“They fired tear gas shells straight on the people from just 10 feet away, they didn’t spare even the imam,” said Mohammad Ahmad, Tonk Waqf Committee Chairman. He presented an eight-year old boy whom the police had beaten so mercilessly that he got a big wound on his scalp. “They had arrested him too. I almost snatched the boy and pulled him down from the police jeep,” he said. Mr. Zakir said, “The Muslims were attacked, killed and arrested too.” “They took the people who were on fast, there was no arrangement for breaking their fast till late night, they were not given even a drop of water,” said Major Anwar.
All of them were speaking at a huge rally and dharna organised jointly by Rajasthan Muslim Forum, Sadbhav Manch Rajasthan, People’s Union For Civil Liberties and Dalit Adhikar Manch on 2 August.
On 12 July, 2013, Friday, the police, STF and RAC intruded with their shoes on into the Chhawni Jama Masjid of Tonk and fired teargas shells towards the people who were praying, then resorted to lathi charge. A youth named Nasir was hit into his face, following which he died on the spot and more than 60 others were injured.
“We saw that there were family relations among both the communities, people from both sides knew one another as ‘Chacha’ and ‘Kaka’. It was the police who flared up the situation,” spoke Sawai Singh, Convener Sadbhav Manch Rajasthan, who joined the fact-finding team that visited the Chawni Jama Masjid on 14 July.
“They attacked innocent people like organised goons and didn’t spare even the aged ones,” he added. He was of the opinion that the communal forces like RSS are trying to develop hatred between the two communities so as to polarise the majority votes during the forthcoming elections in the state.
Er. Muhammad Saleem, National secretary Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, warned the state government that if the victims do not get justice, the public shall ‘see’ the government in the forthcoming polls. He stated that the struggle will continue till the victims are given due justice. “It is an alarming fact that no action against the culprits has been taken in a single case of communal violence in Rajasthan during the present Congress government and not a single police or administrative officer has been punished in these incidents,” he said.
Qari Mueenudden, Convener Rajasthan Muslim Forum, Paker Farooq, President APCR Rajasthan, Prof. Hasan, Chairman IRADA Society, Shaukat Qureshi, Secretary Muslim Musafirkhana Jaipur, Ghulam Nabi, opposition leader in Jaipur Municipal Corporation and Rajendra Kumbhaj from PUCL were among other speakers.
The leaders demanded immediate suspension of and filing criminal cases against the District Collector and the SP and a probe into the incident by a commission headed by a sitting or a retired High Court Judge. A compensation of Rs. 25 lakh was demanded for the family of the diseased, Nasir.
The leaders were of the opinion that had the culprit police and administrative officials as well as the rioters been punished in earlier such incidents in Sarada (Udaipur), Balesar (Jodhpur), Soorwal (Sawai Madhopur), Gopalgarh (Bharatpur), etc., the Tonk incident would not have occurred.
Till now, the Forum leaders have sent faxes thrice to CM, Mr. Ashok Gehlot in order to get an appointment, but there is no response till these lines were written.
[The writer is Media Secretary, Jamaat-E-Islami Hind, Rajasthan. Email: [email protected]]