Sunday, June 3, 2012

1987 killings of Muslim youths in Hashimpura by PAC....Swamy wants PC role probed in massacre

Subramanian Swamy, President of Janata Party, is a well-known Muslim baiter. He dutifully follows extremist Hindutva organisation RSS's agenda; at times exceeding RSS zeal and doggedness in pursuing Anti-Muslim projects. His latest case involved a judicial challenge to Kerala State's participation in an Islamic Non-Banking Financial project in Kerala. He lost on technicalities. It is therefore quite a surprise that the news has broken out in several media simultaneously, the Swamy has taken up the cause of Muslim victims of Hashimpura murder spree by PAC. Muslims have by and large castigated the Congress government for the blatant massacre of innocent Muslims. Swamy has focused on the role of current Home Minister, P. Chidambaram, who was a minister of state in Home Ministry at that time and had gone on for an Aeriel survey of the area one week before the massacre. Congress Party is widely believe to have been involved at some level with thousands of communal riots in which predominantly Muslims were targeted by both the mobs and police too. This is the first time, a single Congressman, with administrative responsibility has come under scrutiny. Swamy is thorough in his home work. If he has proof of the involvement of the present Home Minister in the 25 year old massacre of 41 innocent Muslims by Provincial Armed Constabulary, in the manner of Hitlerian executions, Swamy may get his ardent wish to see P. Chidambaram lose his ministry and pay for any acts of commission or omission during his long career at the top of Congress government. That would be a big blow to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh government and  the 2014 prospects of Sonia Congress, that heavily depends on Muslim vote bank endorsement to tide over it marginal electoral shortfalls. 

Swamy's hint to approach International Court of Justice under relevant Roman Statutes, should alert Muslims groups to study of the same approach in the case of Gujarat massacre.
Ghulam Muhammed, Mumbai
<ghulammuhammed3@gmail.com>



Date: Sun, 3 Jun 2012 17:24:33 +0530
Subject: Fwd: Swamy wants PC role probed in massacre
From: arvind.lavakare@gmail.com
To: drmookhi@hotmail.com

This should interest you. And remember, Uttar Pradesh was, at the time of the massacre under reference, ruled by the Congress Party, with Veer Bahadur Singh as the Chief Minister.
 
Arvind Lavakare
: http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/06/swamy-wants-pc-role-probed-in-massacre.html

Swamy wants PC role probed in massacre
SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT  New Delhi | 3rd Jun
anata Party president Subramanian Swamy has accused Home Minister P. Chidambaram of having a hand in the shooting of 41 Muslim youth by the Police Armed Constabulary personnel during the communal riots in Meerut's Hashimpura in 1987. Swamy said he was going to file an application in the court to expand the scope of the inquiry to interrogate Chidambaram, who was then Minister of State for Internal Security.
"Not as an accused at the moment, but I am entering the matter with new material. He (Chidambaram) will definitely be made an accused. If you ask me, personally, I will say he is an accused," said Swamy. However, he said he would file the application on a later date.
Twenty-five years after the incident took place on 22 May 1987, the case is still going on at the Tees Hazari and the Ghaziabad Sessions Courts and the next date of hearing is 4 June.
"The Muslim youth, aged between 15-35 years, were picked up from Hashimpura by UP PAC (Provincial Armed Constabulary) personnel and taken by truck to Ganga Canal near Muradnagar, 20 km away, ordered to get off the truck one by one and shot. The bodies were thrown into the canal. But obviously some were not shot, but they feigned death," said Swamy. Some of these youth later turned witnesses to the cold-blooded killing.
Swamy said Chidambaram had visited Meerut during the communal tensions and even conducted an aerial survey of the area on 14 May 1987: "He (Chidambaram) admitted to this (aerial survey) in Parliament. On 20 May 1987, he took a meeting with the PAC people and the Chief Minister. He never admitted to this meeting. The then MP from the area, Mohsina Kidwai, was never called for the meeting."
Swamy said he has written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that a special probe should be instituted to investigate Chidambaram's role in the incident that became infamous as the Hashimpura massacre, failing which he would approach the International Court of Justice under Article 17 of the Rome Statutes.
Swamy had fasted unto death in August 1987, demanding an inquiry into the massacre by a Central agency. A year later, he took out a padayatra from Meerut to Lucknow demanding a probe in the killing.
HTTP://BHARATKALYAN97.BLOGSPOT.IN/2012/05/SEEKING-PC-AS-CO-ACCUSED-IN-GENOCIDE-OF.HTML

23.5.12

Seeking PC as co-accused in Hashimpura, Meerut genocide of Muslim youths in UP - Dr. Swamy demands Special Court


Janata Party President Subramanian Swamy, who had walked from Makanpur to the national capital in June 1987 and sat on a fast for a week demanding justice, has not lost hope: “Justice for Hashimpura victim is crucial to the existence of India as we know it.” http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/meerut-hashimpura-massacre-victims-await-justice/1/187360.html
May 23, 2012. India Today Archive, NATION, May 14, 2012 Story

Statement of Dr. Subramanian Swamy,
President of the Janata Party.

I demand that the Government set up a Special Court on the lines of 2G Spectrum matter to prosecute the culprits responsible for the State-sponsored genocide of Muslim youths belonging to the Hashimpura area of Meerut. This incident took place 25 years ago on the night between 22nd and 23rd May, 1987 when the U.P.PAC engaged in targeted killing of 42 Muslim youths. After a 7-day fast unto death undertaken by me at the Boat Club in August, 1987, the then Prime Minister Mr. Rajiv Gandhi to persuade me to break the fast, ordered an Inquiry. The report of the Inquiry Committee confirmed the basic facts I had alleged in several of my press conferences and which has been further upheld recently in India Today in its 14th May issue (Both Hindi and English editions).

The Government’s reluctance to take speedy action arises out of the involvement of the then Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, Mr. P. Chidambaram who directed the State-sponsored genocide of Muslim youths carried by the Provincial Armed Constabulary of U.P.

Although the prosecution of low level police personnel who carried out the dastardly killings is being carried in legal proceedings in Tis Hazari Court and Ghaziabad Sessions Court, the proceedings are taking place a snail’s pace, while those who ordered the genocide.

The Hashimpura State-sponsored genocide is a black mark on our ancient civilization and unprecedented since 1947. If the Prime Minister fails to take action, I shall seek impleadment in the courts to expedite the matter and seek Mr. Chidambaram be made co-accused.

( SUBRAMANIAN SWAMY )

Hashimpura massacre: Victims await justice
MOHAMMAD WAQAS | May 5, 2012 | 09:37

Zulfiqar Nasir
Zulfiqar Nasir 40

Nasir runs his father's company, which makes tubewell parts. "All of us were begging for our lives to be spared. In return, they were abusing us.Then I was shot and thrown into the canal. I don't knowhowlong I was senseless. When I regained consciousness, I found myself wounded and floating."

In Muslim pockets of Meerut, when someone wants to know how many years have elapsed since the Hashimpura massacre, the answer is usually the same: "It is as old as Zaibun Nisa's daughter." Zaibun, 47, lives in Hashimpura mohalla with her mother and her three daughters. With her old mother on a charpoy, Zaibun recalls, "It was an Alwida Juma (the last Friday of Ramadan, the month of fasting). My third daughter, Uzma, was born that day. Uzma's abba (father) gave her a fond look before leaving for prayers. He never returned."

It was 1987. The mood was tense and the environment vitiated in the backdrop of the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid row. On May 19, a riot erupted in Meerut, to control which the army, Central Reserve Police Force and Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) were called in, besides the Uttar Pradesh Police. On May 22, soon after the Friday prayers, the army combed Hashimpura and other Muslim localities in the city. It arrested 644 people, of which 150 were from Hashimpura, and handed them over to PAC. At least 50 youngsters from Hashimpura were herded into a pac truck (URU 1493) and taken away to an unknown destination. Zaibun's husband, Iqbal, was one of them. Nineteen armed pac men had stood guard over them. Except for five youngsters, it turned out to be their last Alwida Juma. The pac men killed them and threw their bodies into the Upper Ganga Canal at Muradnagar near Delhi and some in the Hindon river in Ghaziabad. Iqbal, who used to work at a lathe machine in Jummanpura, was shot in the head. His body was later fished out of the Hindon.


Zaibun Nisa
Zaibun Nisa 47

Her husband Iqbal, who used to work in Jummanpura, was shot in the head.His bodywas later fished out of the Hindon river."After five years of married life, it has been a long 25 years of dreary existence as a widow."
Besides these, eight people were beaten to death in police custody. They were: Zahir Ahmad, Moinuddin, Salim aka Sallu, Minu, Mohammad Usman, Jamil Ahmad, Din Mohammad and Master Hanif.

After Independence, this is the largest number of custodial deaths in a single episode. The state machinery aided, abetted, or overlooked ghastly crimes during the anti-Sikh riots of 1984 and Gujarat's anti-Muslim riots of 2002. In Hashimpura, the state was the executioner. Ironically, many culprits of the 1984 and 2002 killings have been brought to justice, but the killers of Hashimpura have not been touched.

Established as a mohalla in 1933 by Mufti Hashmi, Hashimpura has around 600 households. Zulfiqar Nasir lives at the end of Zaibun's lane. Mohammad Usman, Mohammad Naim, Babuddin, Mujibur Rahman and Nasir were all shot at and flung into the canal. But they were alive and managed to escape. One of them got in touch with then MP Syed Shahabuddin, who with then MP Chandra Shekhar brought the massacre out in the open. Protests erupted, forcing then chief minister Veer Bahadur Singh to order an inquiry by Crime Branch's Crime Investigation Department (CBCID).


Mujibur Rehman
Mujibur Rehman 44

The migrant from Bihar is a factoryworker. He was shot in the chest. The father of two says he received no compensation. He filed an FIR in Murad Nagar police station, Ghaziabad.
"I am always ready to depose in the case. We want justice to be done to the victims and the culprits to be punished."

With that began a game by the police and administration to save the guilty. The system did its best to protect guilty policemen. cbcid took six long years before filing its report in 1994. The government filed a case against 19 PAC jawans in a Ghaziabad court in 1996. The court issued six bailable and 17 non-bailable warrants against the accused, but they never turned up even though they were still in government service. After a lot of media pressure, in May 2000, 16 of the 19 turned up in court. Between June and July all of them were freed on bail, the court reasoning that being government servants, they would not abscond.

In 2002, the Supreme Court, on the plea of the victims, transferred the case to Delhi's Tees Hazari court. From 2002 to 2004, the Uttar Pradesh government did not appoint a Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) for the case. From March 2004 to 2006, two SPPs were appointed. Currently, Satish Tamta is SPP and the hearing in the case is near completion.


Babuddin
Babuddin 42


The migrant worker was shot at twice,presumed dead and thrown into the river.He was fished out by a team led by then SP of Ghaziabad,Vibhuti Narain Rai.He lodged an FIR in the LinkRoad police station."Three labourers from Bihar were killed that day.None of their families got compensation."

The accused jawans were suspended from service for up to six months in 2000, only to be taken back later. Lawyer Vrinda Grover, who represented the victims during 2002-04, says, "We have learnt through rti that their annual confidential reports from 1987 to 2002 do not mention the criminal investigation going on against them. Not even the fact that they are charged with murder. These reports say they are disciplined policemen and fine kabaddi players. This is the real face of our police," she says.

Three of the accused are already dead. The rest are still weapon-carrying policemen. Shahabuddin, now 77, says, "All of them were on active service, deployed even on election duty. People accused of communal killing in custody were not dismissed." "There is an institutionalised anti-minority bias in the country's police. Only a handful of them commit the crime but the whole institution comes together to save them. CBCID dragged the probe for six years. Such wilful delay is meant to dilute the case," adds Grover.

The case stands on circumstantial evidence. The 41st Battalion of pac was on duty that day. The log book shows which truck went where, how much diesel it had, how many kilometres it logged, who was given which firearm. After the first three were shot, the remaining started fighting back barehanded. The pac men started firing indiscriminately on the truck. One of the pac men was hit by a bullet in friendly fire. Next day, he was taken to the hospital. His medical report is there on record.

By the time the truck started moving it was night, remembers Nasir. "We reached the canal around 9 p.m., after which the truck stopped. Three of us were ordered to get down. First, two PAC men held Mohammad Yasin from two sides and another shot him point-blank and threw him into the canal. Similarly, Mohammad Ashraf was disposed of. We resisted. Then they started firing on the truck indiscriminately," he says.

Mohammad Usman, now 55 and permanently disabled, lives in the Kancha ka Pul locality and sells fruits. He recounts: "It was Ramadan, but I was not fasting that day. We were living under curfew for the last six days and had no flour, milk or anything. How could we go out in the curfew?" he says, eyes moistening. Bullets shattered his hips and waist. Somehow, he pulled himself out of the canal. Around 3 a.m., a policeman came in a jeep and said, "Beta, I am taking you to the hospital, but don't mention PAC. If you do, we will inject you with poison and you will die within five minutes." Usman did as he was told, but later told his family what had happened.


Mohammad Naim
Mohammad Naim 43


He was not hit by bullets but he had already been beaten so much that he lay unconscious in the truck.Presumed dead, Naim was thrown into the canal along with the other bodies.
"We just get dates in courts. I am tired now. I have neither the money nor energy. Still I hope we will get justice."

Most of those handed over by the Army to PAC were sent to jail. Before that, they were beaten up in the Civil Lines area in which three of them died. Five were beaten to death in Fatehgarh jail. One of them was Mohd. Usman, whose 66-year-old widow Hanifa says, "We get date after date at the court, but no justice." Moinuddin, 50, one of the arrested, says, "Sarkar (government) does not recognise us as Indians. Else, the case would've been decided long ago." Grover says a, "protracted case always benefits the accused as many witnesses die and many begin to forget the details". Some of the witnesses of the Army still draw their pension but do not turn up even after summons. Grover fears that after such a long series of sustained institutional acts of sabotage, the victims may finally lose the case.

Janata Party President Subramanian Swamy, who had walked from Makanpur to the national capital in June 1987 and sat on a fast for a week demanding justice, has not lost hope: "Justice for Hashimpura victims is crucial to the existence of India as we know it."

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/meerut-hashimpura-massacre-victims-await-justice/1/187360.html

36 % of Maharashtra’s prisoners are Muslims - By Mohammed Wajihuddin - The Times of India, Mumbai

THE TIMES OF INDIA, MUMBAI DESERVES CREDIT FOR GIVING WELL-DESERVED IMPORTANCE TO TISS REPORT REPORTEDLY ON THE BEHEST OF STATE MINORITIES COMMISSION ON THE HIGH DETENTION RATE OF MUSLIMS (36% OF THE JAIL POPULATION TO ONLY 13% OF MUSLIM POPULATION IN THE STATE). HOWEVER, BOTH TIMES OF INDIA AND TISS ARE GUILTY OF IGNORING THE 800 POUND GORILLA IN THE ROOM. IT IS THE HEAVILY COMMUNALIZED STATE POLICE THAT IS HEAVILY POPULATED BY EXTREMIST HINDUTVA ELEMENTS. UNLESS THE COMMUNALIZED ELEMENTS WHICH ARE IN OVERWHELMING MAJORITY IN THE POLICE, ARE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED AS SUCH, EXPOSED AND CONTROLLED, THE STATE CANNOT ESCAPE BEING BRANDED AS A POLICE STATE. TISS HAS BLAMED THE SUPPOSED CRIMINALITY OF THE MUSLIMS ON LACK OF EDUCATION AND EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES. THAT FORMS THE BASIC REASONS OF MUSLIM BACKWARDNESS. BUT THAT DOES NOT AUTOMATICALLY TRANSLATES INTO INCREASED 'CRIMINALITY' OF THE MAHARASHTRA MUSLIMS. BY IGNORING THE HATE AND DISCRIMINATION BASE LINE OF ALL GOVERNMENT AND POLITICAL POLICIES AGAINST MUSLIMS, ANY ATTEMPT TO ERADICATE THE CANCER OF COMMUNALIZED DEMONIZATION  OF MUSLIMS WILL RESULT IN FAILURE. BOTH SONIA CONGRESS AND SHARAD PAWAR'S NATIONAL CONGRESS PARTY FEEL NO NEED TO CLEANSE THE POLICE MENTALITY AND REFUSE TO RECRUIT MUSLIMS IN THE POLICE FORCE WITH A VIEW TO PROMOTE SECULAR ETHOS IN SECURITY AGENCIES. IN FACT THEY STUBBORNLY CLING TO THEIR ANTI-MUSLIM AGENDA IN THE STATE OPENLY FLOUTING CONSTITUTIONAL NORMS TO TREAT ALL PEOPLE IN THIS MULTI-ETHNIC, MULTI-CULTURAL AND MULTI-RELIGIOUS STATE/NATION ON EQUAL FOOTING. THE HATE CAMPAIGNS ESPECIALLY IN POLICE FORCE SHOULD BE LEGALLY BANNED AND HEAVY PENALTIES SHOULD BE IMPOSED ON COMMUNAL ELEMENTS WHO COMMIT CRIMES IN THE NAME OF FIGHTING CRIMES.

Ghulam Muhammed, Mumbai
<ghulammuhammed3@gmail.com>

-----------------------


http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/36-of-Maharashtras-prisoners-are-Muslims/articleshow/13750117.cms

36 % of Maharashtra’s prisoners are Muslims

, TNN | Jun 3, 2012, 01.18AM IST
MLC Pasha Patel often jokes that if the number of Muslim prison inmates in Maharashtra keep increasing at the current pace, every jail will soon have an Eidgah. Patel's black humour may be a bit exaggerated, but it cannot be denied that the number of Muslims in jail is highly disproportionate to their population. And this disturbing fact has been reconfirmed by a recent report of two scholars, Dr Vijay Raghvan and Roshni Nair of the Centre for Criminology and Justice at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS).

Commissioned by the State Minorities Commission as a follow-up to the Sachar Committee report which lamented that "in Maharashtra Muslims account for 10.6% (2001 survey) of the general population, yet they comprise 32.4 % of the prison population" (the current prison population is 36%), the report is being hotly debated among government officials. Last week, at a meeting called by minorities affairs minister Naseem Khan, officials discussed a number of measures to not just prevent Muslim youth from committing crimes but also to provide legal aid to the imprisoned and rehabilitate them post-release. Among the plans in the pipeline are free legal aid to inmates, vocational training, sensitising the police and counselling and career guidance for Muslim youth in general.

Based on interviews with 339 Muslim inmates in 15 prisons, the TISS report unfortunately does not address the oft-raised question of alleged discrimination against Muslim offenders at the time of registering the case. "Our team's questions were first approved by the jail authorities," says Raghvan. A source reveals that at first some officials at Mantralaya were not in favour of allowing a headcount of, and interviews with, Muslim inmates. However, when the Minorities Commission and TISS team persisted, the officials relented on condition that they would vet the questionnaire. "They deleted the questions related to alleged torture and discrimination by the police," says the source.

Raghavan and senior criminal lawyer Majeed Memon point out that if offenders were aware of the Prohibition of Offenders Act, 1958, which can be invoked to avoid imprisonment if the offence is minor, many of them would not have been jailed. Memon cites the rash driving case of actor John Abraham who was let off under this Act. "An accused can give a bond of 12 or 24 months to the court, which then appoints a probation officer who monitors his behavior," explains Memon. "Only if he is found guilty of repeating an offence is he punished with imprisonment."

The report would appear to bear out the fact that some of the offences could well be minor. Raghvan says that 75.5% of the respondents were arrested for the first time and 24.5% were repeat arrestees. "This shows that majority of the respondents were not career criminals," says the report. Adds Raghavan, "We found that over 30% of the prisoners were not allowed to talk to their relatives at the time of arrest. This violates the rights of an accused."

The pertinent question remains: Why do so many Muslims join crime? The report discusses several reasons such as lack of resources and income opportunities, peer pressure and conflict with the police. An important one is the area of residence—many respondents who were involved in repeat offences came from neighbourhoods where, they said, they were witness to the flourishing of illegal activities since childhood. A considerable number were arrested for alleged forgery of documents, making fake currency notes, cheating and fraud. Since many Muslim ghettoes are blacklisted by the banks, even better educated people forge documents to get loans. "Some of them paid agents to make fake documents in order to get the loan," explains the report.

Although Dr Raghvan declines to discuss in detail the alleged police discrimination against Muslims, a few confessions do pertain to it. Sajid, a prison inmate with a criminal record, told the researchers: "I am trying to make a new beginning. Every time I start some work, the police arrest me on some charge or the other. They also demand money from me. Those who can pay are set free. The police are very powerful and can do anything."

Human rights activist Shabnam Hashmi cites the recent example of Kalyan resident Bilal Shaikh whom the police slapped with the non-bailable, cognisable Section 333 after he had a spat with traffic constables for jumping a signal. Assaulted brutally for "arguing" with the cops, Shaikh suffered a fracture to his right arm, was arrested and cooled his heels in prison for eight days while the four cops got bail on the same day since their offence, according to the FIR, was non-cognisable. "This shows the clear bias of the police against Muslim offenders," alleges Hashmi. The TISS report says that most Muslims echo these sentiments: "They view the police as an unjust system using unfair methods in the performance of their duties."


MAILER-DAEMON@mail.networksolutionsemail.com
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