Unfortunate, cowardly, condemnable – no words can convey the feelings of outrage one has on twin blasts in Hyderabad, killing 16 innocent citizens and injuring about 100 others.
Some politicians, as usual, are out to make political capital out of the tragedy. Most newspapers, while condemning the blasts and demanding solid action, are indulging in wild speculations. Some have tried to link the attacks to Afzal Guru’s execution and even to earlier execution of Kasab, in a subtle way insinuating that Muslims might be responsible for these attacks also.
The central government is trying to lessen its responsibility by saying that it had already warned some state governments about possibility of such attacks. One thing is certain that its responsibility does not end with unspecified advance warnings.
Muslims have been the easy victims who were invariably blamed for such blasts in the past. It happened in Hyderabad itself in the case of Mecca Masjid and Lumbni Park blasts, after which hundreds of Muslims were hounded and harassed and scores of them were thrown behind bars and tortured in the worst possible inhuman ways for the crimes they had never committed. Thank God all false cases were thrown out by the courts of law and the state government was forced to pay compensation to the victims of incarceration and torture. No other state government showed moral strength by accepting its mistake in implicating innocent persons and torturing them for years and destroying their lives.
All India Muslim parties and organisations, while strongly condemning the terror attacks, have asked the government to undertake unbiased investigation and asked media to avoid insinuations to blame any particular community for the blasts.
Such insinuations, in the past, strongly hurt the Muslims and increased the level of suspicion against them, thus making their lives miserable. Perhaps the basic intention of the terrorists and communalists, whoever might have been behind such attacks, is to disturb the peace and harmony in the country by poisoning minds, increasing suspicion and sowing the seeds of prejudice in the minds of common people. Muslims are the usual victims of this increased level of suspicion as Muslim-sounding names like Indian Mujahideen, etc. are mentioned not only by newspapers but even by unspecified police, intelligence and even Home Ministry sources.
Nobody knows how long this nefarious game will continue. Let the government use its full power and unearth and punish the real culprits. Let it put a final stop to such acts of terror while taking care not to harm any innocent person or blame any particular community. The whole country is solidly behind the government in eradicating terror and violence of any kind.