“Where is my son Fasih? He was picked up from Saudi Arabia on May 13 and till now no information from the officials has been given to us about his whereabouts. What kind of government is this? Why is it (government) keeping mum over the issue? My son is innocent,” cried Amraha Jamal, mother of the seemingly latest victim of ‘Politics of Terror.’
The inconsolable mother narrated her ordeal since May 13 and how her home has torn apart, in a public meeting on “Politics of Terror: Targeting the Muslim Youth,” organised in the Capital by some noted journalists and activists on July 9. She could not stop her tears and narrated how her husband, Fasih’s father, had several heart attacks since the news broke out. “There is always a Moses for every Pharaoh,” she said, maintaining firm belief that his son is innocent and would be released soon.
The public meeting, where several relatives of the victims were present, was organised to address the surging issue of innocent Muslims being picked up by the police and thrown into jails, only to be released later as innocents. And by the time they are released, the damage has already taken place and their whole youth gets wasted, the recent example is Mohammad Aamir, who was released after 14 long years. Some die in custody, the latest case is of Qateel Siddiqui who died in mysterious circumstances in Yerwada Jail, Pune. He was arrested last November for a case in which his complicity had still not been established, and killed in a high security prison.
Shauzab Kazmi, son of Syed Mohammed Ahmed Kazmi who was picked up on March 6, said that no proof of his father’s involvement in the bomb blast on the Israeli diplomat’s car has been found as of now. “More than 100 protests have taken place but the sad part is that why people are not being heard in a democracy?” he said.
Nasir Mullah from Maharashtra unveiled the falsity of criminal investigation and how innocent youths are subjected to inhumane and utterly bestial torture. “Third degree torture is given to them (innocent youths) and those who could not bear it, like Khwaja Yunus, die,” he said. “The police aggrandises their crime and the media projects it in sensational headlines like ‘Waging war against nation’ and they are assumed to be culprits even before the trial starts,” he added. He narrated how his nephew was picked up by the police few months before his marriage and was forced to give false statements against some innocent Muslims or else face POTA. “He was given two choices, new bride or POTA,” said Mullah. His nephew did not budge to the demands of the police and after 35 days of confinement he was booked under POTA. “Jinhe naaz tha Hind par kahan hain woh log,” he cried. Similar kind of ordeal was shared by Abdur Raheem who came all the way from Malegaon. He son was kept under illegal confinement for 7 days and then was produced before the court.
Roshan Kishore, President SFI, raised an important issue. He said a country can be judged from the way it treats its minorities. “If a country ill-treats its minorities then certainly it questions the democratic principles and Sachar Committee report is a proof for the ill-treatment,” he said. He further said that whenever Muslims excelled financially in some parts of the country, orchestrated riots were placed upon them to destroy them. These kinds of acts used to happen in the US and Israel.
Danish Ali, Member of Janta Dal Secular, picked up from where Roshan Kishore ended and said, it is good that we import technology from the US and Israel but we must not import the ideology from them to make our minorities second grade citizens in their own country. He further went sarcastic and said, “The only achievement of the government so far (UPA and BJP both) is that they see every Muslim with suspicion.”
Samajwadi Party leader, Mohan Singh proved statistically the deplorable condition of Muslims. “There are around 10 per cent Muslims in Maharashtra but in jails the percentage of Muslims is 30 and many are languishing without a case against them. A report from Human Rights Commission says that the statistics are true almost for all the states throughout India,” he said. Kuldip Nayar, a noted columnist, condemned the act of police and other authorities and said that there are around 1000 youths who are languishing in jails without trial.
Swami Agnivesh came up with the punishment for those who are guilty of putting innocent youths behind the bars. He said those who are responsible should be kept in jails for equal number of days in order to understand the trauma and helplessness the victims faced.
Some other politicians were also present at the meeting. The most noted of them was Farooq Abdullah. In his sermonising kind of speech he did not come up with any conclusion or solution to stop the horrendous activity, instead veered the talk to a totally different angle. While he was talking about being an Indian Muslim and the day of resurrection, etc. he was stopped by a person from the audience to which he snappishly replied and left the meeting. The point which was raised by the audience was that what else he has done besides sermonising and praying. Has he talked about the issue with Home Minister or PM or any other higher official?
The public meeting ended after two hours and a half, some were praised for the way they spoke, some managed to receive claps, some like Farooq Abdullah got a taste of frustration of people, while some managed to make headlines. But the fact remains the same. Nothing concrete came out of the meeting.