in the court of Faizadabad. The message was sent out to
let the others know that the lawyers are at the sufferance of
adherents of a right wing philosophy. Those with intense hatred for
the Muslims (even when the Muslim victims and their lawyers have a
just duty to defend) have clearly achieved their aim. This propaganda
based on violence is the characteristic of terrorism. Shoaib and
another lawyer Rizwan were dragged out of the Faizabad court. Twenty
five fellow lawyers belonging to Hindutva beat them badly in full view
of the police and the people.  When the two went to register FIR at
the Wazirganj police station the police did not accept it. Terrorism
was this, qua terrorism. But what is more whether to treat it so is
the prerogative of the fanatics who not too infrequently subvert the
law of the land in dealing with this.
       To acknowledge this as terror even belatedly India as a polity
has miserably failed. Hence the victims of gross discrimination in
such vital matters of justice and fair trial are at the receiving end.
Even the main opposition party is myopic on this matter. This obvious
subversion of the constitutionally established jurisprudence is the
work of those who do not subscribe to the law of the land when it
comes to Muslims or other minorities.  It is not limited to Muslims
alone. There was Nirpriti Kaur who went to police station to file FIR
as her husband was killed by Hindu extremists in 1984. Instead of
registering the FIR the police arrested her and put her in the prison.
Her son of ten days also was with her. She along with her son did not
see the light of the day outside. She was released more than five
years later. She took her son to her parents’ house. The son shouted
with surprise at the door: “Mummy, look! There is a big cat with a big
tail.” How unfortunately for India that even children are denied
freedom and miss any opportunity of freedom to see the buffalo!
       Innocent people continue to be framed with impunity because the
courts and their premises are targets of the extremist fringe of
Hindutva. As can be seen in this report from the scene: “When Shoaib
was unable to get his FIR registered, he sent his complaint by
registered post to Lucknow’s Senior Superintendent of Police, Akhil
Kumar, and also lodged a complaint with the district judge the next
day, August 13. Enraged, his assaulters returned once again to drag
him out of his chambers and beat him in the court premises during
lunch hour. “No one will come forward to save you if you don’t mend
your ways,” they told Shoaib as blow followed blow. His band was
snatched, clothes torn, spectacles broken and punches to his face and
eyes left him virtually paralysed for a few minutes. He was then
stripped to his undergarments, marched around the court premises and
forced to raise slogans like “Hindustan Zindabad, Pakistan Murdabad”.
A large police posse was present but did not intervene.” Shahid faced
the worst.
       The worst of course cannot be just death. But the sensitive
cases which he was handling like Malegaon 2006, Mumbai train blasts of
2006 known as 7/11 and Aurangabad arms haul 2006. These three cases
have not been resolved because there is strong indication that they
are interrelated. They appear to be handiwork of the same Hindutva
groups in which innocent Muslims have been arrested. Swamy Aseemanand
has claimed that he along with Sunil Joshi and others was involved in
Malegaon 2006. The police have not been able to produce the Indica car
in which the arms were carried to Malegaon in the Aurangabad arms haul
case. The phone records of Zabiuddin and Dr Sharif do not corroborate
that Sharif acted with any prior knowledge of the arms in the Indica
or the other vehicle, a Sumo Tata. In the case of the 7/11 the Bombay
HC judged had scoffed at the police bringing discredited witness and
warned the cops during the period when Shahid was fighting the case
and since his death the matter is even more botched up. On Thursday
November 29, 2012 Judge Abhay Thipsay of Bombay HC was outraged by the
claim the police had not ever made prints out of the call record in
7/11 case and had also destroyed the CD. A truly shaken judge
thundered “I want to know whether the records of the phone calls are
not in existence or ATS is hiding it.” He even warned the police: “If
it was proved that the police tried to mislead the court he would not
forgive the police. And those found guilty according to the law would
be prosecuted.”
       The strong exception of the judge was prompted by the demand of
the defense counsel that the call data record of the accused be
presented in the court to show where they were at the time of the
blasts and whether they knew each other. It was obvious that they were
framed by the ATS and the notorious agency could not prove either of
the points. This at best was the Shahid effect on the court. It was he
who had handled the case till he was liquidated and had collected
enough evidence to prove the innocence of the accused. Judge Thipsay
had seen the case diary where it was noted that twenty sets of the
call records were made five days before the charge sheet in 7/11 was
submitted. Volume no 4 and 6 had the records but these were
deliberately not submitted to the court. The judge even asked the
trial court judge YD Shinde to submit the missing volumes.
       The foregoing is a legacy of Shahid. It was he who had got
Fahim Ansari freed when he proved how the ATS had tried to pass on a
hand drawn map it said Fahim had drawn for Kasab and Ismail Khan in
the 11/26 case. Google could have given better map, why did the
terrorist go for such poor drawing!, the trial judge in 11/26 laughed.
       The two cases which gravitated Shahid’s attention were Malegaon
2006 and the local train serial blasts of 2006. It was the Malegaon
2006 case that proved tough son of a gun to crack. The most daunting
task was the Hindutva terrorists had used Muslim youths who were not
members of Students Islamic Movement of India but were made to appear
so. (Abrar planted bombs for money and the other Muslim doing the same
was dead.) Their confessions were outright bogus. They were forced to
sign plain blank papers and the script was supplied by the ATS and the
local police. Most surely by officers like Sanjay Khaire and Subodh
Kumar Jaiswal along with Rajwardhan.
       In contrast stands the high court lawyer brother of Malegaon
accused Abrar Ahmad. Advocate Jalil did some good like submitting
habeas corpus which made the court force police to produce Abrar in
court. He complained against the police when his son was chased and
would have been attacked or his brother would have been slowly
poisoned. But he fell short remarkably when he kept the incriminating
documents for a long time. He had photos of ATS cop Arun hobnobbing
with his brother or Sachin Kadam holidaying with Abrar’s wife
Jannatunisa. But he did not make it public. Any court in the world
would have questioned the reason for this free junket that the ATS had
provided Abrar. Who was the ATS to do so and why? One. We arrested him
because we had evidence that he wasa part of terrorist cell. “KP
Raghuvanshi peremptorily denied laughingly “This is an absurd claim.
We have never given money to him or any one. We arrested him because
we had evidence that he was a part of terrorist cell.” Jalil and Abrar
have a remarkable legal acumen because both seem to begin Abrar’s
involvement with Abrar reporting the facts to his brother Farooq.
Dovetailing facts may make a bouquet look handsome but then what about
the leaves, thorns and stems which we leave out with a cutter. The
antecedents are very horrifying. There were meetings held by Hindutva
groups as well as reportedly by mostly Muslims in the house of Abrar’s
uncle. The Hindutva groups were bent on celebrating one hundred
anniversary of the song vande matrum. That too, on the eve of the
explosions!
      That Abrar and Farooq and Janatunnisa’s role in the preceding
days require more legal scrutiny before the prosecution starts its
case in the trial court. Innocent or guilty is for the court to
decide. But there is so much bad blood created that the malady ailing
the personae of the drama casts long shadow. One of which would be
Abrar’s father forcing him to divoce his wife and Jalil toeing the
family line and Janatunnisa’s refusal to live in the family or
confronting them for having a separate establishment. No sooner did
they come out of the four walls of the prisons than Jalil accused
Farooq and Janatunissa behind the trapping of Abrar.
       Abrar might have refused to take five lakh rupees from ATS of
Raghuvanshi but the moot question is who accepted the money for having
entangled Abrar in the case? Furthermore, why was then      Abrar
subjected to third degree torture in the aftermath of his refusal to
take money?
       Shahid might have got some misgivings of this. He cleverly
dealt with the case not touching upon the substance of terror but the
mode or manner of framing and the legality MOCOCA. He was insightful
enough to question application of the draconian act because the nine
accused were  not involved in any crime, let alone at least two cases
in which they should be previously involved. The other sharp point was
that the accused could not as a result be traitors to their country.

       If Abrar had overheard the names of the Hindu bombers behind
the blasts he could have approached the local police and told them.
Why was Farooq called from Bhiwandi to do so? If Farooq was a police
informer then Abrar was another. Were they both working for the police
even before the blasts of September 8, 2006? Why did the ATS and the
local police keep Abrar in a separate jail, Bychalla prison, when the
rest of the nine were in Arthur road jail? Were the police afraid of
Abrar spilling the beans?
       Shahid would not have allowed anyone to pull wool over his
eyes. By his nature Abrar could not be a member of SIMI while the rest
were by nature religious and austere and dedicated and yet were not
members of SIMI. The police have grossly blundered. They have now to
answer not only these questions but come out clean that they did not
carry out any heinous crime themselves. If Abrar was their agent since
2001then 2006 attack would be insider’s job.

       Shahid had defended the innocents accused of crimes they had
not committed. He got 17 out of jail. They were innocents. Why did he
not venture further in Malegaon case?
 --------
Bhaskar (Hindi) December 2, 2012
http://kmsnews.org/archives/articles/criminal-intimidation-a-muslim-lawyer-india-attacked-high-court-defending-terror-accused
Criminal Intimidation (A Muslim lawyer in India is attacked in High
Court for defending terror accused)
Inquilab November 30, 2012.
Sphotanchar cha Malegaon (Marathi) Nidu Damle.
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/one-of-nine-muslims-arrested-for-malegaon-had-planted-bombs-for-hindu-extremists-says-nia/870531/0
“In the months before the blasts, Abrar, the sources alleged, had
traveled to Indore and the Shabri Dham Ashram in Dangs district of
Gujarat, linked to Aseemanand, fully aware that he would be a part of
the blasts conspiracy.” “Three RSS pracharaks from Madhya Pradesh -
Sunil Joshi, Ramchandra Kalsangra and Sandeep Dange - were apparently
at the heart of this conspiracy. Abrar got in touch with Joshi through
a senior RSS pracharak he knew,” a source said. This has been
apparently corroborated by Abrar’s wife, whose statement was recorded
by the CBI and has been handed over to the NIA, the source added.

Hyderabad bombed why and by whom

       Why Hyderabad was bombed can be surmised though it is still too early to answer the second question as to who did it.

      

       Till early 1970s Hyderabad had no communal tension. As a student there this writer had a pleasant surprise. Hailing from Malegaon he had come to Hyderabad. There was a ruckus at Kothi in a local bus; people had started using Urdu expletives while speaking Telugu. In a reflex he fearing riot started and got up to rush out with his friend who pulled him down and assured him that there was no riot. It was customary for the Telugu people to use their language and resort to Urdu for pet abuses. 

      

       All that changed soon. The riots over Babri mosque made matters worse. Since then the Hindu right has nursed the city by inducting hate ideology. The MIM appeared in response. More recently VHP stepped up its spade work of communalizing politics and militarizing Hindus. Phalanx of cadres of Bajrang Dal and RSS appeared in impressive display with arms. The state Congress government did nothing to check it. Akbaruddin Owaisi’s hate speech of daring to face Hindu extremist hordes for 15 minutes with police withdrawn is the outburst of exasperation over proactive role of violence against Muslims by the police in communal riots.

      

       The international president of Vishwa Hindu Parishad Pravin Togadia’s riposte did not take long to come. He said: muslim vote bank key aadhar par desh men loot machi hui hai. Ishi vajehsey Hyderabad ka ek kutta apne aap to sher samajhney laga hai. Ek neh kaha ki police hatalo. Mainey kaha ki 20 saal men jab jab police hati hai, tab desh ka itihaas dekh lo, agar tujhe pata nahin hai, to aainey men itihaas dikhadun. Andhra men jab police hati to sakdon lashen bich gaye thi. In men ak bhi hindu nahin tha aur bihar key Bhagalpur men jab plice hati thi to lakhon lashen bich gayei thin jo bahti hui samundertak pahunch gay thin. . in men ek lash bhi hinudun ki nahin thi…koi hamen chunauti na dey.  “On account of the vote bank politics there is plunder in the country. Due to this a dog of Hyderabad has assumed himself to be lion.  One asked the police to move away. I answered that whenever the police moved away, look at the history of the country at such time. If you don’t know it, I will show it to you in the mirror.  When the police moved away in Andhra Pradesh there were scores of dead bodies piled up. There was not a single Hindu killed here. In Bhagalpur of Bihar when the police moved away many lakh (Muslims) were killed. They were washed away into the sea. Not a single one was of a Hindu. …” "Remember Nellie in Assam, where the police was removed. Over 3000 people died, not one of them was a Hindu." "Remember Bhagalpur, where the police was removed, so many people died that it was difficult to count, not one of them was a Hindu. Dead bodies flew into the sea. Remember Meerut, Moradabad, Gujarat,"

’

“Let no one dare to challenge us!”

      

       This is the most audaciously ferocious challenge and could and did find an illustration or retaliation. It could produce an instant illustration by the Hindu fanatics or retaliation by their counterparts. But the circumstances leave no doubt what is behind the scene. Actually realizing it as it did this threat constitutes one of what VD Savarkar had called “super atrocious reprisal.” In his book The Six Glorious Epoch, Savarkar praises Vir Banda Bairagi as a martyr for what he did as “the most appropriate retaliation of the molestation of the Hindu women…the burning of the Muslim locality…not to speak of the subject parade of Muslim men, women and children, bare-footed in the hot sun…and finally the proclamation of a Hindu state in the whole of the Punjab.”  

      
       That super atrocity for Hindu Rashtra is of the vintage 1857. In between then and now Hyderabad changed from Nizam to the India rule and what happened in the police action of Sardar Patel was also a matter of atrocity matching that of the partition of the country a year ago after Nizam surrendered. What Togadia envisages vis-à-vis Bhagyalakshumi Temple abutting the Charminar is atrocity compounded with atrocity. He did not mince words when he told the Muslims that VHP will convert Hyderabad into Ayodhya if Hindus are not allowed to perform Puja. (This despite the fact the prayers by Hindus goes on uninterrupted.) The VHP will teach Muslims in Hyderabad a lesson that they will never forget. This is similar to what Narendra Modi also had told in the late night meeting at his residence on February 28, 2002. His words he translated into deeds as Togadia saw it in Naroda Patia sitting and watching in his plush clinic what the Bajrang Dal, RSS under Bajrngi Babu were doing to the Muslims in Gujarat. Togadia like his chief in the VHP Ashok Singhal wanted to replicate it in Hyderabad.

   

       The preparations for such an eventuality had begun long ago. LK Advani said on February 23, 2013 that it was Pakistan behind the Hyderabad attack. But first note how many times he refers to the neighbour; “The neighouring country has not been successful in waging a war against India in the last few decades, so it has resorted to proxy war. The neighbouring country has taken recourse to terrorism to trouble India. There is no doubt that there is the hand of the neighbouring country in Hyerabad blasts. Pakistan should abide by the commitment made during the meeting between Vajpayee and Musharraf, whereby Pakistan undertook not to allow its soil to be used for terror acts against India.” This is the Nazi version of underscoring the truth you want others to believe. Even before any clues were found the truth was established ala BJP and RSS. As in the case of the attack on Parliament on December 13, 2001Advani again showed how best he knew the country of his origin and birth!

     

        Converting Hyderabad into Ayodhya matches converting attack on Parliament into a full fledged war on Pakistan. Advani in his rath yatra and the demolition of Babri did the latter while Tagodia is aiming at the former emulating Advani.

      

       In the aftermath of the attack on Parliament the government under Advani and Vajpayee had started mobilizing the army to attack Pakistan. That was also “super atrocity reprisal.” So the question is who in India is always itching for it?

       This must remain un-answered for a time. However what is irrepressible is the kind of communal tension built up around last Diwali, the hype over the temple at Charminar, the cycle march of Togadia carrying the statue of Hanuman and curtaining off  with cloth the houses from the road view of it, etc have built up to a flash point. It is reminiscent of the partition era. Sardar Patel who is so much cherished in Hyderabad also reminds the role of such build up. Writing in a letter to Shyam Prasad Mookherji on July 18, 1948 he says: “As regards the RSS and Hindu Mahasabha, the case relating to Gandhiji’s murder is sub judice and I should not like to say anything about the participation or the two organizations, but our reports do confirm that, as a result of the activities of these two bodies, particularly the former, an atmosphere was created in the country in which such a ghastly tragedy became possible. There is no doubt in my mind that the extreme section of the Hindu Mahasabha was involved in the conspiracy.”

       The question now is who is the leader of which extreme group involved in this tragedy of Hyderabad, Togadia of VHP or Akbaruddin of MIM?

------- 

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_pakistan-has-taken-recourse-to-terrorism-to-trouble-india-lk-advani-on-hyderabad-blasts_1803494

http://news.oneindia.in/2013/02/06/hate-speech-after-owaisi-now-togadia-to-be-arrested-1143940.html

Savarkar and Hindutva. AG Noorani. Delhi: Left Word. (2002)        

 

Hyderabad: Target Composite Culture Again

Mustafa Khan

       Muslim scattered section of the old city, Konark theatre, Venkatadri theatre, time 7 pm Thursday 21, 2013 two bombs exploded killing 18 people and injuring more than 50; and a third bomb remained unexploded at a footbridge. All these happened within hundred meters from each other.

       It is eerie realization but true that the city had it coming what with frequent visits of Praveen Togadia to the city, Akbaruddin Oweisi openly and defiantly challenging the Hindu right to a face to face confrontation for fifteen minutes sans police. In this face off every one would hold breath in expectation as to who throws the gauntlet and who takes it up first. Zee News reported that it was the Indian Mujahideen behind the blasts. This is the preprogrammed automation reply. Doubts will be raised later and case would prolong. This is beginning at square one unless an early breakthrough changes the set scene. Beginning in default of the real.

       It did not take long to come. Chief Minister Narendra Modi asked his state ATS and state Intelligence Bureau ( the collusion of Modi and Rajedra Kumar of IB is known fact in many cases including the intelligence input of IB of Centre Government on Ishrat Jehan as terrorist)to contact their counterpart in Hyderabad. In all the fake encounters of Gujarat Hyderabad police colluded with the Gujarat police with impunity, be it the murder of Haren Pandiya, Sohrabuddeen, or even the Ahmadabad blasts. Police officer Narendra Amin not only was involved in killing Sohrabuddin/Tulsiram Prajapati but he also killed with his service gun a Maulana’s son when the Muslims of Hyderabad protested against the arrest of innocent people including the Maulana. Till today the Andhra Pradesh police have not bothered to make forensic examination of the service gun let alone question Narendra Amin.

        However, the police in Gujarat are on high alert and asked to keep tight vigil and watch the crowds, perhaps a hint that the planters of bomb in Hyderabad may have fled there as they might have revenge for 2002 massacre of Muslims in Gujarat as motivation. 

       The central government had on Tuesday sent an advisory asking all states to tighten security in sensitive places as Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad and Hizbul Mujahideen may launch attacks to avenge the hanging of Ajmal Kasab and Afzal Guru. This is also reaction in default of the real. Even the papers have several reports of the same nature. The Delhi police claims ipso facto that the IM accused Syed Maqbool and Imran(arrested in October 2012) had recced  the cites at Abids road, Dilsukh nager, in July 2012. That they had done it for Riyaz Bhatkar as usual in all the recent attacks including July 13, 2012 attack in Mumbai and the Pune low intensity blasts. (AA Feb 22, 2013)    
       There is more disturbing news of how the Gujarat police in association with the Andhra/Maharashtra police are doing its official work. To save Yashpal Chadda from arrest in Sohrabuddin case Nitin Shainai and Rajesh Ranjan had given 3 crore to  a cop Amitabh Thakur. This was paid ultimately to the CBI chief Kanda Swamy. Thus the undertable business in vibrant Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh went on.  What is even more  ominous, one cror was transferred to a central government officer. (Asia Express Feb 22.) Of course, Thakur and Kanda Swamy denied the charges. But interestingly a Home Guard officer had told Kanda Swamy, at Nasik that Vijay Neelkanth Pophale (RSS activist) had kept two of the bombers of September 8, 2006 in Tulsi lodge at Satana Naka, Malegaon, no heed was given to it. The lead was lost. Even in Malegaon a rich man Mahesh Patodiya had paid one cror 65 lakh for the blasts to a police officer the lead was not taken up for consideration. The police had called Patodiya and twenty Hindus for questioning but let them off. Even if this was part of grapevine there was need to investigate because the police had taken the Home Guard to Nasik specifically at the instance of Kanda Swamy IG level officer of CBI. Under the ruse of Malegaon terror attacks of 2006 and 2008 were subsumed under jehadi terrorism and wrongfully innocent people were accused and put in prison. In the case of the later attack after suspenseful lull Hemant Karkare did what no one had done before.

         The game of hunting for Muslims is again on. If Riyaz Bhatkal and Imran are indigenous terrorists then seeking their higher ups in Afghanistan and Pakistan is preposterous proposition. That is where the investigation agencies go astray. Their home work is incomplete and inadequate. So Indian foreign secretary on a tour in the US was less than indigenuous like the erstwhile National Security Advison MK Narayanan when the latter derailed the Samjhauta express attack investigation in the larger context of fighting terrorism in the aftermath of the attack on the Indian embassy in Afghanistan. Ranjan Mathai for the same reason perplexes others rather than clarifying anything when he says while touring the US: “Terrorism is and will remain a pre-eminent security challenge for both our countries. Our convergence on the source and the nature of the threat in our region has never been greater. It is therefore a challenge that provides us an opportunity for enhanced cooperation in combating terror and protecting our people from it. This is even more of an imperative today, as we move into a period of significant uncertainty in the next few years.” He finds the “source and the nature of the threat” in Afghanistan, and of course, Pakistan. And now you have it.    

       The third attack in Hyderabad coincided with the Indian Parliament going into the budget session and the home minister apologizing for his remark that BJP and RSS have been training Hindu youths in mounting terror attack.  The big question now is who mounted this attack in Hyderabad.

       Another big question is the source of RDX. In Pakistan RDX is easily available in the market, in India it is used by the army. So the terror attacks of 2006 have the provenance of RDX in the explosive substance seized by the ATS in the so called arms haul case of Aurangabad. Zabiuddin Ansari or Abu Jundal is involved, the police claim. But the man who reportedly gave him the Tata Indica in Aurangabad denied in the MCOCA court before the judge, SV Modak that he ever rented out the car to Zabi. This also came out on the day of Hyderabad blast. Who will now clear all this murk? Sushil Kumar Shinde said that BJP and RSS are training youths to explode bombs but now he says that he regretted it and the RSS says the he should apologize but Congress reasserts that Shinde’s accusation was based on facts!

       Whatever ultimately turns out to be case—whether it was really United Jihad Council, even—the face-off between Togadia and Akbaruddin gave an opportunity the deepen the gulf.

How does the police play proactive role in implicating Muslim youths in terror: the police made SIMI president sing their tune

Mustafa Khan

       When Sadhvi Pragyasingh Thakur revealed her and Abhinav Bharat’s involvement in the terrorist attack in Malegaon on September 29, 2008 her accomplice and serving Lt Col of the Indian army Prasad Shrikant Purohit told Major (retired) Ramesh Upadhya that she had started singing. The ATS also can make others sing different tunes as they desire.

        Munawar Ahmad Mohammad Amin was the president of Students Islamic Movement of India of the Malegaon unit. The way Anti Terrorism Squad made him sing their tune is worth historic record. He headed SIMI from 1998 to 2003. Before him Khalid was in charge of the organization. Khalid is the cousin of Noorulhodha, an accused in 2006 blasts and other cases. The secretary of his unit was another accused Mohammad Zahid Abdul Majid.

       Munawar states that he has been accused of inciting people and has been booked at three police stations of the City, Killa and Ayesha Nager in eight cases. He has been given bail and has been reporting these stations when the police demands. Since he became president he has known Shabbir Masiullah who has had a shop of imitation jewelry and gift items at Anjuman chowk, a stone’s throw from the SIMI office in Bhiku chowk. He met Shabbir occasionally in the vicinity of the office and would tell about the works of the organization. In the aftermath of the ban on SIMI he was rendered jobless. It was then that Shabbier asked him to join in partnership and start Gazal Dresses just above his Gazal gift and jewelry shop. Earlier he had sold bone powder as fertilizer. Both of his business ventures ended in loss. 

       During the period in office and after the ban the SIMI head of the Kurla, Mumbai, branch Mohammad Ali aka Aziz would visit Munawar. Munawar introduced Shabbir to him. Mohammad Ali told them that Riyaz Bhatkal was sending some youths to Pakistan for training in arms. In June 2003 Shabbir travelled to Dubai to buy imitation jewelry for his shop. On way back he was searched at Khatmandu and his jewelry was confiscated. (That he visited Pakistan for training is a canard spread by the police, he told this writer on September 12, 2012.)

       Then in September-October 2003 a youth called Nafees Ahmed came to stay with Shabbir for a month and half. Prantu sadar kalavdheet shabbier ani Nafees hey lapoon chapeen rahat ast. Madhoon mi Shabbir kade barkaieeney chokshi keyli tehooan to aani Nafees dogey hi Mohammad Ali che sangneya Pakistan jaoon dahshatwad chey training aleyache tyane mala sangeet ley hotey (“But during this period Shabbir and Nafees were hiding and concealing themselves. Therefore I closely inquired Shabbir about it and then he revealed that he and Nafees had gone to Pakistan and were trained in terrorist activity.”) Many youths would visit Shabbir and stay with him for a couple of days and then go away.

       Is this what Munawar says or the ATS? The attitude of Munawar in this confession strangely shows disapproval of the youths and particularly Nafees. And of all the things this Dubai dukanacha maal aandneyasathi janayaas  kahi harkat nahi parantu Pakistanat training la jaoo nako. “There is no objection to go to Dubai to purchase items for his shop but it is objectionable that he should go to Pakistan for training.” If SIMI is a terrorist organization according to India how could a president of the organization say this to a potential recruit! Why would he reprimand him?

       It shows the naked truth that the confession of Munawar is fake. There is more than one reason to believe this. The most important is that Munawar was also arrested by the police and was in jail along with the other nine accused. The other nine have wondered why he was let out of the prison. That he spent time with the nine within the same prison is a well known fact to the nine accused and many others outside the jail, particularly the people in Malegaon. One of them is the former corporator of Jaffernager area called Mohammad Ismail Mullah. He even submitted an affidavit that he had seen Munawar in the police van when the police was pretending that they were on the lookout for him.

       SIMI was banned on September 19, 2001 as a fall out of al Qaeda attack in New York and Washington on September 11, 2001. The Indian government at centre was headed by the Hindu party BJP leaders AB Vajpayee as Prime Minister and LK Advani as the Deputy PM and also the Home Minister. The anti Muslim weltanschauung created in the after math of the 9/11 came as an opportunity for the Hindutva prone government to begin its own hidden agenda of framing Muslims and repressing them, or else what it was that they did?  No India Muslim was involved even remotely in the 9/11 which even President George Bush asseverated. Despite this the Indian government banned the organization. Its massive police force and intelligence agencies had arm full of assignment to go after the members of the banned outfit.   They have the statement of Munawar and he was with them and was in the jail and yet today the police, the CBI and the NIA are after this absconder who was very much in the police custody, in their van and in the prison. Who let him go and why?

       The lesson this bogus case teaches us is the failure of school education. Had the administrators and police and investigators been taught critical thinking they would not have made themselves fools for the world to laugh at them and the country to decry. There is no proof of Shabbir visiting Kurla. The additional chief secretary (Home) and secretary in charge of Home Department of Government of Maharashtra AP Sinha who signed the order of arresting and prosecuting Shabbir, Nafis, Riyaz Ismail Bhatkal (R/o Qadar building, 1^st floor, room no 17, Kurla Pipe road, Kurla, west, Mumbai), Tarique ismail Abdul Sattar, Mohammadd Ali Alam Shaikh aka Aziz should not have simply put his signature on the dotted lines on behalf of the governor. He should have critically looked into the facts and discussed howsoever briefly to know that it was not fake or else it would bounce back on the forwarding authorities. Since then Riyaz/Riyas Bhatkal has been involved in all sorts of bomb attacks everywhere in Maharashtra and outside. What is the degree of probability that he could be involved in so many crimes till the triple blasts in Mumbai on July 13, 2011 and the police be sleeping over his involvement! Is he the wandering Jew in modern avatar of the wandering Muslim? How come the PSI Shripad Kale of Ghatkoper police station so solely dependent on his informants and so gullible that the informants could pull wools over his eyes and frame innocent people at will?

       Mohammad Ali is also accused in the serial blasts in local trains of July 11, 2006 and he is consistently involved in other blasts or unlawful activities, according to the police. Is it probable that Mohammad Ali aka Aziz in the custody of Kurla police would be so active to be free to conspire for another and a much larger terror attack of blowing bombs in Malegaon in just over a month later?   Ditto Shabbir. If Kale and Sinha be so obtuse what about the others who supervised and sanctioned and executed re-arrests of some of the Ghatkoper accused in Malegaon 2006 case also? And why did the CBI take three years to tell the court that it did not find anything incriminating regarding the nine accused in 2006 Malegaon blasts which included Mohammad Ali too? Still, two more years would pass before they could be given bail, albeit Mohammad Ali and another accused are still in detention over other charges in other cases. And why could the chief minister of Maharashtra be so sensitive and prompt to act in the case of a mute artist Aseem Trivedi and so insensitive along with his predecessors in office in the matters of the nine accused in Malegaon case and the five in the Ghatkoper case? Most of the accused were men without any criminal record and could not have even thought of being traitors to their country?

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See the confessional statement of Munawar in the charge sheet of Shabbir and Nafis accused in the Ghatkoper case