Azamgarh: The Terror of “Anti-terrorism”
Ish Mishra
The word encounter became famous in India for the first time when hundreds of young boys and girls began disappearing in West Bengal in the late sixties and early seventies and subsequently killed in “fierce encounters”. With the forces of Hindutva gaining political ascendance, encounter has become a political tool to create fascist-communal polarisation of the Indian society.
Recent “encounter” took place in the vicinity of Delhi’s Jamia Millia Islamia in which a Police Inspector having record of many encounters and two teenage students, branded as terrorists, were shot dead and two others “were successful in escaping”, this is another matter that there was no scope to escape from the building surrounded by armed Special Cell
The Objective
This exercise is a follow up of our fact-finding into Jamia Nagar encounter, following which began the witch hunting of Muslim youth from Azamgarh as terror suspect by various security agencies and its media-projection as the “nursery of terrorism”. We seek to enquire into the myth and reality of tertiary relationship between terrorism, place and the religion and also into fear and anguish pervading the area through an on-the-spot study of the place and people through interaction with common people selected at random, testimonies of the members of the affected families and neighbors and interviews with Superintendent of Police and the District Magistrate of Azamgarh. We could meet the DM but the SP was busy with Mela arrangement. So we could talk to SP only on telephone. In Azamgarh city, we interacted with and interviewed Dr Iftikhar Ahmad (Principal Shibli National Post-Graduate College), Dr Javed Akhtar (whose house had been raided by police), Mr Ehshan Ahmad and his wife (parents of Zeeshan, arrested from Vedeocon Tower in Delhi), teachers of the Shibli College, school teachers, local journalists, civil rights activists, professionals and common people.
In villages of Sanjarpur and Saraimir described as ‘nursery of terror’ we interacted with and interviewed the family members of Atif and Sajid, killed in Jamia Nagar encounters and family members of the boys arrested from Saraimir, Lucknow and Delhi apart from responsible residents and common people.
The context
While prescribing numerous measures to check the revolution in tyrannies, the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle, underlines religion and war, as the most efficient. Modern rulers have combined the two. They have constructed an abstract enemy – – and have linked it to a religion, Islam. Echoing their Master’s voice, the Indian ruling class parties and their ideological apparatuses began to suspect every Muslim as a potential terrorist, notwithstanding the exposures about Hindutva forces having armed training camps, bomb making workshops and conducting blasts. Bereft of vision and ideas, with the “success story” of Gujarat in mind, the RSS outfits began to create the ground for communal mobilisation in the light of forthcoming general elections. In the states of Orissa and Karnataka, where Christians could not be projected as “terrorists”, they are being haunted and harassed in the name of conversion.
The democratic groups, including ours, getting alarmed with the news of the apparently dubious “encounter” in Jamia Nagar on 19th September, conducted a fact finding on 21st September 2008 and released the report in a press conference on 26th September 2008.
Following the Jamia Nagar “encounter” and media projection of Azamgarh as the “nursery” of terrorism echoing the (one of the various RSS outfits) chief and BJP MP from Gorakhpur, Mahanta Adityanath, and raids were conducted in Azamgarh city and the villages of Sanjarpur and Saraimir. Janhastakshep and PUDR decided to send fact-finding teams to Azamgarh as the follow up to the Jamia Nagar fact-finding. We were joined in Azamgarh by Mahtab of APCHR and Dr Abdul Salam of NCHR from Kerala who were on independent fact-finding mission. PUHR’s Vinod Yadav an advocate from Azamgarh also joined in. At the time of writing of this report, UP Police has arrested Mr. Yadav and another PUHR activist on superfluous charges IPC 419 and 420, warning the people not to question the police action.
The Place and the People:
Azamgarh, one of the backward districts of eastern Uttar Pradesh, maligned as by communalised media and vested interests, lies in the fertile plains of Ganga-Ghaghra Doab. Having no industry, university or Engineering/Medical Colleges, main economic activity is agriculture. Few towns of the district, once known for their exemplary crafts are being pushed into oblivion by the market forces of the The young boys and girls seeking higher education and professional trainings go out to other cities -- Lucknow, Varanasi, Aligarh and Delhi being the favorite destinations. Remittances by people working in various parts of the world, is the other major source income apart from agriculture and crafts, particularly the handloom. Azamgarh town was established by Azamat Shah, son of a landed Rajput convert in the peninsular landscape craved by the river Tons.
In 1857, the city held an important strategic position in Kunwar Singh’s campaign. After the suppression of the armed peasants’ revolution with the help of most of the Indian moneyed and feudal classes – the princes, kinglets and Zamindars –, thousands of rebel soldiers and the peasant revolutionaries were publicly killed and hanged with the trees in the orchards and the forests.
In 1883, prior to the formation of the Indian National Congress, Shibli Nomani, a nationalist scholar, started an academy for the modern, nationalist education. During freedom movement, Shibli National College, which is celebrating 125th year of its foundation, was one of the prominent centres of nationalist activities in the eastern UP and hence was special target of British. Many leaders of the freedom movement, including Mahatma Gandhi and Nehru used to visit the college to hold meetings and consultations. During and in the aftermath of the independence and partition of the country, despite the pervasive communal frenzy and massacres, Azamgarh remained almost untouched by communal violence. In the post independence electoral polity, before the trend of caste based mobilisation got strong footing in the electoral politics, the district had been bastion of Communist and Socialist Parties. Due to composite culture and the composition of the district, the Hindutva forces could hardly make any electoral presence even during the communal euphoria in the aftermath of the Advani’s most publicised Rath Yatra preceding the demolition of the Babri Masjid.
The Hindu-Muslim population in the city is almost evenly divided, though the average Muslim population in the district is 12-14 percent. Despite sizeable Muslim population Azamgarh did not have any history of any kind of communal violence and was a model of India’s composite culture thriving in peace and harmony. It boasts of its luminaries like Shibli Nomani, Ayodhya Singh Hariaudh, Rahul Sankrityayan, Kaifi Azmi and many others. Thus Azamgarh does not fit into the “innate bigot” Islamic attribute orchestrated by the imperialism and echoed by its local agents. This was an irritant for the Indian ruling classes and hence the model had to be destroyed. The image of the “terrorist” transformed from Madarsa-educated bearded young man with round cap or Arabic head scarf to modern educated and clean shaven youngmen could not be tolerated by forces inimical to Muslims.
The villages in news with tag of terror – Sanjarpur, Saraimir and Binapara – the Muslim majority villages too have been untouched with any kind of serious communal tension or strife. Globalised use of capital has been seeking cheap local labour which was provided by some of the Muslims of Azamgarh who have been going to Malaysia, gulf and other places to escape poverty at home. The remittances made by them were used for educating their children and improving living standards by building pucca houses in villages. Most of them went out to work as skilled/unskilled labourers and realised the importance of education for a dignified life and hence made good education to their children as their priority. Aligarh and Jamia became their favorite destinations.
So Azamgarh Muslim story is this that a little globalised labours that canalized earnings for local development. This should not have been treated like a crime by the state that abdicated its responsibility by putting hindrances in collecting remittances through regular banking channels. The hawala operators got an opportunity to step in after this. Yet most Muslims kept their money in the nationalised banks which is capital contribution, supplementing cash and contributing to the growth of the economy of the country. Local people did admit that some boys might be involved into Hawala operations so they should be tried for that and not arrested or killed in the name of fighting “terrorism”. The Muslim youth and their parents are living under the constant fear of arrest and death, having lost faith in the law and order machinery.
The antecedents
Azamgarh with a sizable Muslim population – educated and well-to-do – does not fit into the “ghettoised, uneducated” stereotype propagated by the self-claimed mainstream. The consistent communal harmony, depicting India’s composite culture, has been an irritant to the forces depending upon communal mobilisation with hatred and animosity by demonising minorities in the name of conversion or “terrorism”. During the BJP rule in the state, attempts began to pollute the social atmosphere of the city by attacking its composite culture and its symbol, Shibli National College, became the first victim.
· In 2000, the U.P. government under BJP made some premeditated attack on Shibli National (Post Graduate) College, which competes with the premier academic institutions of the country. In the entire region it is the only college with a girl’s hostel – Kaifi Azmi Girls Hostel – sponsored by the actress and social activist, Sabana Azami.
On the Republic Day, that year when all the programmes in the college conducted in accordance with the schedule issued by state government through district administration were concluded with the recitation of the national anthem, a group of students claiming to be members of ABVP – the student front of the RSS – tried to force the college administration to restart the function and organise the recitation of Vande Matram. They threatened the Principal, Dr Iftikhar Ahmad of dire consequences and left to come back again to vandalise the college, manhandle few employees raising provocative slogans and vandalised Muslim shops. The police arrested the shopkeepers whose shops were ransacked and looted, on the instance of Rangnath Mishra, home minister in the BJP government. Under the instruction of Mishra, the principal and a senior professor of the college were arrested on the fabricated charges of sedition etc. They were subsequently released on bail. A team of Janhastakshep had gone there and had found in its report the BJP government of UP and the ABVP guilty of anti-national activities like minority bashing and fueling the communal tension. The High Court of UP had unequivocally criticised the act of the local administration. It is to be noted that few of the so-called terrorists have studied in this college and few others have studied in Jyotiniketan a reputed convent school. Owing to fairly high standards of teaching, Shibli College and Jyotiniketan are most sought after institutions in the area.
· In 2005 students’ union election in the Shibli College, ABVP tried to disrupt the elections and in the ensuing feud, one student was killed. ABVP and Bajrang Dal damaged houses and vehicles of many prominent Muslims of the town.
· In the recently held by election in Azamgarh parliamentary constituency on seat falling vacant due the disqualification of the then BSP MP, Ramakant Yadav, a criminal-turned-politician who is said to have conducted and/or committed many murders for property and contract-tenders including that of a Dalit junior engineer. At the time of this murder in the late eighties, he was a BSP MLA and saved himself by defecting to Mulayam Singh Yadav’s party, then Chief Minster of U.P. Ever since he has been MLA or MP from SP and BSP alternatively. After being expelled from BSP, he was adopted by erstwhile staunch enemy, BJP, and was fielded as its candidate in the by-election and lost at the hands of BSP candidate, Akbar Ahmad Dumpy. In his election meeting Ramakant Yadav would unfailing repeat the slogan – (U.P. would become Gujarat and Azamgarh would make the beginning).
· In the wake of blasts in Gujarat and Rajasthan, Abu Basher was arrested from Binapara by cordoning the whole village but to the surprise of local people, his arrest was shown at Lucknow, raising the suspicion on the motives of the police.
· On September 7, 2008, Adityanath, the BJP MP from Gorakhpur, notoriously known for rousing communal tension and animosity in Gorakhpur and elsewhere, announced to hold an “anti-terrorist” rally in DAV College in Azamgarh. In collusion with District and Police authorities the motorcade caravan of the notorious Mahanta consisting of mostly outsiders, instead of driving through permitted roads leading to DAV College, took a zigzag path passing through congested Muslim localities, including which was further congested due to Ramzan shopping. Rallyists on motorcycles and jeeps were shouting provocative and abusive slogans. According to Rajitram Yadav, who happened to be there on that unfortunate day, miscreants in two jeeps stopped and continued raising provocative slogans when people pelted stones and skirmishes began, the only communal violence witnessed by the town in which one life was lost. People blame the Police and district administration for allowing the procession through the area. In the rally also attended, Adityanath declared, “Azamgarh is nursery of terrorism” that was echoed by media and the police. The Superintendent of Police was suspended for allowing the miscreants to flare up communal tension.
Testimonies
· Dr Javed Akhtar is one of the most famous and popular orthopedics of the district; treats the patients on a token fee of Rs.10-20 and free of cost to the widows of policemen. He due to his stature and popularity among the people across the religious affiliation. The Police raid at his house in the wee hours of 23rd September 2008 reminded him of at random raids by American soldiers in the houses in Libya in 1980s where he then worked. He came back to India 18 years ago and decided to practice in his own hometown and was offered a place by a (Mr Rai) in his Medical store. When he built his own clinic and medical Store, to return the favour, Dr. Javed gave the medical store to free of rent or commission. Eleven in his staff of thirteen are non-Muslims. Saddened by the disappearance of his young son, Asadullah, Dr. Javed Akhtar, state committee member of the Indian Medical Association (IMA), a member of the Medical Council, convener of the Peace committee meeting attended by the doctors, advocates, principals of the colleges and the DIG, DM and SP of the town, feels anguished and agonised on being asked to prove his non-communal credentials. Recently he had been awarded by Mubaraknagar municipality for his work in the field of communal harmony.
His son Asadullah after completing four years degree in pharmacy from the Integral University, Lucknow, had gone to appear in the entrance examination for pharmacy management in Jamia Hamdard and had stayed at L-18, Batala House in May-June 2008, as he knew the boys living there. Ever since he had been in Azamgarh till his sudden disappearance on 19th September 2008, after his photo was flashed on IBN 7 TV Channel. Dr Javed has lodged complaints regarding this with the local Police Station and sent registered letters to the SP, DIG and IG of Police regarding this. He questions government’s intention in not constituting an inquiry into it. He had been on the hit list of Hindutva forces for quite sometime. In 2005, though no one from his family was involved in the Shibli College Students Union Elections his car was smashed and stones were pelted at his clinic, though miscreants were chased away by the people.
In the wee hours of September 23, 2008, as soon as he opened the only door of the house after hearing the wild knocks, recalled Dr Javed, “40-50 Police men in uniform and plain clothes entered the house and spread all over. They took away my wife’s mobile phone, photo album and admit card of Asad without any seizure memo.” The Police picked up his two other sons and a nephew from the house. Dr Javed also accompanied them. They took them to police line and from there to Kotwali. According to him, the official’s of Delhi Special Cell were asking futile questions, like whether they have girl friends, what they think about Narendra Modi and so on.
Dr Javed is worried about his missing son who on the 19th afternoon left home for the Friday prayer and ever since family has no news about him. Dr Javed wants his son back; criticises the media for baselessly demonising the Azamgarh; showing faith in the judiciary, wants justice for all the boys whether killed, or arrested in the name of fighting terrorism in accordance with the law of the land. Dr Javed is perturbed at the communalisation of the security forces, “…they asked about the numbers of Muslim names in my son’s mobile not of Asad’s non-Muslim friends – Bhupendra, Ankur…………….” On the basis of what ever he knows about some of the boys killed and arrested, he does not believe that these young students can be terrorists and questions the authenticity and legality of police action and media propaganda. “How can 17-year-old Sajid be a terrorist? He had gone to Delhi just one month ago or so to seek admission in XI class in Jamia Secondary School. As you can see in the photograph published in Sahara (Urdu), 9 bullets have been pumped into his head, some of them vertically.” Police have not given the copies of post mortem report to the relatives of the deceased.
· Ehssan Ahmad, a commerce lecturer in Shibli Inter College, father of Zeesahan Ahmad, who surrendered in the office of the and about whom the Special Cell had claimed to have captured “the absconding terrorist” is in a state of shock, disbelief and despair. He and his wife are patients of high blood pressure and his other son is mentally retarded. After seeing the news of “encounter” of his two room mates and arrest of one and his name being flashed on news channels on September 19, 2008, Zeeshan called up his parents at 3.30 pm and his mother, a scool teacher, advised him that he should surrender and he did so after giving interview to which conspicuously did not air his interview. The parents of Zeeshan have not yet been officially informed about his arrest. Subsequently after recovering from the shock, Mr. Ehshan Ahmad came to Delhi to meet his son before he was taken to Gujarat along with four others. He last visited Azamgarh on August 14, 2008 to attend the marriage of his cousin and left on August 17.
Zeeshan passed his class XII from Jytoti Niketan, one of the two most sought after convent schools in Azamgarh with fairly good score and graduated in Commerce from Zakir Hussain College of University of Delhi. Currently he is doing management from IIPM, New Delhi. When the “encounter” was taking place in his flat, he was writing his final examination at the institute. Since December 2007, he has been working with the Monarch International Company. His laptop confiscated by the Special Cell without giving any seizure memo was provided to him by the company. Like other boys from the district detained in Delhi, Lucknow and elsewhere, his parents received a phone call on the eve of Id with doctored confession and praise for his captors from a “restricted” number. It should be noted that relatives of all the boys got the phone calls with exactly verbatim content. Both the teacher parents are suffering from acute blood pressure with another disabled son to look after, they are in a fix. They don’t know what to do. Fear and humiliation has virtually killed them.
· Mohammad Amin’s house in Saraimir presented a gloomy look. Mohammad Amin father of Atif Amin killed in L-18 Batala House “encounter” works in Dubai to remit some money back home for a better education and living of his family in Saraimir. Mohammad Amin, after more than three weeks of the news of the death of son with expressionless stoned face, is unable to believe it and cannot accept that his son could be a terrorist. He was hardly in a position to talk, yet at our insistence answered the questions in a choked voice. Atif, born in Sanjarpur passed his class X from a school in nearby Binapara and Intermediate from Shibli Inter College. He went to seek admission in Engineering in Jamia, could not clear the entrance examination and did B.Sc. (Tech) from Manipal’s Delhi Centre at South Extension. This year he had got admission in MA in Human Rights in Jamia. He had visited home in March 2008 to meet his ailing sister. His elder brother lives in Shahin Bag near Jamia Nagar and works in a media house. According to Mohammad Amin till the evening of September 18, 2008, Atif would visit his brother Aqib every evning for Iftar (Ramzan food). He had phoned home that he would come on September 25 for celebrating Id and the Id never came in his life.
In the night of 19th-20th September, the Personnel of Delhi Special cell came to search the house with the Police of many local Police Satiations. They searched the house and took the bank passbook of Atif. “I was not in my senses I don’t know what all they took away, they have taken away my very dear son. Atif could have been anything but a criminal or a terrorist. I want justice for detained boys and plead with media and people to stop demonising Azamgarh, Saraimir and Sanjarpur”.
· Shadab Ahmad father of Mohammad Saif the “terrorist” arrested from L-18, Batala House is worried about his other son, Dr Shahnawaz who after doing his internship from Balrmpur Hospital had been working in Meo hospital Lucknow. After September 19, 2008 he started getting so many calls from Delhi Special Cell and other unknown number that he switched off his mobile and is untraceable ever since. Saif after graduating from Shibli College did his MA in History from Poorvanchal University, Jaunpur in 2008. In the InfoTech age, he wanted to achieve some expertise in computer and went to Delhi to try his luck on July 9, 2008 fell ill and came back to Sanjarpur within 10 days. As people on that side of the country, rather all over the country, think that Delhi has better institutions and opportunities, so, rush to Delhi. Saif too wanted to try his luck and went to Delhi again on August 9, 2008. As he already knew some of the boys living in L-18, he shared the accommodation with them. Shadab Ahmad is quite anxious about the other Sajid sharing the accommodation with Arif, Saif, Sajid and Zeeshan. Nothing is known about his whereabouts. The Delhi crime cell people came in the night of September 19 with a contingent of the local police, they searched the house as they were doing it with any and every house they wanted to. They took with them an old diary and some photographs without giving any seizure memo. Saif’s parents also received doctored phone calls by him from a “restricted” number telling verbatim the same things as Zeeshan that his captors are very good and they treat him well, … and that he had committed the crime. Shadab and people around him cannot believe that a shy village boy like Saif who had been in Delhi just for over a month before being apprehended as an accomplice of the “terror mastermind”
· Munshi Yadav runs a shop in Sanjarpur for over past 26 years. His son is District Magistrate in Pithoragarh. When confronted with the questions of “nursery of terrorism”, he asked the counter question that if police are correct then why they showed the arrest of Abu Basher from Lucknow when they arrested him from Binapara after laying the virtual siege of the village. They arrested two boys from Saraimir and showed their arrest at Barabanki, where there had been blasts in the court premises. Munshi Yadav, a member of the peace committee formed by the district administration, proudly tells the absence of any communal tension in the area and accuses the media for demonising Azamgarh and Sanjarpur. As he knew most of the boys his conscience cannot believe that these well behaved educated boys can to any thing of the sort they are being charged with.
· Prof. Iqbal Ahmad is e retired professor of Psychology in Shibli College. As most of the boys alleged to be terrorists belong to the same village or its vicinity, he knows most of them and vouched for their innocence and strongly rejects the allegation as in his opinion, most of them have been studious intelligent boys seeking top and make a respectable place for themselves through a nice employment. These villages have high education rate both among the boys as well as girls, Seventy to eighty percent. People have high remittance income from all over the world and as verified by the other people in the meeting – Hindus and Muslims both – this has been going on since independence. Villages we visited have mostly pucca houses. These villages boast of having produced many doctors, engineers, academicians, administrators, judges, journalists and entrepreneurs. Prof Iqbal was reminded of the emergency days seeing scores of policemen searching each and every house for over half an hour each. They did not find any thing incriminating. The Police men asked a widow, “How do you support the education of your sons?”. She has land and is recipient of family pension. Arif was attending coaching of Medical entrance examination in Lucknow from where he was arrested for his involvement in “terrorism”. Khalid, studying is Jamia Hamdard is untraceable since September 19 for fear of “encounter” or arrest. The Police took away a torch, couple of children’s watches and few CDs of films without any receipt.
Salman was one two of the 2 boys picked from Saraimir. The Police took away the album of his sister’s marriage and threatened the family members of defaming them and they would not be able to marry the daughters of the family.
Abu Talib, working in Mumbai was picked up by Police on September 22, 2008 and was tortured. His brother Abu Rashid, on being informed that he was wanted by Mumbai Police, started for Mumbai on 24th September 2008 but nothing is known about him, he did not reach Mumbai. They brought Talib to Azamgarh and left him to search for his brother. Since then Talib is in the village and works at a general store.
Family members of Arif and Salman got the similar doctored confessional calls, almost verbatim as Saif, Zeeshan and others.
· Wasiuddin, an advocate in Azamgarh knows Zeeshan very well as the classmate of his younger son. He vouched for the innocence of Zeeshan as a decent boy good and sincere in studies. Police went to search for Khalid from the nearby Kharewan village and under terror and fear all boys with Khalid name in the village have disappeared. Indian Mujahideen, according to him is a fake organisation and its origin and purpose should be thoroughly probed by some impartial agency, police are party to it so can’t not be trusted. When angry residents protested against media and one of them threw a stone that hit the SP’s car, false cases were concocted by the Police, against 13 boys, three of them were arrested from the Saraimir, though the police promised to withdraw cases and release the boys by Id, but did not keep its promise. Remaining 10 of the charge sheeted have disappeared for fear of arrest and torture.
· Mohammad Arshad, brother of 17 year “encountered” “terrorist”, looks like a lost man. He works in Saudi Arabia. He came to Delhi with the news of his brother, whom he wanted to see as a pilot, being killed in an “encounter” as a “dreaded terrorist”. He was in such a state of shock and disbelief that was not able to reconcile with what had already happened. His mother was still in a state of trauma and was not shown the picture of dead Sajid, published in Sahara (Urdu). Arshad seemed to be at loss of words, except repeating that his brother cannot be a terrorist. He and others present there ask one question, if Sajid was killed in the encounter, why all the bullets pierced his head and few vertically?
· Mohd Quraysh, father of Sajid, other than one killed in L-18 Batala House, the fifth occupant of the flat, who has been missing, was not available for interview. His neighbors told that after finishing school from the village in 2003, he went to Mumbai in 2004 and worked in a jewelry company till December 2007, where he had bank account and Pan Card. He came back home on December 18, 2007. On July 9, 2008, he went to Delhi to do a course in jewelry designing that was to begin in October 2008. In the meanwhile he joined, along with Saif and Sajid (killed) a local coaching center in Batala house for English speaking course. Ever since the “encounter” on September 19, his family members and villagers have no idea about him.
· G.S. Priyadarshi, the District Magistrate of Azamgarh, a young Commerce graduate from Delhi’s Shri Ram College of Commerce, was generally skeptical of all the uncomfortable questions pertaining law and order, harassment of minorities and permission to Adityanath to arouse communal frenzy, nevertheless he accepted that there were irregularities in handling the affairs that is why the DIG and the Dy Commissioner have been suspended and the DM and the SP transferred.
· Harmandir Pandey, a schoolteacher, is an old CPI stalwart, with nostalgic memories of hey days when Azamgarh used to be a bastion of socialists and communists. Proud of the composite culture and the history of the communal harmony in the district in general and in the city in particular, accuses the media and the police along with the “fascist forces” of the Hindutva for communalising the district and maligning its image. The innocent people are being targeted. He is pained at the incidence of creating trouble in the Shibli National College and arrest of Dr Iftikhar Ahmad at the instance of the then Home Minister in BJP government and again a minister in the BSP government. The raids at the houses of the prominent people like Dr Javed Akhtar and Dr Fakhre Alam, according to Mr Pandey is calculated design to malign the image of Azamgarh. He thinks that the way things are moving, all the talk of terrorism and demonisation of Azamgarh is aimed at distracting people from the main issues of socio-economic concern. In his observation, the Jamia encounter was a fake one like many fake encounters in Gujarat and Maharashtra, as he knew couple of boys and holds a very positive opinion about them. “For the first time, Azamgarh witnessed a minor communal tension aroused and designed by the Hindutva forces led by the Adityanath, the BJP MP and the criminal-politician Rmakant Yadav, the defeated BJP candidate in the Lok Sabha By-election.” He wants an impartial judicial enquiry into the whole episode and the culprits to be booked under the law. He thinks that the security forces instead of acting arbitrarily act according to the law of the land. He is critical of the media, which has acted in an irresponsible manner giving the impression of it as being the police media.
· Dr. Iftikhar Ahmad, Principal of Shibli College is not so much pained with the humiliation at the instance of Hindutva Forces as at the possibility of the destruction of historically established communal harmony and peace in the city and the district by the minority bashing of the Hindutva forces all over the country in general and in Azamgarh in particular. He has been the main target of the Hindutva forces for a long time, not as an individual but as the Principal of the College symbolising Azamgarh’s long secular tradition, defying the stereotypes by the ideologues of the “Clash of the Civilizations” and their local agents. He cannot forget being humiliated by the BJP government which interned him under the fabricated charges of sedition. He is more worried about the state of events indicating fascist style of communal polarisation in the country.
In this episode he smacks a foul game from the very beginning starting with a arrest of Abu Bashar, “the master mind” whose acquaintance with the boys living in L-18 Batala House led to the links of other “master minds” – Atif and Sajid – killed by Police. According to him, Abu Basher belongs to a poor family from Binapara whose mother is from Sanjarpur. In his Delhi visit to explore the opportunity of some employment, he had stayed with his village boys at L-18. He was teaching in a school in Hyderabad run by one of his acquaintances, came home to see his hospitalised father. Owing to the poverty, the other people from the community had to arrange the food for his father in the hospital. Bashar, according to him, is mentally unstable and physically very weak, harbours the illusion of being a leader and indulges into loose talks. He questions the intentions of the police that arrested Bashar from Binapara and showed his arrest from Lucknow. He considers the police story as fabricated and boys killed in the “encounter” were innocent. He wants a judicial probe in the whole matter and stoppage of torture on the arrested boys. He is pained at the role of media that acted in a much partisan manner. The impossibility of justice faced by Muslims of Azamgarh is borne out amid incessant attacks by media. The demonisation of Azamgarh should also be challenged through a writ in the courts. The boys enthusiastic for modern and higher education have been demoralised. The students who are studying in Lucknow, Delhi, Aligarh and elsewhere are afraid to go back to their institutions. Many students have switched off their phones and are untraceable. People are afraid of talking openly. Its Nazi kind of exercise of creating hatred and an artificial enemy within. The Muslims of Azamgarh are living under the terror of “anti terrorist squad” (ATS). At the end of long conversation, he prays that good senses should prevail so that secular and democratic ethos of the country can be preserved.
The SP could not be contacted in person; on Phone he said “every thing in the district was normal.”
In our two days visit of Azamgarh and Saraimir and Sanjarpur, we talked to many other people all of them concurred that there had been no communal tension and rift in area prior to the Hindutva attack on its composite culture through Adityanath. The minor tension generated in the wake of BJP’s provocative rally proved to be short-lived. All of them are critical of the administration and media for demonising Azamgarh, and want that all this must stop and the people of Azamgarh should be left to regain the peace and harmony, that is to restore the original balance.
Ish Mishra
The word encounter became famous in India for the first time when hundreds of young boys and girls began disappearing in West Bengal in the late sixties and early seventies and subsequently killed in “fierce encounters”. With the forces of Hindutva gaining political ascendance, encounter has become a political tool to create fascist-communal polarisation of the Indian society.
Recent “encounter” took place in the vicinity of Delhi’s Jamia Millia Islamia in which a Police Inspector having record of many encounters and two teenage students, branded as terrorists, were shot dead and two others “were successful in escaping”, this is another matter that there was no scope to escape from the building surrounded by armed Special Cell
The Objective
This exercise is a follow up of our fact-finding into Jamia Nagar encounter, following which began the witch hunting of Muslim youth from Azamgarh as terror suspect by various security agencies and its media-projection as the “nursery of terrorism”. We seek to enquire into the myth and reality of tertiary relationship between terrorism, place and the religion and also into fear and anguish pervading the area through an on-the-spot study of the place and people through interaction with common people selected at random, testimonies of the members of the affected families and neighbors and interviews with Superintendent of Police and the District Magistrate of Azamgarh. We could meet the DM but the SP was busy with Mela arrangement. So we could talk to SP only on telephone. In Azamgarh city, we interacted with and interviewed Dr Iftikhar Ahmad (Principal Shibli National Post-Graduate College), Dr Javed Akhtar (whose house had been raided by police), Mr Ehshan Ahmad and his wife (parents of Zeeshan, arrested from Vedeocon Tower in Delhi), teachers of the Shibli College, school teachers, local journalists, civil rights activists, professionals and common people.
In villages of Sanjarpur and Saraimir described as ‘nursery of terror’ we interacted with and interviewed the family members of Atif and Sajid, killed in Jamia Nagar encounters and family members of the boys arrested from Saraimir, Lucknow and Delhi apart from responsible residents and common people.
The context
While prescribing numerous measures to check the revolution in tyrannies, the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle, underlines religion and war, as the most efficient. Modern rulers have combined the two. They have constructed an abstract enemy –
The democratic groups, including ours, getting alarmed with the news of the apparently dubious “encounter” in Jamia Nagar on 19th September, conducted a fact finding on 21st September 2008 and released the report in a press conference on 26th September 2008.
Following the Jamia Nagar “encounter” and media projection of Azamgarh as the “nursery” of terrorism echoing the
The Place and the People:
Azamgarh, one of the backward districts of eastern Uttar Pradesh, maligned as
In 1857, the city held an important strategic position in Kunwar Singh’s campaign. After the suppression of the armed peasants’ revolution with the help of most of the Indian moneyed and feudal classes – the princes, kinglets and Zamindars –, thousands of rebel soldiers and the peasant revolutionaries were publicly killed and hanged with the trees in the orchards and the forests.
In 1883, prior to the formation of the Indian National Congress, Shibli Nomani, a nationalist scholar, started an academy for the modern, nationalist education. During freedom movement, Shibli National College, which is celebrating 125th year of its foundation, was one of the prominent centres of nationalist activities in the eastern UP and hence was special target of British. Many leaders of the freedom movement, including Mahatma Gandhi and Nehru used to visit the college to hold meetings and consultations. During and in the aftermath of the independence and partition of the country, despite the pervasive communal frenzy and massacres, Azamgarh remained almost untouched by communal violence. In the post independence electoral polity, before the trend of caste based mobilisation got strong footing in the electoral politics, the district had been bastion of Communist and Socialist Parties. Due to composite culture and the composition of the district, the Hindutva forces could hardly make any electoral presence even during the communal euphoria in the aftermath of the Advani’s most publicised Rath Yatra preceding the demolition of the Babri Masjid.
The Hindu-Muslim population in the city is almost evenly divided, though the average Muslim population in the district is 12-14 percent. Despite sizeable Muslim population Azamgarh did not have any history of any kind of communal violence and was a model of India’s composite culture thriving in peace and harmony. It boasts of its luminaries like Shibli Nomani, Ayodhya Singh Hariaudh, Rahul Sankrityayan, Kaifi Azmi and many others. Thus Azamgarh does not fit into the “innate bigot” Islamic attribute orchestrated by the imperialism and echoed by its local agents. This was an irritant for the Indian ruling classes and hence the model had to be destroyed. The image of the “terrorist” transformed from Madarsa-educated bearded young man with round cap or Arabic head scarf to modern educated and clean shaven youngmen could not be tolerated by forces inimical to Muslims.
The villages in news with tag of terror – Sanjarpur, Saraimir and Binapara – the Muslim majority villages too have been untouched with any kind of serious communal tension or strife. Globalised use of capital has been seeking cheap local labour which was provided by some of the Muslims of Azamgarh who have been going to Malaysia, gulf and other places to escape poverty at home. The remittances made by them were used for educating their children and improving living standards by building pucca houses in villages. Most of them went out to work as skilled/unskilled labourers and realised the importance of education for a dignified life and hence made good education to their children as their priority. Aligarh and Jamia became their favorite destinations.
So Azamgarh Muslim story is this that a little globalised labours that canalized earnings for local development. This should not have been treated like a crime by the state that abdicated its responsibility by putting hindrances in collecting remittances through regular banking channels. The hawala operators got an opportunity to step in after this. Yet most Muslims kept their money in the nationalised banks which is capital contribution, supplementing cash and contributing to the growth of the economy of the country. Local people did admit that some boys might be involved into Hawala operations so they should be tried for that and not arrested or killed in the name of fighting “terrorism”. The Muslim youth and their parents are living under the constant fear of arrest and death, having lost faith in the law and order machinery.
The antecedents
Azamgarh with a sizable Muslim population – educated and well-to-do – does not fit into the “ghettoised, uneducated” stereotype propagated by the self-claimed mainstream. The consistent communal harmony, depicting India’s composite culture, has been an irritant to the forces depending upon communal mobilisation with hatred and animosity by demonising minorities in the name of conversion or “terrorism”. During the BJP rule in the state, attempts began to pollute the social atmosphere of the city by attacking its composite culture and its symbol, Shibli National College, became the first victim.
· In 2000, the U.P. government under BJP made some premeditated attack on Shibli National (Post Graduate) College, which competes with the premier academic institutions of the country. In the entire region it is the only college with a girl’s hostel – Kaifi Azmi Girls Hostel – sponsored by the actress and social activist, Sabana Azami.
On the Republic Day, that year when all the programmes in the college conducted in accordance with the schedule issued by state government through district administration were concluded with the recitation of the national anthem, a group of students claiming to be members of ABVP – the student front of the RSS – tried to force the college administration to restart the function and organise the recitation of Vande Matram. They threatened the Principal, Dr Iftikhar Ahmad of dire consequences and left to come back again to vandalise the college, manhandle few employees raising provocative slogans and vandalised Muslim shops. The police arrested the shopkeepers whose shops were ransacked and looted, on the instance of Rangnath Mishra, home minister in the BJP government. Under the instruction of Mishra, the principal and a senior professor of the college were arrested on the fabricated charges of sedition etc. They were subsequently released on bail. A team of Janhastakshep had gone there and had found in its report the BJP government of UP and the ABVP guilty of anti-national activities like minority bashing and fueling the communal tension. The High Court of UP had unequivocally criticised the act of the local administration. It is to be noted that few of the so-called terrorists have studied in this college and few others have studied in Jyotiniketan a reputed convent school. Owing to fairly high standards of teaching, Shibli College and Jyotiniketan are most sought after institutions in the area.
· In 2005 students’ union election in the Shibli College, ABVP tried to disrupt the elections and in the ensuing feud, one student was killed. ABVP and Bajrang Dal damaged houses and vehicles of many prominent Muslims of the town.
· In the recently held by election in Azamgarh parliamentary constituency on seat falling vacant due the disqualification of the then BSP MP, Ramakant Yadav, a criminal-turned-politician who is said to have conducted and/or committed many murders for property and contract-tenders including that of a Dalit junior engineer. At the time of this murder in the late eighties, he was a BSP MLA and saved himself by defecting to Mulayam Singh Yadav’s party, then Chief Minster of U.P. Ever since he has been MLA or MP from SP and BSP alternatively. After being expelled from BSP, he was adopted by erstwhile staunch enemy, BJP, and was fielded as its candidate in the by-election and lost at the hands of BSP candidate, Akbar Ahmad Dumpy. In his election meeting Ramakant Yadav would unfailing repeat the slogan – (U.P. would become Gujarat and Azamgarh would make the beginning).
· In the wake of blasts in Gujarat and Rajasthan, Abu Basher was arrested from Binapara by cordoning the whole village but to the surprise of local people, his arrest was shown at Lucknow, raising the suspicion on the motives of the police.
· On September 7, 2008, Adityanath, the BJP MP from Gorakhpur, notoriously known for rousing communal tension and animosity in Gorakhpur and elsewhere, announced to hold an “anti-terrorist” rally in DAV College in Azamgarh. In collusion with District and Police authorities the motorcade caravan of the notorious Mahanta consisting of mostly outsiders, instead of driving through permitted roads leading to DAV College, took a zigzag path passing through congested Muslim localities, including
Testimonies
· Dr Javed Akhtar is one of the most famous and popular orthopedics of the district; treats the patients on a token fee of Rs.10-20 and free of cost to the widows of policemen. He due to his stature and popularity among the people across the religious affiliation. The Police raid at his house in the wee hours of 23rd September 2008 reminded him of at random raids by American soldiers in the houses in Libya in 1980s where he then worked. He came back to India 18 years ago and decided to practice in his own hometown and was offered a place by a
His son Asadullah after completing four years degree in pharmacy from the Integral University, Lucknow, had gone to appear in the entrance examination for pharmacy management in Jamia Hamdard and had stayed at L-18, Batala House in May-June 2008, as he knew the boys living there. Ever since he had been in Azamgarh till his sudden disappearance on 19th September 2008, after his photo was flashed on IBN 7 TV Channel. Dr Javed has lodged complaints regarding this with the local Police Station and sent registered letters to the SP, DIG and IG of Police regarding this. He questions government’s intention in not constituting an inquiry into it. He had been on the hit list of Hindutva forces for quite sometime. In 2005, though no one from his family was involved in the Shibli College Students Union Elections his car was smashed and stones were pelted at his clinic, though miscreants were chased away by the people.
In the wee hours of September 23, 2008, as soon as he opened the only door of the house after hearing the wild knocks, recalled Dr Javed, “40-50 Police men in uniform and plain clothes entered the house and spread all over. They took away my wife’s mobile phone, photo album and admit card of Asad without any seizure memo.” The Police picked up his two other sons and a nephew from the house. Dr Javed also accompanied them. They took them to police line and from there to Kotwali. According to him, the official’s of Delhi Special Cell were asking futile questions, like whether they have girl friends, what they think about Narendra Modi and so on.
Dr Javed is worried about his missing son who on the 19th afternoon left home for the Friday prayer and ever since family has no news about him. Dr Javed wants his son back; criticises the media for baselessly demonising the Azamgarh; showing faith in the judiciary, wants justice for all the boys whether killed, or arrested in the name of fighting terrorism in accordance with the law of the land. Dr Javed is perturbed at the communalisation of the security forces, “…they asked about the numbers of Muslim names in my son’s mobile not of Asad’s non-Muslim friends – Bhupendra, Ankur…………….” On the basis of what ever he knows about some of the boys killed and arrested, he does not believe that these young students can be terrorists and questions the authenticity and legality of police action and media propaganda. “How can 17-year-old Sajid be a terrorist? He had gone to Delhi just one month ago or so to seek admission in XI class in Jamia Secondary School. As you can see in the photograph published in Sahara (Urdu), 9 bullets have been pumped into his head, some of them vertically.” Police have not given the copies of post mortem report to the relatives of the deceased.
· Ehssan Ahmad, a commerce lecturer in Shibli Inter College, father of Zeesahan Ahmad, who surrendered in the office of the
Zeeshan passed his class XII from Jytoti Niketan, one of the two most sought after convent schools in Azamgarh with fairly good score and graduated in Commerce from Zakir Hussain College of University of Delhi. Currently he is doing management from IIPM, New Delhi. When the “encounter” was taking place in his flat, he was writing his final examination at the institute. Since December 2007, he has been working with the Monarch International Company. His laptop confiscated by the Special Cell without giving any seizure memo was provided to him by the company. Like other boys from the district detained in Delhi, Lucknow and elsewhere, his parents received a phone call on the eve of Id with doctored confession and praise for his captors from a “restricted” number. It should be noted that relatives of all the boys got the phone calls with exactly verbatim content. Both the teacher parents are suffering from acute blood pressure with another disabled son to look after, they are in a fix. They don’t know what to do. Fear and humiliation has virtually killed them.
· Mohammad Amin’s house in Saraimir presented a gloomy look. Mohammad Amin father of Atif Amin killed in L-18 Batala House “encounter” works in Dubai to remit some money back home for a better education and living of his family in Saraimir. Mohammad Amin, after more than three weeks of the news of the death of son with expressionless stoned face, is unable to believe it and cannot accept that his son could be a terrorist. He was hardly in a position to talk, yet at our insistence answered the questions in a choked voice. Atif, born in Sanjarpur passed his class X from a school in nearby Binapara and Intermediate from Shibli Inter College. He went to seek admission in Engineering in Jamia, could not clear the entrance examination and did B.Sc. (Tech) from Manipal’s Delhi Centre at South Extension. This year he had got admission in MA in Human Rights in Jamia. He had visited home in March 2008 to meet his ailing sister. His elder brother lives in Shahin Bag near Jamia Nagar and works in a media house. According to Mohammad Amin till the evening of September 18, 2008, Atif would visit his brother Aqib every evning for Iftar (Ramzan food). He had phoned home that he would come on September 25 for celebrating Id and the Id never came in his life.
In the night of 19th-20th September, the Personnel of Delhi Special cell came to search the house with the Police of many local Police Satiations. They searched the house and took the bank passbook of Atif. “I was not in my senses I don’t know what all they took away, they have taken away my very dear son. Atif could have been anything but a criminal or a terrorist. I want justice for detained boys and plead with media and people to stop demonising Azamgarh, Saraimir and Sanjarpur”.
· Shadab Ahmad father of Mohammad Saif the “terrorist” arrested from L-18, Batala House is worried about his other son, Dr Shahnawaz who after doing his internship from Balrmpur Hospital had been working in Meo hospital Lucknow. After September 19, 2008 he started getting so many calls from Delhi Special Cell and other unknown number that he switched off his mobile and is untraceable ever since. Saif after graduating from Shibli College did his MA in History from Poorvanchal University, Jaunpur in 2008. In the InfoTech age, he wanted to achieve some expertise in computer and went to Delhi to try his luck on July 9, 2008 fell ill and came back to Sanjarpur within 10 days. As people on that side of the country, rather all over the country, think that Delhi has better institutions and opportunities, so, rush to Delhi. Saif too wanted to try his luck and went to Delhi again on August 9, 2008. As he already knew some of the boys living in L-18, he shared the accommodation with them. Shadab Ahmad is quite anxious about the other Sajid sharing the accommodation with Arif, Saif, Sajid and Zeeshan. Nothing is known about his whereabouts. The Delhi crime cell people came in the night of September 19 with a contingent of the local police, they searched the house as they were doing it with any and every house they wanted to. They took with them an old diary and some photographs without giving any seizure memo. Saif’s parents also received doctored phone calls by him from a “restricted” number telling verbatim the same things as Zeeshan that his captors are very good and they treat him well, … and that he had committed the crime. Shadab and people around him cannot believe that a shy village boy like Saif who had been in Delhi just for over a month before being apprehended as an accomplice of the “terror mastermind”
· Munshi Yadav runs a shop in Sanjarpur for over past 26 years. His son is District Magistrate in Pithoragarh. When confronted with the questions of “nursery of terrorism”, he asked the counter question that if police are correct then why they showed the arrest of Abu Basher from Lucknow when they arrested him from Binapara after laying the virtual siege of the village. They arrested two boys from Saraimir and showed their arrest at Barabanki, where there had been blasts in the court premises. Munshi Yadav, a member of the peace committee formed by the district administration, proudly tells the absence of any communal tension in the area and accuses the media for demonising Azamgarh and Sanjarpur. As he knew most of the boys his conscience cannot believe that these well behaved educated boys can to any thing of the sort they are being charged with.
· Prof. Iqbal Ahmad is e retired professor of Psychology in Shibli College. As most of the boys alleged to be terrorists belong to the same village or its vicinity, he knows most of them and vouched for their innocence and strongly rejects the allegation as in his opinion, most of them have been studious intelligent boys seeking top and make a respectable place for themselves through a nice employment. These villages have high education rate both among the boys as well as girls, Seventy to eighty percent. People have high remittance income from all over the world and as verified by the other people in the meeting – Hindus and Muslims both – this has been going on since independence. Villages we visited have mostly pucca houses. These villages boast of having produced many doctors, engineers, academicians, administrators, judges, journalists and entrepreneurs. Prof Iqbal was reminded of the emergency days seeing scores of policemen searching each and every house for over half an hour each. They did not find any thing incriminating. The Police men asked a widow, “How do you support the education of your sons?”. She has land and is recipient of family pension. Arif was attending coaching of Medical entrance examination in Lucknow from where he was arrested for his involvement in “terrorism”. Khalid, studying is Jamia Hamdard is untraceable since September 19 for fear of “encounter” or arrest. The Police took away a torch, couple of children’s watches and few CDs of films without any receipt.
Salman was one two of the 2 boys picked from Saraimir. The Police took away the album of his sister’s marriage and threatened the family members of defaming them and they would not be able to marry the daughters of the family.
Abu Talib, working in Mumbai was picked up by Police on September 22, 2008 and was tortured. His brother Abu Rashid, on being informed that he was wanted by Mumbai Police, started for Mumbai on 24th September 2008 but nothing is known about him, he did not reach Mumbai. They brought Talib to Azamgarh and left him to search for his brother. Since then Talib is in the village and works at a general store.
Family members of Arif and Salman got the similar doctored confessional calls, almost verbatim as Saif, Zeeshan and others.
· Wasiuddin, an advocate in Azamgarh knows Zeeshan very well as the classmate of his younger son. He vouched for the innocence of Zeeshan as a decent boy good and sincere in studies. Police went to search for Khalid from the nearby Kharewan village and under terror and fear all boys with Khalid name in the village have disappeared. Indian Mujahideen, according to him is a fake organisation and its origin and purpose should be thoroughly probed by some impartial agency, police are party to it so can’t not be trusted. When angry residents protested against media and one of them threw a stone that hit the SP’s car, false cases were concocted by the Police, against 13 boys, three of them were arrested from the Saraimir, though the police promised to withdraw cases and release the boys by Id, but did not keep its promise. Remaining 10 of the charge sheeted have disappeared for fear of arrest and torture.
· Mohammad Arshad, brother of 17 year “encountered” “terrorist”, looks like a lost man. He works in Saudi Arabia. He came to Delhi with the news of his brother, whom he wanted to see as a pilot, being killed in an “encounter” as a “dreaded terrorist”. He was in such a state of shock and disbelief that was not able to reconcile with what had already happened. His mother was still in a state of trauma and was not shown the picture of dead Sajid, published in Sahara (Urdu). Arshad seemed to be at loss of words, except repeating that his brother cannot be a terrorist. He and others present there ask one question, if Sajid was killed in the encounter, why all the bullets pierced his head and few vertically?
· Mohd Quraysh, father of Sajid, other than one killed in L-18 Batala House, the fifth occupant of the flat, who has been missing, was not available for interview. His neighbors told that after finishing school from the village in 2003, he went to Mumbai in 2004 and worked in a jewelry company till December 2007, where he had bank account and Pan Card. He came back home on December 18, 2007. On July 9, 2008, he went to Delhi to do a course in jewelry designing that was to begin in October 2008. In the meanwhile he joined, along with Saif and Sajid (killed) a local coaching center in Batala house for English speaking course. Ever since the “encounter” on September 19, his family members and villagers have no idea about him.
· G.S. Priyadarshi, the District Magistrate of Azamgarh, a young Commerce graduate from Delhi’s Shri Ram College of Commerce, was generally skeptical of all the uncomfortable questions pertaining law and order, harassment of minorities and permission to Adityanath to arouse communal frenzy, nevertheless he accepted that there were irregularities in handling the affairs that is why the DIG and the Dy Commissioner have been suspended and the DM and the SP transferred.
· Harmandir Pandey, a schoolteacher, is an old CPI stalwart, with nostalgic memories of hey days when Azamgarh used to be a bastion of socialists and communists. Proud of the composite culture and the history of the communal harmony in the district in general and in the city in particular, accuses the media and the police along with the “fascist forces” of the Hindutva for communalising the district and maligning its image. The innocent people are being targeted. He is pained at the incidence of creating trouble in the Shibli National College and arrest of Dr Iftikhar Ahmad at the instance of the then Home Minister in BJP government and again a minister in the BSP government. The raids at the houses of the prominent people like Dr Javed Akhtar and Dr Fakhre Alam, according to Mr Pandey is calculated design to malign the image of Azamgarh. He thinks that the way things are moving, all the talk of terrorism and demonisation of Azamgarh is aimed at distracting people from the main issues of socio-economic concern. In his observation, the Jamia encounter was a fake one like many fake encounters in Gujarat and Maharashtra, as he knew couple of boys and holds a very positive opinion about them. “For the first time, Azamgarh witnessed a minor communal tension aroused and designed by the Hindutva forces led by the Adityanath, the BJP MP and the criminal-politician Rmakant Yadav, the defeated BJP candidate in the Lok Sabha By-election.” He wants an impartial judicial enquiry into the whole episode and the culprits to be booked under the law. He thinks that the security forces instead of acting arbitrarily act according to the law of the land. He is critical of the media, which has acted in an irresponsible manner giving the impression of it as being the police media.
· Dr. Iftikhar Ahmad, Principal of Shibli College is not so much pained with the humiliation at the instance of Hindutva Forces as at the possibility of the destruction of historically established communal harmony and peace in the city and the district by the minority bashing of the Hindutva forces all over the country in general and in Azamgarh in particular. He has been the main target of the Hindutva forces for a long time, not as an individual but as the Principal of the College symbolising Azamgarh’s long secular tradition, defying the stereotypes by the ideologues of the “Clash of the Civilizations” and their local agents. He cannot forget being humiliated by the BJP government which interned him under the fabricated charges of sedition. He is more worried about the state of events indicating fascist style of communal polarisation in the country.
In this episode he smacks a foul game from the very beginning starting with a arrest of Abu Bashar, “the master mind” whose acquaintance with the boys living in L-18 Batala House led to the links of other “master minds” – Atif and Sajid – killed by Police. According to him, Abu Basher belongs to a poor family from Binapara whose mother is from Sanjarpur. In his Delhi visit to explore the opportunity of some employment, he had stayed with his village boys at L-18. He was teaching in a school in Hyderabad run by one of his acquaintances, came home to see his hospitalised father. Owing to the poverty, the other people from the community had to arrange the food for his father in the hospital. Bashar, according to him, is mentally unstable and physically very weak, harbours the illusion of being a leader and indulges into loose talks. He questions the intentions of the police that arrested Bashar from Binapara and showed his arrest from Lucknow. He considers the police story as fabricated and boys killed in the “encounter” were innocent. He wants a judicial probe in the whole matter and stoppage of torture on the arrested boys. He is pained at the role of media that acted in a much partisan manner. The impossibility of justice faced by Muslims of Azamgarh is borne out amid incessant attacks by media. The demonisation of Azamgarh should also be challenged through a writ in the courts. The boys enthusiastic for modern and higher education have been demoralised. The students who are studying in Lucknow, Delhi, Aligarh and elsewhere are afraid to go back to their institutions. Many students have switched off their phones and are untraceable. People are afraid of talking openly. Its Nazi kind of exercise of creating hatred and an artificial enemy within. The Muslims of Azamgarh are living under the terror of “anti terrorist squad” (ATS). At the end of long conversation, he prays that good senses should prevail so that secular and democratic ethos of the country can be preserved.
The SP could not be contacted in person; on Phone he said “every thing in the district was normal.”
In our two days visit of Azamgarh and Saraimir and Sanjarpur, we talked to many other people all of them concurred that there had been no communal tension and rift in area prior to the Hindutva attack on its composite culture through Adityanath. The minor tension generated in the wake of BJP’s provocative rally proved to be short-lived. All of them are critical of the administration and media for demonising Azamgarh, and want that all this must stop and the people of Azamgarh should be left to regain the peace and harmony, that is to restore the original balance.
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