SIGNS OF THE TIMES
Humra Quraishi
EARLIER this week a Muslim family was mowed down in the Canadian city of London in the Ontario province, by a hate-filled surcharged man. Four members of that family died, in that “premeditated” vehicle attack, with the lone survivor, a young boy, grievously injured, battling for life in a hospital.
Within hours, the Canadian police not just nabbed the killer but were also forthright in their statement: “It is believed that these victims were targeted because they were Muslim,” Det Supt Paul Waight told a news conference on Monday. Police are weighing possible terrorism charges, he said, adding that it is believed to be a hate crime.
No, none of the Right-Wing Canadian politicians shrieked in defence of that killer. They let an independent and unbiased police force carry out their investigation…a thorough investigation without political intrusions or any of those communal tilts and slants.
Look at what happens here, in our country when our citizens get attacked and killed. In recent days there have been news reports of killings along the communal format, yet no political ruler seems to give a damn. In several reported cases the alleged killers have been cops – in the murders of the Uttar Pradesh-based vegetable seller Faisal Hussain and of butcher Aqeel Qureshi. Yet, one didn’t see tears trickling down the faces of any of the rulers of the day!
In fact, there seems no halt to the targeted communal attacks in Uttar Pradesh. Last week a minor Muslim boy, Zeeshan, was attacked and assaulted by the Right-Wing goons In Uttar Pradesh Bhojpur in Ghaziabad, after he was forced to chant ‘Jai Shree Ram’. The tragedy compounded for the boy and his family as the cops at the police station told them to omit the mention of the forced chanting of the ‘Jai Shree Ram’, in the FIR!
The latest lynch killing took place earlier this week in the Mathura district of Uttar Pradesh. Cow vigilantes lynched a Muslim man, Shera. He died and his four companions – Khadim, Shahzad, Anish and Rahman – were left grievously injured.
And if one were to focus on police might sway holding out in the capital city, then this incident would relay much: Last week, a Muslim man, 29-year-old Wasim Khan, residing in the Chhatarpur locality of New Delhi called up the police helpline number 100 to register a complaint …about a brawl taking place in his neighbourhood. What he got was cops of the Fateh Pur Beri police station thrashing him with lathis to such an extent that his spine is damaged and he needs immediate surgery. He has named three cops of this police station – sub-inspector Satender Guliya, head constable Praveen, constable Jitender – who had called him to the police station and then used lathis to thrash him and also threw communal anti-Muslim taunts and slurs!
Are the rulers of the day aware of these ongoing onslaughts!
COMMUNAL TENSION MORE THAN SIMMERING IN THE MEWAT REGION!
And as I was keying in this column, I got this detailed report from Professor V K Tripathi, who was teaching Physics at IIT Delhi but now he is involved in trying to reach out to the masses. On 8 June, he travelled to Haryana’s Mewat region, to visit the family of Asif who was brutally murdered last month. And after his murder, communal tension is more than simmering in and around the region. What, with panchayats being held in the region and provocative communal speeches echoing sending relays of eerie-build-ups.
Let me quote Professor Tripathi, on his day-long visit and what he heard and saw, “It was painful visiting the family of 29-year-old Asif Khan in village Kheda Khalilpur, District Nuh (Mewat) yesterday, June 8, 2021. Asif was brutally murdered on May 16. He was a bodybuilder, running a gym in Nuh. His family had good relations with people of the village (having 75% Hindu and 25% Muslim population). His tau (father’s elder brother) Abdul Rahman was once elected Sarpanch with the support of Hindus… At 11 am we reached Asif’s Tau’s home in Kheda Khalilpur. Asif’s father Zakir Hussain and 20 other people were there. Rahman said that Asif had good relations with everybody. Few crime oriented people of the village did not like him after an altercation a few years ago. Some were RSS minded. On May 16, Asif was going in a car at 7 pm when a batch of cars and motorcycles cornered him, pulled him from his car into their car and drove a few km where more people gathered and they mercilessly killed him with rods and sharp weapons, breaking his bones. He had a bullet wound in his leg. At 8 pm Asif’s family got the news of his body lying dead. ”
Tripathi further details, “Police has arrested 14 people, 7 from the village and 7 from outside on the clues from the former …Soon after the murder two panchayats of Hindus were held, one near Palwal and the other near Sohna. On May 30 a big panchayat of Hindus was held at Indri, a village 3 km away with 3,600 Hindu votes and 190 Muslim votes. Inflammatory videos sprang from there. This panchayat has created fear and initiated polarization. The government has not taken any note of it, nor announced any compensation/ relief to Asif’s family. Asif’s wife is educated up to 12th grade and has 3 sons, 6 years, 4 years and 5 months old. Muslims have restrained themselves from holding any panchayat to avoid confrontation.
“After talking for one and half hours, we went to village sarpanch Sant Lal’s home but he was away to Gurgaon. At 1 pm we reached Indri and went to Sarpanch Kamal Singh Pawar’s home. He said that he had attended the Hindu Panchayat near Palwal where a decision was taken to hold a big Panchayat in Indri. This Panchayat had 15,000 people with 5,000 vehicles. He admitted some inflammatory statements were made but these were made outside the pandal, not from the stage. When I asked what was the motive of the Panchayat, he said, “only to put pressure on police not to implicate the innocents”. I said for this purpose a delegation to the SP or DM would have been sufficient as two panchayats were already held. He had no satisfactory answer. It is not difficult to gauge it was a show of muscle power to send a wave of fear across Mewat and create polarization. I appealed to him to call a panchayat of Hindus and Muslims to remove apprehensions. He did not commit but said he had good relations with Muslims. I also said that this should not weaken the farmer’s movement…”
TODAY, IT WOULD BE APT TO SAY THAT WE ARE CONFRONTED WITH THREE Cs!
Coronavirus, Communal Virus, Communal rulers!
