In the wake of the communal riots in Atali village in Ballabgarh district of Haryana, MOHAMMAD NAUSHAD KHAN opines that any loss incurred as a result of communal riots in any part of the country is the aggregated loss of the nation.
JIH high-level delegation talking to police officers at the police station
The horror, pains, sufferings and trauma refuse to abate in the wake of communal violence at regular intervals. Every incident reminds us of the horrible past. But not enough to shake our moral quotient that can say no to violence and give a call for peace and communal harmony for a better future of India. The dubious and partisan role played by the local administration and the government further aggravates the problem. When will we really understand that any loss, howsoever small or big, incurred as a result of communal riots in any part of the country is the aggregated loss of the nation? Can India ever recover from these losses if riots continue to haunt the nation mindlessly?
Ballabgarh is another name added to the chronology of communal violence. The list goes endless. After every incident it is recorded just like another communal violence, without assessing its magnitude and the nature of loss, physiological or psychological. The reasons for the occurrence and culmination of violence may be different from one place to another but the motive always remains the same – to hurt and harm minorities and marginalised sections in order to push them into isolated zones popularly termed as ghettos where the horizon of development comes to a naught.
On 25 May, in the evening, a communal violence broke out at Atali village (in Ballabgarh tehsil of Faridabad district, Haryana) following the reconstruction of an 80-year-old mosque. People belonging to the Jat community attacked houses belonging to Muslims and forced them to flee away. More than two dozen people were injured and 17 houses and a dozen vehicles were burnt down. On 27 May, a team of National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) visited the village to take stock of the situation.
In his initial reaction, Professor Yogendra Yadav, a renowned political scientist and well-known political leader, who is well-acquainted with the ground reality in Haryana, told Radiance that incidents of this kind are happening all over and often go unreported or unnoticed. This is the fourth of the five incidents of this kind in Haryana since the Modi government came to power, the most serious one being in Tauru or Taoru (in Mewat district of Haryana) last year. The Modi government claims that there have been no big communal riots since it took over. What has happened is not that communalism has abated, but that its model has shifted. Crowd-sourcing of majority communalism is the new model. Secular politics has to change its strategy to combat this new model of communal violence.
A high level delegation of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, comprising the organisation’s Vice-President Nusrat Ali, Secretary-General Engineer Mohammad Salim, State President Delhi and Haryana Abdul Waheed, Dept. of Public Relations official Inamur Rahman, Area Organiser East Delhi Mansoor Ahmad and Local President Abul Fazl Enclave Waris Husain, visited the riot-affected village of Atali near Faridabad to assess the ground reality and placate the victims.
On their return from Atali, the delegation informed Radiance that they first visited government hospital in Faridabad and met the injured. Two people were badly injured and suffered severe burns. Initially, 15 people were admitted to local hospital but later on due to some or the other reasons they moved out to another hospital or another place. From there the delegation moved on to Ballabgarh police station where nearly 250 to 300 people of the Atali village, including elderly people, women and children who had run away from the village, fearing for their life, were present outside the police station, seeking shelter there.
“We interacted with them to find out the ground reality and what we came to know was quite surprising. In Atali, there are more than one hundred Muslim houses. In the village we found that big houses of Muslims were damaged, torched and vehicles belonging to Muslims were burnt down. The impression we gathered was that mostly the Muslim families living a healthy life were targeted,” informed the delegation.
Engineer Mohammad Salim, while talking to Radiance, said the construction at the site had begun much before the incident took place, at least a few days before, under the protection of police and after the court had granted permission for the construction. The local people informed the delegation that on the day of the incident, between 5.30 to 6 pm around 1000-strong mob reached the site of the construction and started pelting stones. Though some policemen were present but when the mob reached, they moved away. “One more thing which we believe is very serious is that until 5 to 10 minutes prior to the mob rushing to the construction site SHO named Babu Lal was present in the village. Soon after he moved out of the village, people began to assemble. The villagers also told us that most of them believed that SHO is also involved in the incident,” said Engineer Salim.
“Not only this, some of the villagers also told us that the SHO was heard saying to the people belonging to the Jat community that they all had two-hour time. This is a very serious charge. If it is true, it is very dangerous and must be investigated. The highhandedness of the police is also possible because when a mob of around 1000 people was gathering at one spot and the police failed to reach over there even after two hours while the distance from the village to the police station was barely 7 kilometres and that too when our transport and communication system has become so fast. The police reached there after 8 pm and by that time all the attackers had fled away,” added Engineer Salim.
The JIH leader also said, “We met Faridabad Police Commissioner Subhash Yadav, SDM and the local MLA Tek Chand Sharma. We discussed the issue with them in detail and raised the question before them that till then no arrest was made nor was any concrete measure taken to arrest the tension and sense of fear and insecurity. When I informed the Commissioner about the suspected role of the SHO, as told to me by the villagers, he, instead of saying that he will look into the matter, replied: ‘no, no SHO is not responsible and he has not done any wrong’. This is quite surprising. I then asked him how he could say so; at least he should have said that ok, we will look into it. ‘How can you exonerate him completely even before the probe has not yet started’.”
The Jamaat and other organisations, including All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat, are in constant touch with the people over there and have assured them of help and assistance. It is possible that a delegation will also meet Chief Minister of Haryana in this regard.
According to a Times of India report, neighbouring state Delhi is on high alert and the Delhi police officials are on their toes and have put sensitive areas on high alert to avoid any fallout of the Faridabad riots. A ‘Communal Riot Scheme’ has been prepared to deal with any riot-like situation and the scheme is divided in three stages like prevention, operational and post-riots, if any.