In recent years, the credibility of investigating agencies has been seriously questioned and the trust and confidence of people it enjoyed earlier is going down each passing day. The recent expose by gulail.com founded by veteran journalist AshishKhetan has revealed that there are anti-Muslim bias in anti-terror operations. The website further claims that it has got clinching evidence to show how India’s investigating agencies framed 13 innocent Muslims. Recently, Liaqat’s case further substantiates such claims. It seems that the war on terror has become one community centric.
The war on terror has lost its sanctity and legitimacy in the absence of better co-ordination, transparency and accountability. The expertise and experience these investigating agencies have is being exploited to target members of the Muslim community and to harass and frame them as they wish either to satisfy their peers or win laurels from the establishment, even without giving second thought to what kind of damage they inflict thereby on the minds and psychology of youth arrested on false charges and concocted evidences. Even after acquittal from the court for lack of evidence the scar of trauma and torture keeps on haunting these youths every now and then.
If real conspirators and planters of bombs are not held and instead innocents are arrested then the investigating agencies are doing more harm than good in protecting India and her people from terror onslaught and mayhem. By doing so they are further encouraging terrorists to carry out more attacks, because they would presume that every time they can get off easily and others will be caught. Has the war on terror missed its direction and purpose?
AshishKhetan displayed video clippings at Indian Merchant Chamber in Mumbai on 22 April to show how Maharashtra’s anti-terror squad framed 13 innocent Muslims, how they were tortured and how and where explosives planted.Khetan claims that he has got hundreds of classified documents including detailed investigation reports and police records to support his claim. He has also filed a petition before Chief Justice of Bombay High Court in which he has alleged in various terror attacks like Mumbai local train in 2006, Pune Best Bakery blast in 2010, Malegaon blast in 2006 the Maharashtra anti-terror squad had intentionally and deliberately created false evidence, recorded false confession through torture and at times also planted explosives in the premises of the accused.
The mindset of the interrogators can be visualised from a small report inThe Hindustan Times on 22 May, which says Tanveer Ahmad, a skullcap wearing doctor at Fouzia Nursing Home at Mumbai’s Nagpada, says in a videotaped interview that police interrogators chided him for his Muslim faith. “They said that I had a bad mentality. I was educated, and yet read the Quran, kept a beard….why couldn’t I be a liberal?’’
Last month, another video footage was shown by All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat during a press conference at its headquarters on 2 April, to counter police claim on Liaqat’s arrest. Delhi police had claimed that Liaqat was arrested from a bus stop in Gorakhpur after a tip off. But what came out from the video footage was that a BSF official while talking to reporters said that Liaqat was stopped and interrogated by border security forces at India–Nepal border and thereafter he was handed over to Delhi police. This is the way how false and fabricated scripts are prepared by our terror investigating agencies.
The police went one step further when they claimed to have recovered weapons from Liaqat. After a lot of hue and cry from Muslim organisations and political parties, NIA took up the case to find out the truth. After its investigation, NIA has come out with the fact that nothing such has been found to say that he was going to carry out any attacks. And now he has been acquitted by NIA and is living with his family.
But the big question: How the weapons were shown and from where and who planted it? Why did the NIA not take up this angle too in their investigation and why wasit only restricted to know as to whether he was going to carry out any attacks or not? Why hasthe Home Ministry become a mute spectator and why is it silent on this issue? When will Home Minister ensure that from today onwards there will be transparency and accountability in terror operations and no innocent person either Hindu or Muslimwill be arrested?
We have seen how innocent Muslims were framed in Malegaon blast and had to languish in jail for years and are now out on bail. NIA has now filed chargesheet against four persons belonging to Hindutva groups in 2006 Malegaon blast case on 22 May for which the Maharashtra anti-terror squad had earlier arrested nine Muslim youth in the same case. Surprisingly, NIA in its chargesheet, has not mentioned names like Swami Aseemanand, PragyaSingh Thakur, and Colonel Purohit. Is this the way to protect India from terrorist attacks by arresting innocent Muslims?
In Uttar Pradesh, Khalid died while returning from court. Nobody can say for sure whether it was another conspiracy after his arrest or was a natural death. Now the Uttar Pradesh government has announced to release some more Muslim youths. Who will set the accountability of those policemen who arrested innocent Muslims? When will the government payheed to what was said by our Vice President Hamid Ansari to make investigating agencies accountable to Parliament?