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http://www.indianexpress.com/news/muslim-intercaste-tension-surfaces-in-bihar/1049300/0
Muslim inter-caste tension surfaces in Bihar
Santosh Singh : Allahpur, East Champaran, Mon Dec 24 2012, 08:51 hrs..
In the first such official action in an incident of caste violence among Muslims, East Champaran District Magistrate Abhijit Sinha has sought a comprehensive report on the assault on a 30-year-old resident of Allahpur village allegedly by upper-caste Muslims.
A case has been registered against 12 of them, including Rampur Bairiya panchayat headman Sarfaraz Alam Khan alias Munna Khan, by the Kesaria police, on a complaint by Akbar Ali Ansari. A resident of Allahpur village in Motihari, a disabled Ansari was badly beaten up and left for dead on December 7 night by 20 men, who attacked him with guns, iron rods and wooden sticks.
Ansari, who runs a small medicine shop, was riding pillion on a bike with fellow villager Mohammed Mustafa Ansari. While Mustafa managed to flee the spot, he suffered fractures in his left hand and right leg from the beating and had to undergo surgery.
According to Ansari, he had provoked Munna Khan’s ire by challenging his 2011 election as panchayat headman, claiming he had given a false affidavit to the Election Commission. Recovering at a Motihari nursing home, Ansari said: “I had filed a writ petition in the Patna High Court against the mukhiya’s election as he had concealed that he was one of the accused in a 2007 arson case. I also complained against him to the Election Commission.”
According to villagers, the same group of 20 upper-caste Muslims had attacked a village youth two months ago, though no FIR was registered then.
Allahpur, which is dominated by Ansaris (considered OBC), has been facing oppression from upper-caste Syeds and Pathans. Said Mustafa Ansari: “It all started in April 2004 when upper-caste Syeds and Pathans beat up a groom and some members of a wedding party because the groom who was going to marry an Ansari girl dared to travel in a Maruti car and cross houses of the Syeds.” He described conflicts between Syeds and Ansaris over using the common village road in 2005.
Akbar Ali Ansari’s mother Zumeratia Khatoon said the upper-castes were also angry since 2006, when Ansari dared construct their own mosque, though a thatched-roof one.
While Syeds and Pathans are landlords and have businesses and jobs in the Middle East, Ansaris are daily wagers and share-croppers. Syeds allegedly torched over half-a-dozen Ansari households in December 2007. Sarfaraz Khan, one of the accused in the case, evaded arrest.
Rasil Mohammed, a village elder, said their attempt to run a separate primary school was also foiled as “big people” succeeded in “taking away a government-sanctioned primary school near their madarsa”. He alleged their children had stopped going to the madarsa as they were often ill-treated there. Now the Ansari children study in a make-shift school run in a community hall.
Sarfaraz Khan, however, denied playing caste politics. “I have nothing to do with the Akbar Ali attack. I am an elected representative and do not discriminate on caste lines,” he said.
It is reprehensible, that the writer Santosh Singh inserts caste in Muslim community, where none exists. Syed are a distinct family tracing its lineage to Holy Prophet. Pathan is a distinct ethnic group originating from Afghanistan and north Pakistan. Both cannot be branded as 'Caste' which has distinct Manuwadi conotation. Ansari too are more known for their strict observance of Islam and their overwhelming presence in small scale hand-loom and power-loom industry. They are given OBC status for their economic backwardness. How does that translate in to a 'caste'. Given all these facts, Santosh Singh has written and headlined a very mischievous story, inserting 'caste warfare' angle to a local incident that is 8 year old. The logic behind such caste angle being inserted and prominently propagated smacks of unworthy journalism and in no way enhances the reputation of Indian Express. Its editors should issue guidelines to its reporters not to play 'caste' angle where none exists